William Anthony Boatright

July 18, 1978 - December 5, 2024

Billy, never Bill (“That’s my dad!”), Boatright wore many hats in his regrettably short life.

In high school he was an athlete, playing both baseball and football, and desperately wanted to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He had been known to say that if you cut him, he would bleed Dodger Blue.

After high school, he served two years as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, speaking Spanish on the streets of New York.

When he was in his 20s, Billy and four of his closest friends (forever after known as Team LA) picked up and moved to Las Vegas on a whim to open Shadow Bar at Caesars Palace. He would bartend there, the Crazy Armadillo, Kahunaville, and at Carnaval Court at Harrah’s, finding his first chosen family in the world of flair bartending. At that time in his life, he was also an avid skydiver.

Later he became interested in computer hacking, social engineering, and cyber security - earning a Bachelor of Science in Business, and Master’s Degrees in both Information Systems and Administration of Justice and Security.

He found his next chosen family in the InfoSec and hacker community, starting out by volunteering in the original social engineering village at DefCon, then becoming the “postmaster general”, and eventually submitting and being accepted to give two presentations.

Billy then became active in his local InfoSec community in his chosen hometown of Las Vegas and became the communications director for the Information Systems Security Association.

And most of this he did despite having well over 200 surgical procedures over the years in an attempt to control his Wegener’s Granulomatosis. In the end, his lungs were too damaged by the disease to continue to function - neither his indomitable will nor his spirit ever faltered.

He is survived by wife Jessica Jordan; parents Bill & Patty Boatright and Dave & Nancy (Boatright) Meggelin; sister Angela (Boatright) Taylor; his nephews Mason Taylor, Bryce Walker, Kamden Walker, & niece Hadley Walker; grandparents Ray & Rita Ergas; Aunts Carolyn (Kim) Pederson, Teresa (Fernando) Castorena, and Jane (Tim) Stinson; cousins Jamie Boatright, Siobhan (Boatright) Reese (son Liam), Michael Boatright (children Halex, Kosima), Nick Pederson (son Charlie), and Matt Pederson.

Billy also leaves behind Team LA as well as his chosen family in the flair and InfoSec communities.

The family would like to express its heartfelt gratitude to his surgeons Dr. Pockey, Dr. Daugharthy, and Dr. Chung as well as the countless nurses and members of hospital staff who took such loving care of him through the years of his illness.