Posted by Mark Brennan on August 20, 2009:

I met Bill when we joined A-1 our cow year. I knew him to be a affable person with a great love of life. He was an avid basketball fan and made a small contribution to the success of Army basketball by personally looking out for two A-1 plebes, Mike Silliman and Bill Helkie. For those who remember, Mike and Bill were two stalwart players for Coach Bobby Knight. Bill was always sweating academics. I remember one time when he was suffering in last section Electricity with the infamous Major Phil Feir as his professor. I found Bill in his room shining his shoes, changing into freshly pressed trousers and shirt. When I asked why, he quickly retorted that it was like being on plebe calls. Major Feir evidently conducted uniform inspections before starting instruction. Then Feir would grade the academic work with no slack. Class was double torture. Bill survived and was overjoyed when Maj Feir went to the first section during the next academic resectioning. He never had Maj. Feir again. He finally went pro in Juice and had a more enjoyable academic year. I contacted Bill early in 2009 to have him join the A-1 email group. We spent a lot of time on the phone reminiscing about our A-1 adventures and life since graduation. I enjoyed our correspondence for this brief period and was looking forward to seeing him at our 45th reunion. His sudden death was a great shock. I miss him.

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