Wilbur 'Bill' Strohm (December 12, 1929 - February 9, 2018) was a great man. Who would have known that the boy who loved to fix his motorcycles and cars in the driveway would one day be a very successful Los Angeles manufacturer of wire products? But he was, as it turned out, a mechanical genius. After high school he tried various things including fire fighting. After his time in the army in the Korean War as an artillery repair man, he worked for his dad in his wire shop and learned the trade. Then he started his own business making taco baskets for deep frying. Another product was chain for swag lamps. He invented machines as he needed to, ultimately designing and building a horse fencing machine that actually wove the wires together. There was no place to buy the machine in the US, only Germany had them and the price was very high. So Bill got books at the library and made one himself, and then several other models. He became the only supplier, eventually selling all the machinery to an Asian country. But that was only one side of Bill. He met his lovely wife, Barbara, a nurse in Hawaii and a year later they married. Brian was born and then Laurie Ann. They lived in various places, South Pasadena, and Palos Verdes Estates, Maine, and Florida. Things did not go well with their son, an aspiring actor and excellent magician; he died at 43 of diabetes.

Bill's health was a serious issue much of his life - he suffered many maladies and finally learned he had been born without a spleen. In spite of this, Bill and Barbara took up sailing and it remained their passion for many years - taking part in races and sailing independently all through Mexico. On one occasion they were called upon to rescue a couple threatened by a pirate who would have killed them for their little boat! Bill and Barbara arrived just in time to show off his gun and the pirate who had been brandishing a machete moved on. They were also nearly drowned in dreadful storms several times. Another passion of Bill's was old vintage cars. He loved restoring them to mint condition and then selling them. Then he turned his wire talent to art, creating interesting pieces of art out of wire. His favorite was the condor on a revolving post. Bill was a dedicated family man who did his best for his children and helping other family members financially. His joy was Laurie and his granddaughter, Emy.

As my brother, he was the best, always looking out for me. Some of the best times of my teen years were times spent with him raising tropical fish in our fishpond in South Pasadena. He met every problem in his life with perseverance. In the end a rare blood cancer that had plagued him for years and the loss of Barbara in 2017, leaving him alone in a lovely house in Carmel, kept him just surviving, tending to all his medical issues. He died in the hospital on February 9, 2018 - a brave man, a courageous man and wonderful story teller.

Kathy Strohm Fournier '54, Bill's sister