William E. Glass' Obituary
William Everett Glass, known to all as Bill, died January 15, 2014 at age 72 after a lengthy battle with cancer. Born March 26th, 1941, Bill grew up in Berkeley, the son of a UC P.E. teacher who bestowed in him an enduring love of sports; and an actor whose oratorical skills he inherited and put to use both in and out of the courtrooms of Northern California.
Bill attended Berkeley schools until the vagaries of his adventurous childhood persuaded his parents (and him) that change would be beneficial, and his high school career successfully concluded at the Judson School in Arizona. He moved on to U.C. Berkeley, where his passionate enthusiasm for fraternity life was interrupted by a brief interlude in the army. After two years stationed in Yakima, Washington, he returned to Berkeley to complete his degree and continued his studies at Boalt Hall, where he earned a law degree in 1972.
Bill married Kaaren Hanson in 1964, and their son Brett (William Everett Glass, Jr.) was born in 1968.
After beginning in the DA’s office directly out of school, Bill began his own criminal defense practice in Martinez in 1977. Defense allowed him to fully employ his formidable powers of argument and rhetoric and exposed him to a variety of colorful personalities that contributed to a very rich and unique life. It was only in the area of travel that Bill was restrained: Tahoe or Cabo were sufficiently international for him.
Despite his great legal successes, Bill’s true love was his job as the public address announcer for Cal’s football and basketball games. Beginning in 1976, he was the in house “Voice of the Golden Bears” for better than two decades. From the time his parents took him to the old stadium, through his teenage years he would sneak past guards, to his eventual role in the announcer’s box. Those of us who love him can still hear his memorable voice echoing through the stands of Memorial Stadium.
Bill married his other true love and perfect complement, Lowayne Golik, in 1999 after 11 years of living together in their house on a hill in Crockett. The view of water and bridges always reminded him of his childhood home in the hills Berkeley. If life is a circle masquerading as a line, it is during this time that his restless arc found completion and his life came full.
One of his final wishes was to express his deep gratitude to the many wonderful health care professionals in the Kaiser system that enabled him to defy the odds and pass from this grand stage on his own terms.
A poet said, “Cowards die many times before their death; the valiant only taste of death but once”. In his long, quiet, uncomplaining struggle, Bill was truly valiant.
Bill is survived by his wife Lowayne, his son Brett and wife Jen, his stepdaughters Marley Sage and Danielle Golik, his sister Helen Gough, niece Elizabeth Gough, nephew John Gough and his family, three grandchildren, former wife Kaaren Rose, and beloved cat Fluffy.
A service will be held at Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland on Sunday, January 26th at 10am. A reception will follow at Zio Fraedo’s in Pleasant Hill at 12pm.
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