It is with great sadness that we report that our Pard Sagebrush Bill has gone over the Great Divide and joined God’s Posse.  Although not as active in CAS during the past few years, Bill was a life member of both SASS and the Horse Ridge Pistoleros of Bend, Oregon. Bill and his Wife Toni enjoyed traveling with their motor home to many of the SASS clubs through out the State of Oregon. Like so many faithful SASS Shooters, Bill and Toni would show up early at shoots and help the hosting club set-up their stages.

Bill grew up in Parma, Ohio, where he met and married the love of his life, Antoinette (Toni).  He also had a lifelong love of dogs, inherited no doubt from his father’s many years as an animal trainer and performer. Bill was a veteran and the son of a WWII veteran.  At 19, he enlisted in the Marines (1967-1970) and was a combat veteran of VietNam (1st Aircraft Wing).  He was a very proud Marine and if you were to ask him, he would tell you that he STILL considered himself to be a Corporal of Marines.  He later went to work as a communications specialist for US West and CenturyTel, from which he had retired just two months prior to his death.

Sagebrush Bill served our Nation and his fellow veterans all of his life.  Several years after moving to Oregon, he joined the Army National Guard where he served as a Scout and an Armored Crewman in L Troop, 3/116 Armored Cavalry Squadron.  This was followed by a stint with the US Marine Corps Reserve (4th Tank Battalion, 4th Marine Division).  He also spent 13 years as a volunteer Veterans’ Service Officer at the Veteran’s Administration, assisting countless veterans over the years.  Bill also served for 29 years as a Reserve Police Officer in John Day, Oregon and for 28 years as a reserve deputy sheriff in Grant County.

Bill enjoyed hunting, shooting, photography, fishing, leatherwork, horses, and travel by RV with Toni and with his father.  He was a member of many great service organizations, including the SASS, the Benevolent Order of Law Dawgs (BOLD), the National Rifle Association, the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Elks Club, the American Quarter Horse Association, and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Sagebrush Bill is survived by his wife Antoinette (Toni), his father William A. Wynne, and eight brothers and sisters.

If the Army and the Navy

Ever look on Heaven’s scenes

They will find the streets are guarded

By United States Marines

Sagebrush Bill

AKA

William G. "Bill" Wynne