Bill’s “Uncle Ed” was an important part of his life. Following is a biography written by Dr. Homer Brugge, Ed’s good friend and doctor, with minor assistance from Bill.
Video from November 11 Memorial Service
Here is a video that captures much of the 11 November 2012 memorial service (the tape ended before we did, but most of the service is here).
The initial and concluding poems are in Bill’s own voice, recorded around 2008.
Memorial Service December 2, 1:30 PM
Our community memorial service for Bill will be held on Sunday, December 2, at 1:30 PM, at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley.
No RSVP is necessary, but if you are a member of Facebook, you can RSVP for the event here.
Earth CommUNity I Love You — Bill’s Peace Workbook
I have finally scanned Bill’s book in as a PDF. A few of the pages are missing (November 2012), but I hope to find them soon.
Bill’s Memorial Service(s) — hold the date
The Trampleasure family is planning two memorial services for friends and family.
The main service will be on Sunday, December 2nd at 1:30 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley (in Kensington). We will post more details of this event soon, but wanted people to know to save the date.
We are holding a smaller, family and close friends service on Sunday, November 11th at UC Berkeley. While we’re not being explicit about who “close friends” are, we would also like people who are not able to attend the December 2nd service to feel welcome.
The November 11th (Armistice Day) service will be held at one of Bill’s favorite locations at UC Berkeley, “the Golden Tree”–a tall gingko tree outside of Gianini Hall (see map below). We will gather at 11:00 AM, in recognition of the armistice that ended World War 1.
Those who are up for a hike are invited to join at 9:00 AM for a two-mile hike to the Big C, another of Bill’s favorite places at UC. The Big C is on the hill behind the Greek Theater and Memorial Stadium. The hike is about one mile each way, with about 600 feet of climbing on the way up.
After the 11:00 service, attendees are invited to join at Yali’s Cafe for coffee/tea/snacks/conversation. Yali’s was one of Bill’s favorite Cafe.
View Bill’s Memorial Service in a larger map, with more details of locations.
on second winds
Cafe Ariel, 12/28/92
Dear All,
My life has been a slow unfolding of the last gift I received from my Father. On his death bed one day in 1952 he told me that “second wind always comes”. He was speaking specifically to cross-country running. But as I have persevered on my sometimes soaring, sometimes stuttering personal peace pilgrimage, I have learned that the truth of “second wind” blows everywhere, always.
It is as simple as the rhythm of inhaling and exhaling once, twice…who knows how many times? It is as simple as sunrise and sunset – as winter, spring, summer, fall.
It is as tangible and miraculous, for me, as:
- my second retirement, October 2, 1992, from 29 years of “appointed rounds” which ended gloriously with six years within the glow of Berkeley’s Rose Garden neighborhood
- the repeated “second winds” necessary for the “keeping-on-keeping-on” commitment to being mated which Mary Lee and I have been sharing these 37 years of gift after gift
- the rooted and winged lives of Calvin James, Lee Stephen and Grace Virginia Trampleasure (Yes, Mary Lee, we did some things right! Yes, my offspring, your lives and loves have often filled the sails on my becalmed vessel of vision.)
- my promising week joining the “inaugural dance” in D.C. (A President named Bill can’t be all bad. A poet named Maya Angelou is worth hearing in person. A sister-in-law’s hospitality within Metro distance of the celebrations can’t be ignored. Any chance to visit Tom Jefferson again must be seized. After all, what’s a retirement for?)
Then sudden deaths of two good friends recently within weeks of each other, the memorial service celebration for one in Paradise, California, and the coincidental visit to the Trampleasure family plot in Sunset View Cemetery in Corning, California, have added the only amendment necessary to find doctrine of “second wind”. The time comes, for us all, when “second wind” fades and suddenly it is the sustaining presence of “afterglow” that lights our way. (See “Frank and Ernest” comic attached.) [ed: I’ll try to find this and attach it]
As this poet once wrote, “go and glow, touch and torch”.
Peace, love, shalom, hallelujah, Bill
P.S. 1993’s 5th Sundays (1/31, 5/30, 8/29, 10/31) from 7:30 to 9:30 pm shall be Second Wind/Afterglow evenings at 1423. Join us? And join my gentle crusade to “Take Back the Mails” from domination by bulk business mail (“junk”) by writing more love letters, letters to editors and goverments, friendly postcards and such. TBTM!
Three poems about love
love
is what matters
love
is what counts
win, lose or draw
it’s love
that amounts
to something
to everything
to all
in this life
so let’s live
and let love
* * *
here and now
we love and live
or here and now
we die
no far, fair land
no time sublime
beneath some cloudless sky
but here and now
wind blown,
storm tossed
we live
through love
then die
* * *
“Love endures all things”
but love likes to laugh and smile, too
and love doesn’t need all the things we do
just to prove that it can endure them
like flowers
they may need us to manure them
sometimes
but sun and rain
and even a kind word or gentle touch
have been heard to add much
to the blooming miracle
There is mystery in life
There is mystery in life
And the myth trees that we grow
can go only so far
to set our dark aglow
but the candle born in me
and the candle born in you
may be just the touches needed
to torch some pilgrim’s view
go and glow, touch and torch
there is mystery in life
and our time from birth to death
is a vulnerable variable – hanging –
on each and every breath
but the stillborn child’s silence
and the centenarian’s last gasp
are both righteous, beautiful truths
God alone can fully graph
Go and glow, touch and torch
there is mystery in life
tears of joy join sorrow’s tears
and our faith is sorely tested
by our pains, our doubts, our fears
but nothing – nothing –
now or later
nothing – nothing –
great or small
can separate us eternally
from God’s love
surrounding all
Go and glow, touch and torch
Written after a friend lost her newborn daughter in the 1980’s
I am Bill…
I am Bill
I am growing
I love you all,
that I’m knowing
and beyond that
there is mystery and hope
you are each
quite like me
yet very differently
with your own
special ways
to grow and grope
So I’ll try again, my friends,
to watch my mouth,
my means and ends,
as we “Keep on Keeping on”,
as we care and cope.
date unknown
Golden Tree
there is a glorious golden tree still so alive for me these many years since first I glimpsed its shimmering, glimmering glory that I know it will glow and grow ever so long after all the leaves fall long after all the trees fall long after all
This poem has appeared in several books.