William "Bill" D Lewis

On January 21, 2012 William D Lewis "Bill" passed away surrounded by family, after a short bout with cancer.
Bill was born February 12, 1931 to James Donald and Genevra Willis Lewis in Vernal Utah, he was the youngest of five children. He was raised on a farm in Utahn, UT. At the age of 13 he left for a rodeo in Vernal where he joined the carnival and left Utah for two years. He returned home two years to the day. He rode rough stock in local rodeos until 1951 when he joined the Army to fight in the Korean conflict.
He returned home to Vernal were he met the love of his life and married his wife of 58 years Glenda Sowle Lewis and they moved to Provo UT. After seven years of marriage they had their first and only child daughter Shannon.
Bill was employed for 33 years as a welder at Pacific Pipe Cast Iron he retired in 1995. Bill continued to ride in Semi-Professional and Professional Rodeo until the mid sixties when he moved his family from Provo to Spanish Fork where some local youth wanted to get involved in high school rodeo so they asked for Bill's help. As interest in high school rodeo grew, Bill and others contacted the National High School Rodeo Association (NHSRA) and high school rodeo in the state of Utah was born. He continued to serve the youth of Utah for 25 years as South Utah County club advisor, State Director,State President and National Director he retired as National Director in 1989 a year later he was honored with the prestigious "Man of the Year" award from the NHSRA in Shawnee, Oklahoma.*