William "Bill" Palmer

William Nelson "Bill" Palmer, 76, of Bellevue died at Select Specialty Hospital on Saturday afternoon, January 10, 2015. Bill was born in Des Moines, Iowa on September 12, 1938, the son of Orin and Maebelle Palmer. He graduated from Anchorage High School in Anchorage, Alaska in 1958, and as a military child traveled extensively with his family throughout the United States and foreign countries, Germany being his most memorable location. Bill attended 16 schools in his first 12 school age years.

After high school, Bill worked various jobs and in 1958, joined the United States Air Force, serving for 8 years, stationed in several bases in the USA, Alaska, Labrador and Europe.

In 1960, Bill married Barbara Yunker of Sturgis and they shared the birth of two sons, Barry Palmer of Lansing and Brad Palmer of Battle Creek. Bill's marriage to Barbara ended in divorce in 1988.

In 1966, Bill was discharged from the military and started his career with the Battle Creek Police Department. He was very proud to be a police officer. Over the years he moved in rank from a patrolman to command officer and retired from the police department at the rank of Lieutenant in 1988. During his work years at the police department, Bill continued on with school and got a degree from KCC in Criminal Justice.

During his career with the police department, Bill worked in many areas including community service, foot patrol, motorcycle officer, school safety officer, patrol sergeant, undercover narcotics and continued on to the rank of Lieutenant.

Over the years of his police career, Bill received many commendations and awards for his services, including the Medal of Valor.

Within a week after leaving the Police Department, Bill was hired as the corporate fleet manager and executive security officer and driver for the CEO's and corporate guests of the Kellogg Company. Bill's personality and commitment to his duties soon lead to establishing friendships with the people he was hired to protect. After leaving the Kellogg Company, Bill worked for a year at Emmett Township in Code Compliance.

On September 2, 1989, Bill married JoAnn Narmore Waite, and spent their years together enjoying and pursuing hobbies and activities together, traveling and wintering in Florida and enjoying life, filled with warmth and laughter.

In 2005, Bill was diagnosed with and became a survivor of, oral throat cancer.

Bill had many interests during his lifetime, his main passion for many years was the shooting sports. Bill was a very accomplished shooter and participated in many competition shooting sports where he excelled. Bill introduced and taught JoAnn how to shoot, and they both traveled to many shooting competitions where they competed in the events. He also taught gun safety and shooting classes. He "almost excelled" in teaching dog obedience as witnessed by his dog, Eddie, who would do absolutely nothing on command.

Among Bill's other interests, he enjoyed fishing, especially in Florida, and also enjoyed a trip to the casino, hunting, hiking in the woods, mushroom hunting, and eating good BBQ, poker and his many many grandchildren. Bill also enjoyed the simple pleasure of being home and loved to sit, reading or watching TV and just enjoying his life.

He loved and enjoyed the dogs he had over his lifetime, Fritz, Muffie, Maggie, Bear and Eddie, all of whom have been a family member and have remained in his heart.

Bill is survived by his wife, JoAnn Palmer; his sons, Barry (Christine ) Palmer of Lansing and Brad (Sherry) Palmer of Battle Creek; step-children, Christine (Kevin) Hagelgans of Battle Creek, Tom Coppock of Union City, and Paul Coppock of Battle Creek; his grandchildren, Chad, Kyle, Maci, Shelby, Hayden, Holden and Bradleigh Palmer. Bill also shared grandchildren with wife JoAnn; Amanda, Zane, Alexis, Paul, Miranda and Kali Coppock, Aidan, Brittany and Stacia Hagelgans. Bill was preceded in death by his loving parents, Orin and Maebelle Palmer; brother, Robert Palmer; sister, Sally Palmer and an infant grandchild, Skylar Coppock.

The family will receive friends 5:00-8:00 p.m. Wednesday, January 14, 2015 at the Farley-Estes & Dowdle Funeral Home where a memorial service to celebrate Bill's life will be held 10:00 a.m. Thursday, January 15, 2015. Full military honors will be bestowed by the United States Air Force and Bill will be interred at the Fort Custer National Cemetery at a later date. In lieu of flowers, please consider making donations to help the family of former Battle Creek police officer, Diane Cantrell, who tragically along with her mother, died in a house fire c/o Lloewyn Cantrell. Memorial envelopes will be available at the funeral home. Personal messages for the family and/or favorite memories of Bill may be placed at www.farleyestesdowdle.com.