Every once in a while another long timer passes away. You wonder how come you never called to see how they were doing. Then you are so surprised when you found out they passed on. Bill Clark and I probably worked together as long as anyone else he worked with. He was my competition on the other country station and  before that was with us here at KLVI.  Bill was more unique than most of us. We, who are honest with ourselves know we have made  enemies in this business. We know there are those who dislike us. We know there are some who will be glad when it’s our turn in the obit pages. Not so with Bill. Maybe you didn’t revere him or even respect him. But you couldn’t help but smile at him. He wasn’t hurtful. He took the arrows and slings and really did turn the other cheek. That’s not easy to do in this business. You have to have a big ego to play radio and you are lying if you say otherwise. Bill was just Bill. What you saw is what you got. Country, pious and happy to be part of the gang. Let me put a “Y” at the end of the word part. He did that, too.  He and I had some long talks about things we didn’t tell anyone else. When he left radio, he went quietly just as you would have expected him to. To coin that old soap opera of decades past, he was “Just Plain Bill” and that was good enough. I realized upon reading his death notice this morning, that I cared more for him than I knew. I can still hear his voice loud and clear. And if he read this he would probably say, “Oh shucks, man. You don’t have to be that nice”. Believe me. That’s what he would say.