William Cummings Newell

William Cummings Newell passed away on March 8, 2022, holding the hand of a very attractive doctor at St. Michael Hospital in Silverdale – a lady’s man to the end.

Preceded in death by bla, bla, bla.

He married his best friend from eighth grade, Janice Mae Dilley, on September 2, 1957. They graduated from West Valley High School in 1956 and together went to Seattle where Bill attended the University of Washington. He played saxophone as a member of the UW marching band, lettered in swimming, and graduated with a BS in physics. Bill completed a year at UCLA in the Finance MBA program before family obligations had them moving back to the Spokane, Washington area and later to Hauser Lake, Idaho, where he and Janice raised their daughter and son, Margaret and David, on a 500-acre ranch. Bill and Janice were together for 30 years in what he defined as “the Great Ride,” ending in an amicable divorce. They remained lifelong friends until her death in 2010.

Bill will remain an enigma to his friends and family. Putting his life into words is challenging because he was a complicated soul. He was a husband, father, brother, business owner, entrepreneur, rancher, bartender, inventor, financial analyst and consultant. He was a proven charmer and leader. He was a charter member of the Eagles of Post Falls and he took great pleasure in coaching his Western Soap company’s basketball team and organizing his son’s sixth-grade “basketball league” because there wasn’t an official school program.

Bill loved fishing, playing pool, playing bridge with friends and family, drinking Budweiser and occasionally a couple shots of Jack Daniels.

He was a founding member of I-tron, Inc, developing the proof of principle of the online billing system within his bar, the Hauser Inn. After that adventure, he and a few good friends started a movie vending machine startup, but when the IPO failed, he seemed to drop off the face of the earth.

It turns out he went to Russia without telling any of his family or friends. He surprised everyone when he returned, in one piece, in time to go to his son’s wedding. Bill enjoyed reminiscing about that trip every chance he got , and even though we all knew the story was embellished more every time he told it, we loved it; he was a great storyteller – and who’s to say some of the stories aren’t mostly true?

Like with most of us, good decisions and bad decisions were made resulting in great successes, great failures, and outright disasters. Friends and family either loved him or hated him, usually at the same time, for how he chose to live his life.

When he “retired” and settled down in Moses Lake, he and his companion Joy Hummer became active in the local politics and attended many rallies and fairs to promote blue in a red county. A lifelong Republican, when Bill was asked why he was now a Democrat, he answered, “The Republicans have lost their minds!” He showed his soft spot by becoming a “crazy cat lady” when he began feeding all the stray cats in their Moses Lake neighborhood. Not surprising, two of the stray cats negotiated their way into the house and became pampered house cats, named Damn Cat and Other Damn Cat.

Survivors include bla, bla, bla.

He will be missed.

A celebration of life is not scheduled. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to a charity of your choice or to Grant County Animal Outreach 6225 Randolph Road NE, Moses Lake, WA 98837.