I echo everyone's sentiment: a very nice man, with a graciousness rare anywhere.

I met Bill, then going to Amherst College, at a hootenanny I held at Dartmouth in 1958 or 59. He was two years younger than I. At the time he was just learning 5-string banjo.

Hearing me playing three-finger style, he, with the politeness and courtesy natural to him, asked me to show him a few licks. I showed him what I could. Needless to say in a very short time he went light-years beyond me!

I'm pleased I could be a very small contributor on his way to preeminence, and sorry to hear that he's gone. Not that many of us left now from the 50s pickers, and he was one of the best.

Memories!

Bob Coltman