From Norman Vickers:
I am sending copy of Bill Westfall’s obituary, courtesy of wife Jeanette and son Fritz. Likely this will be of limited interest to those who didn’t know him but.. he was a remarkable man. I got to know Bill and Jeanette when they were living in Biloxi, MS and associated with the Mississippi Coast Jazz Society.

Bill’s day-gig was internist/psychiatrist with the VA Hospital in Biloxi. Bill was a large man, over six feet and had body-build of a football lineman. He was happiest when he was playing with a jazz group.

Jeanette was also a jazz activist. She was on the original board of the American Federation of Jazz Societies and served as secretary for a number of years. She was also active with the New Orleans Jazz Club, serving also on a board position there. ( for those unfamiliar with the geography of the Central Gulf Coast, Biloxi, MS is about 70 miles from New Orleans—an easy drive on I-10. )

As the obituary states, the left Biloxi and lived a few years in the Texas Rio Grande Valley. Then they moved to Ft. Walton Beach ( 40 miles east of Pensacola) FL to a retirement home and near their son who lived there.

The Westfalls came to a number of Jazz Society of Pensacola functions when they were living in Biloxi and also when they moved to Ft. Walton Beach.

Bill was also an e-mail correspondent. I was on the list, and might get ten or twelve jokes/day. Jeanette, I believe, likely appreciated that Bill had this diversion.

He will be missed!

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Norman and Dear friends of Bill Westfall,
Our husband and father Bill Westfall passed away on Tuesday, September 29. He had been in the hospital for several days with heart failure, did not suffer and died peacefully. We thank you for being such a good friend to him and we're sure that, like us, you will miss him very much. Below is his obituary as it appeared in the Ft. Walton Beach, FL, newspaper.
Love, Jeanette, Fritz and Nancy

Dr. R. William Westfall, age 92, passed away Tuesday, September 29, 2009, at the Ft. Walton Beach, FL, Medical Center. He was born on December 14, 1916, in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. He graduated from Boone, Iowa, High School in 1934. After receiving his B.S. degree from Carleton College, Northfield, MN, in 1939 he studied medicine at the Des Moines Still College of Osteopathy, graduating in 1943. He entered general practice in Ackley, Iowa, until 1945 at which time he began his medical practice with his father, Dr. Ralph P, Westfall, in Boone, Iowa.

As a member of DO CARE International he served as its president from 1981-82. Working with DO CARE and the Partners of the Americas for over 25 years he helped establish and maintain medical missions (clinics) in many remote areas in Mexico, Guatemala, and Haiti. Bill and his wife Jeanette also organized and developed the Partners Travel Program, which resulted in the transference of an estimated $2,000,000.00 worth of medicines (donated by pharmaceutical companies) and about $1,000,000.00 worth of medical and dental supplies and equipment taken to Yucatan. Through their efforts in the organization, many more U.S. citizens became interested in Latin America and got involved in the activities of the Partners of the Americas. In 2004 they received the Special Lifetime Achievement Award presented at the 40th Anniversary celebration of the Partners of the Americas.

In 1972 he joined the medical staff of the Veterans Administration hospital in Danville, IL, and in 1976 he transferred to the Biloxi, MS, VA where he practiced until he retired in 1982.

He was a member of the Presbyterian church in Boone. His hobbies included photography and jazz music. As a jazz musician he was elected to the Hall of Fame of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Jazz Society. He had his own Back Bay Jazz Band which opened the 1984 New Orleans World’s Fair at the Mississippi Pavilion.

He and Jeanette lived in Alamo, TX, from 1998 to 2003. As a resident of the Alamo Country Club, he continued his hobbies. He played saxophone with a number of musical groups, including the Texas Trails.

A 58-year member of Lions Club, Bill has served as President of both the Boone and Danville chapters, and was a member of the Biloxi Lions Club. Through Lions Clubs in Iowa and Illinois he was responsible for a project, in conjunction with the Partners Programs, in which over 100,000 eyeglasses were collected and distributed to clinics in Yucatan.

Bill had a wall full of trophies and ribbons for his prizewinning photographs, among them first prize in 1975 in both the categories of colored slides and of black-and-white and colored prints from the Central Illinois Camera Clubs (which includes the area of Chicago). An exhibition of his black-and-white prints was presented at the Iberoamericana University in Mexico City in 2004. As a world traveler, he took over 50,000 slides and photographs of the over 80 countries he and his wife visited.

A resident of Westwood Retirement Resort in Ft. Walton Beach, FL, since 2004, he enjoyed taking pictures of the residents and activities. Many Westwood residents will remember his jazz saxophone entertainment at the weekly Social Hour.

Bill is survived by his wife of 70 years Jeanette, his son Dr. Fritz Westfall and wife Jan of Shalimar, Florida, his daughter Nancy W. Gurrola and husband Juan of Mexico City, Mexico, five grandchildren (Juan R. Gurrola, William Gurrola, Nancy Liz Alonzo, William M. Westfall and Jennifer Logan) and six great-grandchildren.