William Roth
Sept. 19, 1919-June 1, 2013
Palo Alto, California

The "Greatest Generation" lost one of its outstanding members when Bill Roth died in his sleep on June 1st at the age of 93. Like many of his generation, he served in World War II ? with the Army in New Guinea and the invasion of the Philippines ? and then returned to the Bay Area to raise a family and help build post-war America. Among the many projects his construction company completed was the Carlmont Shopping Center, and he went on to found and run First American Records Storage, which is now a nation-wide enterprise.

A fourth generation Californian, Bill had Stanford in his blood from an early age, as he grew up on the campus where his parents, Mildred and Almon Roth, and his sisters, Betty Roth Kendrick and Miriam Roth MacKenzie, both of whom predeceased him, lived while Almon, for whom Roth Way is named, was comptroller of the university. Bill attended Stanford, where he met his first wife, Diana Fyfe Hunter, played football, ran track, and graduated in 1941. He lived all his life within five miles of campus, and attended 74 straight Big Games.

Bill and Diana had four children, all of whom survive them, and all with a Stanford connection. Barbara (Sandy) Scott received an MBA from Stanford and supervised the construction of the Schwab Center building on campus; Richard (Dick) swam for Stanford and won a gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics; Douglas followed in his father?s footsteps as a successful construction executive and helped rebuild Stanford after the Loma Prieta earthquake; Nancy received three degrees from Stanford and served on the Graduate School of Business Advisory Council.

After Diana?s death, Bill enjoyed playing golf with Debby Niethammer, who had also lost her spouse, and the friendship blossomed into romance that led to their wedding in 1999. They enjoyed 13 years together, and Bill credited Debby with keeping him young enough to shoot his age at golf three times after he turned 80.

In his youth, Bill enjoyed hunting and a good prank ? including putting a cow in a third floor office of one of Stanford?s deans ? and he kept his flower garden in stunning exuberance in his final years. Besides his four children, he is survived by Debby and her four children, Bill, Steve, Jim and Mike Niethammer, twenty-three adoring grandchildren, and eleven great grandchildren, all of whom will carry on the memory of his long, productive and loving life.

Tags: veteran, business