William Bronson Palmer III, born on September 17, 1941, passed away peacefully at home on Monday August 7. After years of managing medical conditions that included one very close call at Silverton and Salem Hospitals over 10 years ago, he'd been working a little in the yard, sat down in his favorite garage lawn chair, and simply fell asleep peacefully.

Raised mostly in California as a member of the Sioux City, Iowa Palmer family that continues to operate Palmer Candy Company, he followed his sister Patty to Silverton in his late teens. He married Lorna Eldred in 1961 and they raised two boys, Kevin and Kyle. In 1977, William married Shirley Thomas and added her children Ron, Rick, and Cheryl to the family. For the next 46 years, he and Shirley were inseparable. As she noted in her announcement of his passing, Bill was her best friend, the love of her life, her protector and car washer. He preferred "William" to "Bill," and Shirley was one of the few people who could call him Bill without him pointing that out.

As a young man, however, he also carried on the family nickname "Brownie," and for a short time had decided he wanted to be called "Don," a fact that neither Kevin nor Kyle ever let him forget.

William spent his working career as a truck driver for West Coast Grocery, which later became Waremart, then finally WinCo, and continued to meet regularly for lunch with his remaining former co-workers. In retirement he and Shirley both lent their driving skills to the Silver Falls School District as Bus Drivers. There are still two "Bus Driver Bill" magnets on their garage refrigerator.

He was a big fan of the outdoors, and spent a lot of time snowmobiling, golfing, and years of weekends on their boat at Detroit Lake. As much as he and Shirley were usually in each other's company, they also shared their home with a succession of Standard Poodles, most recently Sasha who has spent many days waiting at the window for her dad to come home. The poodles were such an important part of their lives that it was routine for him to mix up Kyle's name with any one of their male dogs, something Kyle never quite knew how to take. He loved all of his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren deeply and valued any opportunity to spend time with them.

Mostly, however, the bulk of William's focus for decades has been the time spent with his best friend and wife. They spent endless time working in their yards together, travelled together, and enjoyed many great bottles of wine together.

He remained close to his first set of in-laws, as well as his second. He and Shirley famously spent an entire week staying with his ex-wife Lorna and her husband Paul in Arizona. His ability to continue long term connections with extended former in-law family members was an inspiration, as well as a master class in setting aside any differences in the name of maintaining relationships filled with love that never stopped just because a marriage did.

William's passing was preceded by his father William Bronson Palmer Jr., mother Dorothy, father figure Edward Palmer, his step-son Rick, granddaughter Amy Thomas, and beloved poodles Suzy, Dani, Lucy, Tucker, and Cloudy. He is survived by Shirley, poodle Sasha, his sister Patty, nephew David, niece Robbie, grandnieces Kristin and Amy, sons Kevin (Stacy), Kyle (Julie), as well as Cheryl (Jeff) and Ron (Linda), grandchildren Jennifer, Marcie, Kelsey, Jake, Kyler, Colin, Cory, Alan, Taylor, Bobby, Elise, and Heather, and greatgrandchildren Jalysa, Isiah, Emory, Bailey, Toby, Riley, Cager, Zoey, Luke, Matthew, and McKenzie.

He never met a person that he didn't speak to like he'd known them forever, and the family has cherished the many kind words from so many of those people. William's service will be held on September 9 at First Christian Church at 1:00pm with a gathering immediately after in their multipurpose room.