Bill Phinizy (5/19/08)

About three years ago, Mike Kenner, Tom Love, Dennis Feldman, and Bill Wolff and I got together on the occasion of one of Tom's trips to SoCal to peddle books. Whenever Tom would come into town, he would be at the nearby Disneyland Hotel and we would use the occasion as an excuse to hoover up all of the unspoken for reservoirs of Myer's Rum. He and I and Mike, etc. went into the Valley to meet with Dennis and Bill.

You may or may not know that Bill Wolff was one of the movers and shakers in the (then) nascent acid-rock scene in Southern California. He and Bob Krieger embarked upon that wonderful odyssey almost immediately upon graduation from Menlo. Bill hooked up with a group called The Peanut Butter Conspiracy and still played with Bob from time to time. We all spent the Summer of '64 surfing and otherwise partying (my substance of choice being the rather prosaic 12-ounce doses of Coors, Bud, Miller, and Brown Derby). From there, they went on to UCSB, the trail went dark, and I did not see them until I was waiting in line to register for classes in my sophomore year at UCLA. Bill and Bob recognized me and took the opportunity to insinuate themselves at that point in line (I didn't mind, but those behind me grumbled a bit). Again, they disappeared and of course, about a year later, the Doors burst upon the scene. I didn't hear from either until I hooked up with Bill at the aforementioned session in the Valley.

I always regarded Bill as one of the brighter people I have met (and still do). He was/is articulate, witty, a gifted musician, and, unbeknownst to a lot, I hear he was a very good gymnast (I remember him doing some outstanding tumbling during our last M-Day). Based upon what I read and knew from our times together at Menlo and that Summer he was, in the acid rock scene, not a king but a kingmaker. His encouragement and friendship with Bob Krieger gave Bob his start in the guitar and, arguably, put him on the path to his stellar success.

..well, I had been a software developer these last forty years and was surprised to learn that Bill had picked up a smattering of this skill back in the 90s. At the meeting, Dennis, who was responsible for the "Species" movies, was largely discouraging in his advice about Bill getting a script looked at/bought. I suggested that he also look to that as a possible stop-gap while he ironed out his attempts at screenwriting.
A few e-mails over the course of the next few months revealed that he was successful in that endeavor. It was a "tough double" as we used to say in track, but Bill pulled it off. And that was in a very, very tight IT job market.Not to make the above sound like a eulogy or obit, I just wanted to add Bill to the pantheon of '64 heroes.