When I was a young kid in Elkhart, Indiana, Bill became a hero of mine when the famous picture of him holding his "Ares" appeared in American Modeler's 1959 Nats coverage. I had never seen such a beautiful model, especially built by someone only three years older than I. I even built an Ambroid kit of the old Consolidated "Whipsaw" and painted it to "resemble" Bill's plane. I never forgot that "Ares" model, and it was part of the reason I came back to this hobby, when I learned that people were still flying CL. What I didn't realize was that for the last 23 years I had been living within half an hour of Bill Werwage. Bill had earned quite a reputation for single-minded devotion to CLPA, but I was surprised to learn that we had come close to encountering him from time to time in musical circles, as wife Gusti and he had sung and played a few of the same venues. The best thing though was to learn his friendliness at the field, when I'd go out to fly at mid-day during the week and find him practicing or testing ideas, engines, etc. One day I remember well was when he was preparing for the 2004 World Championships (which he won), having some trim problems with his modern USA-1 piped model, which he ultimately had to put away in favor of his trusty P-47. In the midst of what must have been a frustratiing time, he came over and spent 20-30 minutes trying to solve my SkyRay/Fox .35 fuel pickup problem. I surely hope he will be back flying, but perhaps the horse riding business is too demanding now. I think that he's a great guy, and the best flights I have ever seen were done by him at our grass circles, especially one the night the local journalist was out there interviewing and watching. Bill made a special effort to come out with his P-47 (Jerry Phelps, too). He has also judged our Cleveland Area Stunt Championships on occasion.
SK