The following "Life Sketch of William (Bill) Combs" was written by both Bill and Dyanne in 2010.
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Born at the Glendale Sanitarium in California on June 5, 1942. He took a lot of kidding about being born in a sanitarium, but it was the hospital in the area. His family lived in Santa Monica. He was the oldest of four children – 2 sisters and 1 brother. He started kindergarten in Santa Monica and had a vivid memory of looking at the tall skinny palm trees as he walked to school and was worried they would fall on him. He got over that though because he loved the palm trees on our Hawaii vacations.
His family moved to the San Fernando Valley. He went to a small school near his home. He remembered thinking it was cool to be the milk monitor for the day and get a free milk cuz you had to take a sack lunch every day. They used to play hide and seek when the ground fog would come in and be so dense you couldn’t see anybody just a few feet away. He remembers his mom letting him ride his bike for miles in the valley and eating oranges and apples off the trees when he got hungry. He has told me that is why he thinks he still has wanderlust and loves to drive on road trips. It is one of the things he loved about Alaska – that freedom our young children had when we were first here and it was safe to let them explore too. He had no trouble telling the boys they could ride our 3-wheeler way over to the Robinsons off Klatt Road or letting Tami ride her bike to McHugh Creek along the highway.
His dad was a cop on the L.A. Police force for many years. His mom was mostly a homemaker. Bill’s favorite memory of a family vacation was one they took to Yosemite to go camping. His prized possession was a baseball mitt he bought for himself from money he saved from his paper route. He loved that mitt and still has it. He joked one day about how much it might be worth on Ebay because it is such an antique. The boys always liked to use it. Bill always took care of his things that mattered to him.
Bill and Dyanne met when they were 16. Her family had just moved to the valley and bought a house that was on the same street just four blocks from Bill’s in Granada Hills. The first time they saw each other was on Palm Sunday when Dyanne went to the Methodist church for Palm Sunday and was informed Sunday School was meeting at the Parson’s home because the church was going through some remodeling. That summer there were a lot of activities with he youth group called MFY which is like our (LDS) Young Men and Young Women’s programs. Dyanne used to get her mom to drive by Bill’s house when they went anywhere just in case she could catch a glimpse of him in the yard. Several times she did, and he was always working on a car in his driveway – that should have been a first clue about his love for old cars. He loved cars. Dyanne always liked hearing his story of his first car. It was a 1939 Chevy four-door sedan and he called it the Gray Ghost. He was at a gas station one day when he saw a guy coasting into the gas station and his car had quit on him. He was frantic and said, “I’ve got to get to L.A.”. There was no mechanic on duty so he said, “I’ll sell it to anyone for a ticket to L.A.” the Greyhound bus stopped right across the street. He had the pink slip for it. Bill called his dada and told him about it – his dad said, “Buy it, and we’ll fix it.” Bill had $20 on him – which was a lot at the time, but not for a car. But, the guy thought it was a serious problem and he took the money and gave Bill the pink slip. They had it towed home. Turned out it was just a blown head gasket, so Bill had his first car but he wasn’t old enough to drive yet. His dad said, “Here’s the book. Try and fix it and if you get stuck, I can help you.”
The second car he got was a 1951 Chevy for $125 and that was the car we dated in. His dad drove it to work all week but Bill got to drive it on Fridays to school our senior year. He was never upset about that – he was glad his dad could use it. We wanted to take that on our honeymoon, but his folks worried about us breaking down so they made us take their newer Ford Falcon.
Bill and Dyanne had a wonderful courtship – lots of beach parties, swimming pool parties and BBQs, playing tennis when it cooled off enough at night, church dances, he coached our church’s girl’s basketball team. Dyanne and Bill were married in the Methodist church in 1962 and their honeymoon was a road trip up the California coast. They have five children – sons Steve and Mike, then eight years later had three daughters all three years apart – Tami, Amber, and Mandy. They currently have 11 grandchildren [now that is 15 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren].
Bill was always a hard worker. He had a paper route at age 9. At 13 he was doing carpentry work with his best friend’s dad who had a construction company. At 16 both he and Dyanne had a job at a local ice cream parlor and often worked together. Then after they were married, he was in retail for a while with Grants and Sears and ADX Drug Store. He tried selling insurance for New York Life for a very short while, but realized he did not like it – he wasn’t a high-pressure type person.
In 1969 Bill was ready for a change and so was his brother-in-law. So, Bill and Dyanne and their two boys, and her sister Patti and her husband and their two boys – packed up what they could carry in their two trucks and headed for Alaska. They had many experiences over the last 40 years [54 years now] and have never regretted their decision to come to Alaska.
After they moved to Alaska he worked for 20 years as a firefighter which he loved, then retired and worked for 10 years as a school bus driver for the Anchorage School District. All the time he was a firefighter he had quite a few days off between shifts and he always hung sheetrock or some type of carpentry work. In 1978 he injured his leg and was off for a month so he bought a radio scanner so he could listen to the police and fire calls while he was recuperating. Then when he broke his arm on the job and had surgery, he was off work for a year while it was healing. He couldn’t stand not working so he and a fellow firefighter opened a picture framing shop on Tudor Road. He had never done it before, but he researched it, they rented a place and set up business. He was good at it and when he finally was able to go back to work at the Fire Department he always had people asking him why he wasn’t doing the picture framing anymore.
Bill could teach himself anything. He build our home himself with some help from his brother-in-law, Larry. It is a cedar chalet kit that was delivered in two Sea-Land vans. They left the trucks for two days so we could unload all of the lumber. Bill worked on the house every day off from the Fire Department. Dyanne always worried about him working late into the night because he was alone and she was at the Quonset with the young children – by then they had Tami. He would tie himself on the roof with a rope in case he fell off. There were no cell phones then to keep in touch with each other. He did all of the plumbing and electrical too. We moved in three weeks before Amber was born in 1975.
On the Fire Department he wanted to make Engineer so he and a buddy studied every night and taught themselves all the hydraulics and formulas. He had already learned all the street names and major buildings – he would drive around and memorize the hydrant locations, etc.
Education was important to Bill. He only wen to one year of college but he loved learning and could teach himself almost anything. He encouraged his children to get an education because he knew it was important for their future. He was always helpful with the kid’s projects. He worked hard on helping Amber learn her times tables – they would repeat them when she got in bed at night. One night when he asked Amber what 6 times 8 was her younger sister Mandy yelled out, “48!”. She was learning them right along with Amber. He helped them all at different times – making a birch bark canoe for a science project, visiting school with his fireman’s gear on for Career Day and handing out plastic red fire helmets. The girls liked look out the window when they knew he was coming home from his 24-hour shift about 9:00 in the morning to see if he had a box of donuts from Carrs.
A few years ago Tami made a booklet for Bill and Dyanne’s birthdays called, “Life Enhancing Things We’ve Learned from our Parents”. Each of the kids wrote some things they had learned and observed from both their mom and their dad. It is one of the most special gifts we have ever received. Here are a few of the things they learned from their dad:
Steve (46)
- I learned how to snow plow
- The value of hard work
- How to rebuild engines
- How to drive a stick-shift
- How to be careful climbing ladders
- The value of service to others
- Math – mostly on a napkin
- A tendency for hair-brained ideas
Mike (44)
- To check the oil in your vehicle regularly
- Don’t ignore the idiot lights on the dashboard
- Basic mechanical knowledge to avoid being scammed by shops
- The “one-decade” rule before embracing new technology
- A strong work ethic
- Never use an elevator in a building fire
- Never leave appliances running while unattended
- 101 uses for a pre-1970 Chevy truck frame
Tami (37)
- That a positive attitude can make any circumstance better without anything changing
- That Cattle Company isn’t a restaurant, it’s an institution
- That you can’t control what other people do – you will be happier if you focus on what you need to do
- Don’t do all of your shopping at one store
- Patience – I was one of the slowest to learn how to drive a stick, but you never made me feel that way
- Constant pondering of inventions, businesses and ideas
- That nothing will bring you happiness like the gospel and your family
Amber (34)
- Lug nuts should be tightened opposite each other
- It is never too early to plow
- Attitude is everything
- Everything is fixable – some projects just take longer than others
- That I was more important than a broken car
- Loyalty to companies – especially local businesses and American-made products
- Buy trucks – don’t sell them
- Oldies music is the only music worth listening to and anything else means the radio is broken
- Reading the “R” section of the dictionary to help me with my speech
- Houses won’t catch on fire when dad is home
Mandy (31)
- Helping me overcome my fear of the dark. I remember sitting in your room with the light off and you telling me that everything stays the same as when the lights are on.
- The importance of education
- How to drive a stick shift in the coolest truck ever – the orange dump truck – in the church parking lot
- Always try to do things yourself first – like building something, fixing something, or installing a car stereo
- You taught me that I could always count on your for anything – buying me shoes for volleyball, giving me a ride somewhere, killing a spider in my room, patting me on the head after I had just gotten in trouble, or fixing the car after I broke it
Dyanne remembers some of the things he didn’t like – politicians that weren’t honest, traffic lights that aren’t timed, and her country music. He didn’t like having to wear a tie – he loved being a fireman for that reason. He had a fear of heights which he also had to overcome as a fireman. He didn’t like wearing his wedding ring when he worked on cars because it shorted out once and burned him, but he didn’t like to take it off.
He liked watching “This Old House” on TV and learning new things. He liked helping people and was always good at teaching others the skills he had learned. His favorite holidays were the 4th of July and Easter. He really did like snow plowing in the winter. We would go snowplowing together and listen to our oldie radio station. If he could have gone on one more trip it would have been back to California so we could eat at his favorite two places – Cupid’s hot dog stand in the Valley and Bob’s Big Boy where we always went when we were dating.
One of his recent birthdays the girls made him a birthday card that said “Happy Birthday to our favorite fire-fighting, snow-plowing, home-building, bargain-shopping, car-fixing, joke-cracking, shirt-pocket-full-of-goodies, soft-hearted, striped/plaid shirt-wearing, great-haired, happy, loving, laughing dad.” That described him pretty well.
Bill just got better with age. He truly loved his family – and he was sure enjoying being a grandpa. He loved having the little ones climb up on his lap and visiting with the older ones, and watching a couple of them serve their missions. He had a very strong testimony of the gospel and he lived its principles. He honored his priesthood. He endured to the end in a way he always taught his kids – that attitude was everything. We will all miss hearing his voice and laugh, but we know this is only a temporary separation before a more wonderful reunion.
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Bill is survived by his adoring wife, Dyanne, his children:
Steve Combs (Lynne Combs), Mike Combs, Tami Combs, Amber Fisher (Ryan Fisher), Mandy Combs (Garrett Gebauer)
Grandchildren: Jacob Combs (Suzanne Combs), Stuart Combs, Rhylee Robison (Trevor Robison), Reggie Nicholes (Jarell Nicholes), Carsyn Hopkins (Quinn Hopkins), Brynlie Fairbanks (Cole Fairbanks), Hudson Fisher, Scout Fisher, Foraker Fisher, Cada Fisher, Iver Fisher, Reese Gebauer, Livia Gebauer, Mera Gebauer, Coley Gebauer
Great grandchildren: Jayden Combs, Brooklyn Combs, Jaxson Combs, Colt Robison, Crue Robison, Oaklynn Nicholes, Maverick Nicholes
Siblings: Judy Walport (Bruce Walport), Larry Combs
Preceded by parents Melanie and Edwin Combs, sister- Patricia Witherspoon and her son, Danny Witherspoon
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