William J. "Bill" Byler, 95, of Boise, passed away 11/10/08. Bill was born in Allen, Texas, on 5/30/13 to John and Alice Byler. He was the 3rd child of 9 children. He left home at 18 during the dust bowl years that spread from the upper middle states and down into Texas. There were no jobs and people were losing their crops and cattle. A friend read an article about the Owyhee dam being built. Bill sold his horse and bought a model T car. He and 2 other fellows packed up the model T with camping gear and food. They arrived in Ontario, Oregon, 5 days later, only to find that for every job at the dam, there were 3 men waiting to take it. He stayed the next 3 years, taking any job offered to him: painting, picking fruit, farming, and digging the canals being built to carry water from the new dam for irrigation. Bill could operate almost any piece of machinery and knew how to tear it down and put it back together if it needed repair. Bill met Pearl Ourada and her family. He decided they were good people, the type he wanted to be a part of. They were married 67 years before she died in 2002. They moved to Seattle during the War, where he went to work for Pacific Salvage at Puget Sound. They sent him to Attu Island, off the coast of Alaska. He was in charge of dismantling the air base and bringing back everything salvageable. He was such a valued employee that he could ask for time off and be allowed whatever time he asked for. One day a friend came by work and said, "Bill, let's climb Mt. Rainer today." His boss said, "If I don't let you go, you will just quit, so go ahead. I just don't see why you have to start in the middle of the week." That was Bill, independent, but as dependable and disciplined as possible. He retired in 1978, after 35 years. He went from very little to enough by honesty, hard work, and being very frugal. They never had children, but loved having company. Bill and his nephew Jere, who he helped raise and thought of as his son, went on many hunting and fishing trips to Alaska, Canada, Mexico, Idaho and a trip to Africa in 1985. He and Jere were one of the first and very few who have bagged the prestigious "grand slam" of North American sheep. He loved sharing hunting stores with friends. Bill and Pearl moved to Boise in 1992 to be close to our family. Bill wanted to live to be 100 and stay in his home, by himself without help, until he died. He almost made it. He had a great sense of family responsibility and propriety; he made sure no detail was left undone. He was a very private person, a man of extreme honor, and he made sure heaven would be his final destination. To his very last consciousness, a song could be heard being hummed, "You ask me how I know Christ Jesus lives, He lives within my soul." We wish to thank the wonderful nurses on 5th floor of St. Al's: Darlene Kendall and Bonnie and Jack for helping us in his final hours of life. Graveside services will be held Saturday, 11/22/2008, at 11AM at Dry Creek Cemetery.