Willard (Bill) L. Meader passed away peacefully in his sleep on June 3, 2023 in Richland, Washington. He is survived by his wife, Sharon, who married him at McGuire AFB, New Jersey 62 years ago after a brief courtship at Goose Air Base, Labrador. He is also survived by their son Richard and his wife, Celeste, and their daughter, Dana and her husband Hans Vogel. Grandsons Kyle Vogel (Tiffany) and Evan Vogel, and three great grandsons. He is also survived by his sister, Anne Nelson. He is predeceased by his parents, brother, Butch and sisters, Sandy Karman and Judy Lundberg.

Bill was the first of five children born to Louise and Paul Meader; in LaPorte, Indiana; while his father was in general practice in New Buffalo, Michigan. The family lived in Philadelphia, Cleveland and Pittsburgh in his youth and he graduated from Avonworth High School, in Ben Avon, Pennsylvania in 1950. At Albion College in Michigan, he was an ATΩ and played varsity football and was named a distinguished alumnus in 1985. After graduating from Temple University School of Medicine, Bill interned at Butterworth Hospital, Grand Rapids, Michigan and then entered the U.S. Air Force.

Bill was an Air Force flight surgeon for 30 years. He was board certified in aerospace medicine, earning a masters degree in public health at the University of California and serving at bases in Labrador, Texas, Arizona, California, Nebraska, South Vietnam, England, Louisiana, District of Columbia, Maryland, Nevada, Hawaii and Ohio. He cared for air and ground crews of B-52s, U-2s, KC-135s, F-100s, RF-4Cs, C-130s, C-123s, C-124s, C-141s, F-4Ds, C-47s, F-15s and many other transport and utility aircraft. He was a graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in 1975. He was recognized with several awards and decorations, culminating with the USAF Distinguished Service Medal. He served as president of the Society of USAF Flight Surgeons and the Space Medicine Branch of the Aerospace Medical Association and was a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association, the American College of Preventive Medicine, the American College of Physician Executives and the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. After his retirement as a brigadier general in 1989, he took a position as the president of Hanford Environmental Health Foundation in Richland, Washington. That was followed by a position as regional vice president of Group Health Northwest, until his retirement in 1997.

Bill was active in various civic organizations in the TriCities – the Blue Mountain Council of the Boy Scouts of America, the United Way of Benton Franklin Counties, the Lewis & Clark Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America, Richland Rotary, the Foundation Board of Kadlec Regional Medical Center, a physician recruitment program for the TriCities and a chronic pain committee with Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center.

Following his retirement in 1997, Bill spent many, many hours trying to get the home that Sharon had chosen for them in Richland just the way she wanted it. He got it right.

Services are being finalized through Einan’s Funeral Home at Sunset Gardens.