Obituary from The Times-News (Twin Falls, ID) - Sunday, April 13, 1997:
Wilmer Glen Priest, 77, of Jerome, died Saturday, April 12, 1997, at St. Benedict's Long Term Care Unit in Jerome.
He is the son of William Edward Priest and Mabel Josephine Young. He was born December 17, 1919 in Taylor, Idaho. Bill grew up on the family farm in Taylor and graduated from Shelley High School in 1938.
He attended the University of Idaho where he met Margery Josephine Sprecker. The married on January 17, 1942. His college education was interrupted when he became an Army Aviation Cadet in the U.S. Army Air Corp in May of 1942. He received his bombardier training at Big Spring, Texas.
Bill then served with the Army Air Force as a radar-bombardier on a B-24 Liberator in the Mediterranean Theater of operations with the 15th Air Force. He flew 26 combat missions over enemy-occupied Europe and holds the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with two oak leaf clusters, and the European-African-Middle East Theater Ribbon with four battle stars.
At the close of World War II, he resumed his education at the University of Idaho, graduating with a degree in agriculture in 1946. He was the county extension agent in Twin Falls from 1946 to 1948, county extension agent in Rupert for 1948-1960, and the Jerome County extension agent from 1960 until his retirement in 1974.
He received the Certificate of Distinguished Service from the National Association of County Agricultural Agents in 1961. He was a well-known figure throughout the Magic Valley area, across the state and county, as he worked to control blight attacking the seed crops of the area. The South Central Bacterial Blight Association present Bill with a plaque in 1994 in honor of his work which is credited with saving the snap bean industry, at a time when Magic Valley was producing 80 percent of the world's bean seed.
He helped establish and develop the Central Idaho 4-H Camp in 1966. Bill was a member of the Elks Club and received the Elks Distinguished Citizenship Award in 1974. He also belonged to Rotary and American Legion, recently receiving the Legion's 50 years recognition away. He was president of the Tri-County Dairy Herd Improvement Association from 1980-1984.
His hobbies included farming, hunting, gun collecting, and fishing.
Bill is survived by his wife, Margery of Jerome; sisters, Gladys Miller of Idaho Falls and Myrtle Tolman of Pocatello; brothers, Oscar Priest of Layton, Utah and Thomas Priest of Caldwell; children: Sally Smithee of Pullman, Washington, Carole Jenness of Moscow, Idaho, Sandra Haines of Boise, Nancy Simpson of Moscow, Idaho, and Grant Priest of Chicago, Illinois; 12 grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, five brothers, three sisters, and a grandson.