William Joseph Vandehey

William "Bill" Vandehey came from a family of 11 kids. He had 3 sisters and 7 brothers. Bill was born in Wisconsin and as child moved to Baldwin Park, California. While dad didn’t talk much about his childhood, other than he was responsible for milking the cow, we understood there was very little to go around, they received clothes and help from their church and there were lots of boys in very few rooms with lots of smells.

Bill married when he was 20 and our mom, Juanita, was 16. By the time he was 24, he had 3 kids. 4 kids before he turned 27. He worked hard doing multiple jobs like a supermarket clerk, selling cookware and a newspaper distributor. He earned enough to buy a hardware store and then the beer bar next door. Dad liked to say, the hardware store gave us respectability, but the beer bar paid the rent. As kids, we would walk home from school to the hardware store where we played in the dirt field next door, washed our hands with Lava soap, dusted off shelves and cans of paint and giggled every time Dad sold a customer a nipple. We were at the hardware store when we heard President Kennedy had been shot.

Bill sold those businesses to Cal Trans. The new 210 freeway was proposed and Cal Trans needed Bill’s land for the freeway right of way, so they made an offer he couldn’t refuse. What to do next? Fearlessly, Dad jumped into a new venture the plastic business. This was in the late 60's, at the same time Dustin Hoffman from The Graduate was being told "One word. Plastics." Dad, who, I’m sure never saw The Graduate, was at the leading edge of that industry. He ultimately started his own company called All Plastics Fabricators and built it into a very successful company. Juanita and 3 of the 4 kids worked at APF for some period of time...even a future son-in-law was part of the team.

Some of the projects that APF did was acrylic statues, bubble windows for trucks, motorcycle fairings and sunglass racks. He went to Hawaii and built a 6-story tall fountain out of acrylic in a mall. He built an acrylic couch that spelled out DIAL for a Dial soap commercial. He built fish tanks for Marineland and Hollywood stars like Connie Stevens. He built acrylic staircases on Rodeo Blvd. He created thousands of the first breast press for taking mammograms. And he also created scale models of the planets that can be seen in the original Cosmos series with Carl Sagan and the money spheres in the movie "How to beat the high cost of living" with actress Susan St. James. He also created the throne room chairs for the Shah of Iran, when there was still a Shah of Iran. The projects were many and varied. If you wanted something done with quality, you went to APF.

After building up All Plastic Fabricators, Bill sold it around 1979 and started his "retirement". Bill was 46 at the time. He moved full time to Canyon Lake where he and Juanita had owned a lot since 1965 and started building custom spec homes This might have seemed a strange leap from plastic fabrication to general contractor but Bill’s dad had been a carpenter, as well as his older brother, Ken. Bill also worked with masonry and concrete with his brothers. Building things was in his blood. Bill and his dad built Bill and Juanita’s first home at Canyon Lake and remodeled Beverly’s first home in San Dimas. Bill and son, Jerry, built an addition to Loraine’s home and remodeled a family ski home in Tahoe. Bill and Uncle Jack helped rebuild Bob’s house after the Northridge earthquake in 1994. These are just a few examples of how Bill generously used his talents to help many friends and family.

Bill’s house at Canyon Lake was always a place where family got together and had fun whether it was swimming, water skiing, sunbathing, playing volleyball or just having fun riding around in the boat. Lots of great memories were created there for the extended family. At one point, two (2) of Dad’s brothers, one (1) sister, Dad’s mother-in-law, and two (2) of his children with their families lived in Canyon Lake. His sister, Millie and her husband Dick, still lives in the first home Bill built there.

Bill loved to hunt. Deer/Elk season was always the time to place work projects on hold and get together with his brothers, sons and nephews to go camping and hunting. Bill passed on his love of hunting to his son, Jerry. Bill had one strict hunting rule, “You only kill what you need to eat.” Jerry remembers and honors that philosophy still today.

When Bill got into his late 60's, he was looking for a change and decided to move to the San Juan mountains in Colorado outside Cimarron near Montrose. He bought 40 acres and remodeled and extended the house. He moved there so he could enjoy hunting out his front door. Which he did. Or out his bedroom window...which he did also. His walls were adorned with his many trophies of deer and elk and his freezer was full of the meat from his hunts.

Living at over 7000 ft elevation is difficult but dad would be out there with his tractor clearing roads of snow, climbing up on the roof to clear the roof and crawling under the house to fix frozen pipes. Bill and Juanita lived in the mountains of Colorado until he turned 80. The need for a pacemaker forced Bill to reluctantly decide he might be getting a little old for living in the mountains and moved closer to Loraine and her family near Sacramento, CA.

Bill was Dad to his four kids: Beverly, Loraine, Jerry and Robert (Bob). He was loud, demanding and blunt. As us kids grew, Dad had us helping him on numerous jobs, mostly fixing rentals and working around the house. Mom was not happy when we moved from our house in Azusa, which Mom and Dad had expanded and remodeled, to the Baldwin Park house where Mom grew up. But Dad felt it was best to make this move. It would keep us all out of trouble and busy. So, we lived on a 2-acre city lot with rabbits, chickens, turkeys, pigs, steer and two (2) horses. Except for the horses, the animals provided our food. At 7 am. on Saturday mornings you could hear Dad yell,” What are you going to do, sleep your life away?” While the girls had chores in the house, the never-ending chores of helping Dad outside fell to Jerry and Bob. But butchering time was a family affair. Uncles, aunts and cousins all came over to help. We pitched in as a family to put food in the freezer and on our dinner plates.

Dad saw things in a complete picture from beginning to end, so he expected all of us to know what he needed before he needed it. If you didn't anticipate his need, you would hear it. He was a tough taskmaster and I don’t think he ever realized we didn’t see things the same way he saw them.

Dad had great work ethics and as mentioned, handy construction skills. We all saw how hard Dad worked. Even up until the very end, Dad could outwork anyone. And forget about getting sick. Dad wouldn't allow that in the house. He gave us a mental toughness and a positive outlook and probably good genes that kept the bad germs away.

Dad was tough, but he was also kind and generous. We all benefitted from his kindness. Bill was a very dedicated Catholic who rarely missed church. He saw and was happy to share his experiences of when he felt God had directly intervened or placed Dad on a path he needed to follow. He always believed that God was watching over him, always. He freely gave of his time, money and labor to help every parish he was a part of. He knew many of the clergy and frequently had them over to his house. And while his marriage wasn't perfect, and whose marriage is, his faith and commitment to Juanita for the past 65 years has endured when many marriages about them have crumbled.

Dad hardly said, "I love you” until recently. Not too long-ago Loraine said, “I’m going to say, “I love you.” every time I see you and I expect you to say it back to me. And he did from that day forward!

He was a great provider, an athlete and an out-of-the-box thinker. He was stable and steadfast. His grandson, William, says he was the only true man he ever met. Bill, Dad, Grandpa, Great Grandpa, Great, Great Grandpa, Uncle Bill. We will all miss you, but you have left an enduring legacy. 4 children. 11 grandchildren. 14 great-grandchildren with one on the way. Plus, a countless number of friends. We have all become who we are for having been part of William Joseph Vandehey’s life.

A visitation for William will be held Wednesday, May 15, 2019 from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM at Mount Vernon Memorial Park, 8201 Greenback Ln, Fair Oaks, CA 95628. A vigil service will occur Wednesday, May 15, 2019 at 5:30 PM. A funeral service will occur Thursday, May 16, 2019 at 1:00 PM at Holy Family Catholic Church, 7817 Old Auburn Rd., Citrus Heights, CA 95610.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.MountVernonMemorial.com for the Vandehey family.