• Bluelight
    Shrine




    A memorial
    to Bluelighters
    who have passed away

Rest In Peace Bill (thanks to all bluelighters for their support)

My condolences to anyone who knew Bill and especially to his family and friends.
I know this must be a very hard time for all of you, and I hope that Bill lives on in all of your lives in some way.
 
With respect to turning up in casual clothes, I include the notice from the Age:
"PEDEN, William (Bill). Aged 33 years. A ``celebration of a life''
service will take place on WEDNESDAY (April 3) at 10.30 a.m
at the Chapel of Geelong Grammar School Corio. No flowers by
request. Contribution envelopes available at the chapel for the
Bush Rescue Services involved. "
The service is being called "a celebration" so I really don't think that clothes are an issue but I do think that people should come as Bill knew them. Besides, I have photos of Bill from a wedding that he went to this summer and he was wearing jeans and the green shirt that everyone hear probably remembers (and white pipe cleaner glasses). I think that most of the people who knew Bill, even those outside of Bluelight, knew to expect the unexpected with him.
As for me - well, I've been asked to give a speech in his honour. You won't see me dressed in serious candy gear (because it's not really my thing) but I will definitely be dressed casually.
 
Peace be with you bill.
Hi, I'm new to bluelight, though I've seen it many times on bills computer at work. If you haven't guessed it I'm one of bills work mates. I'm not into the scene as much as bill was, but he was responsible for me getting into it ;)
I've worked with Bill now for 3 years, and he's taught me so much. I count him as one of my mentors and is somewhat of an idol to me. In my own little nerdy way, I'd like to be like bill.
I mainly new the weekday bill, I occasionally saw the weekend bill, but for only brief periods. They weekday bill was most excellent, and I hear the descriptions of the weekend bill, and I think, what's the difference?
Bill was a pleasure to work with, and more importantly he was a great friend. We'd often find ourself (and Diego too) on the balcony at work, or out in the park, smoking, or throwing a frisbee. (The later was an attempt to replace smoking, in the end, we did both ;) )
I knew bill had many friends, and touched many lives, but I had no idea that his influences went this far.
I'm no longer at Agentis, I've moved to Canada to start a new life, and it was the weekend before bills death that I left. As I walked away from the office on that friday, I knew I wouldn't see bill for quite awhile, but I never figured it would be forever.
Bills death is a loss to everyone that new him, and a tradgedy for those yet to meet him. I'm glad I met him, I think he brought out the good in me.
I've been somewhat insulated from all of this being in another country, but it hurts, and the sky seems somewhat duller these days.
Bill, rest in Peace dude, I'm thinking of you
-Scott
Oh and I've just started a web page, with a weblog, the first entry turned into a bill memorial, theres a pic or 2 of him there too. So if you want to check out the pics go to
Scott's web page with pics of bill (goto the weblog)\
 
Like Xtine22 and Pleo I was there that day too when we all hung around with Bill. I've known Bill for almost 2 yrs now, and we both went to our first BL meetup together (Ganesha @ Mt Macedon 2000).
When I first met him I was like wow what a tripper (in a good way), and the way that he shared his stories, jokes and quotes made me like him instantly. I may not have hung around him all of the time, but still I'm glad I met him and yeah I had some great times with him.
I'll miss seeing Bill around at parties, I'll miss his infectious smile and general mischief.
 
i only met Bill a couple of times but i saw him often, who could'nt notice the grinning crazy man in orange. goodbye
RIP Bill :(
 
Re Squaat : That frisbee, oooh yeah... :-( I will keep it as a sacred relict in memoria of my two favourite work mates. The one that has gone to find his new life and the one that has gone into another life.
I still don't know what your opinion on a fly's karma is, Bill, but I know that yours is huge !!
R.I.P.
 
It's been a while since I've read this and I'm so glad to see that Bill touched everyone's lives in the way he touched mine. I remember when I first started noticing that Bill was around. I'd seen him at Sunny, but then started going out to different places with other friends and realised that "Hey! It's that guy again. He's everywhere!" It was definitely Bill. I had only just remembered that when I was reading. Unfortunately, I didn't really get to know Bill properly until earthcore in Nov. I wish it had been for the 2 years that I had been noticing him around. But it was quality time, and that's what counts. Bill helped me to make friends with those that I felt shy about approaching and I'm grateful. Bill, you are always with me. I'm sure that everytime I get down, I'm going to hear your voice and it will pick me up again. I hope it never fades. Love you forever Bill.
M
 
bill2_280901.jpg

This is a message from someone who only knew the work-week Bill. I'm not all that sure that he was much different from the weekend Bill, he was just focussing himself in a different way. This is a picture of Bill in his cubicle. Where we all had semi-broken swivelly rolly chairs, bill covered an old couch with purple fuzzy fur. An excellent idea.
When we all had our worst fears confirmed with the news Bill had been found not so very intact, the CEO of our company sent an email around. For a CEO, ours is pretty perceptive, and I was pretty surprised at how well he summed up "work-week Bill":
"...[Bill was a].. free thinker, with a strong mind and a remarkable ability to voice his opinion, Bill had become our bellwether. We were
used to believe that if we win Bill's mind and heart, we would win everyone else. His contribution to the organization has been tremendous. But mostly, his personality was a gift to all of us."
We enjoyed Bill immensely, not just because he would rocket from his cubicle to take on an impurity in design or a dumb way of doing
things, but because he enjoyed the hell out of it, was so agile in thrashing out the design, and in the end, if the opposing point of view held more weight, he could change his mind. He wasn't merely dogmatic with high velocity. Back this up with a deep intellect and he was great to work alongside.
I guess what makes me saddest about losing Bill isn't even the practicalities of the hole he left with his empty purple couch. Its the fact that he's just plain gone. I enjoy people like Bill just for the mere fact that they exist somewhere, hassling stupidity and striving to create beautiful things. If I get to be a part of that,
well, lucky me. I guess it was, like any other thing, a gift.
 
Haven't been on the boards or parties for several months, so finding this site the first time i've even looked at the boards for ages has been a bit of a hammer.
Used to see Bill around and we'd do the smile and or the wave, and occasionally we'd actually talk. That was always fun.
We had one talk once where he told me his theory on enhancing his sense of wonder, of hiring people to continually surprise him and keep his life fresh, though i didn't believe he'd ever run out.
We also talked of how you keep seeing people around, and of how there must only be about 500 real people in the world or we wouldn't keep running into them.
Bill was definitely one of the 500 people.
My best to his family and those close.
 
This news comes as a big shock to myself and Erin, as it does to all of you. Although we are in England now, we only 'bumped' in to Bill a few weeks ago in Australia.
Our condolences go out to Mort, Ange, Soma and all of you other Bluelighters who considered Bill a friend. Also, our deepest sympathy goes out to Bill's family and friends.
Farewell Bill, you will be missed.
[ 03 April 2002: Message edited by: Psyentist ]
 
It was wonderful to see so many people from different walks of bills life today at his memorial. I appreciate Bill even more now that i know more about him...
Wish i had found out more when he was here...
Going to miss you Bill...
And yes i know you already know that!
 
I'd just like to extend my thanks to all of the Bluelighters who came to Bill's memorial yesterday. It was fantastic to see so many familiar faces there. Bill's parents and sister were very glad to have the chance to meet some of you and simply to see how many people cared about Bill.
I'd like to remind you all that mort has registered a Bill memeroial site and we would like people to post any stories or pictures of Bill.
And a group of us are organizing a Bill memorial day party for the 21st of April -- more details will be made available shortly so mark it on your calendar!
[ 04 April 2002: Message edited by: VooDoo Gurl ]
 
For those of you who are interested - I have put a copy of my entire speech from Bill's memorial service on the Bill memorial site
Below is the Nietzsche quote:
What if, one day or night, a demon were to sneak after you into your loneliest loneliness and say unto you, 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything immeasurably small or great in your life must return to you -- all in the same succession and sequence -- even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned over and over, and you with it, a speck of dust.' Would you not cast yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon that spoke thus? Or did you once experience a tremendous moment when you would have answered him, 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.'
[ 04 April 2002: Message edited by: VooDoo Gurl ]
 
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