Bill Friday – RIP

D. D. Degg September 2, 2024 1 minute 0 comments

Oregon cartoonist Bill Friday has passed away.

William Rodney (Bill) Friday

November 8, 1942 – August 23, 2024

William “Bill” Rodney Friday, fondly known to many as Uncle Bill, passed away in Bend, Oregon, in 2024 at the age of 81. Born on November 8, 1942, in Payette, Idaho…

Bill spent the formative years of his life in Eugene, Oregon, where he resided from 1960 until 1996. After a brief service in the Oregon Army National Guard, Bill was honorably discharged due to a service injury. Undeterred by this setback, Bill pursued his passion for the arts, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Oregon. His love for creativity and nature led him to Bend, Oregon, where he lived from 1996 until his passing.

Bill was a man of many talents. For over 45 years, he worked as a fire lookout, diligently protecting the forests he cherished. His love for the outdoors, particularly the high desert and the Cascade Mountains of Oregon, was evident in everything he did. During the off-season, Bill served his community as a security guard, tennis coach, and art teacher, sharing his skills and wisdom with countless students and colleagues.

As a renowned cartoonist, artist, and author, Bill’s creative works were celebrated throughout central Oregon. His art was showcased in galleries and museums, earning him several awards and accolades for his contributions to both the arts and sports.

In 2011 KTVZ featured a segment about Bill and D.B. Cooper:

Bill Friday of Bend says it was around Thanksgiving 1971 when he was visiting his brother and his sister-in-law at their farm on the Lewis River in southwest Washington state, when all of a sudden, a convoy of National Guardsmen began searching the woods, something Friday says made him believe they were searching for D.B. Cooper.

Friday draws a lot, including airplanes, homes, bridges, barns and lighthouses. But perhaps nothing is more of a talking point than his drawings of D.B. Cooper, which he began drawing shortly after Thanksgiving 1971.

Friday’s drawings depict that mystique, from one of Cooper stuck in a windmill with money blowing out, to another of Cooper caught in a sewage plant, to one of Cooper hanging from a tree, with coyotes ready to eat him.

Western Washington University houses the Bill Friday papers and Archives West has the description and biography:

The collection spans the years 1972-2018, documenting Friday’s career as a cartoonist.

W.R. (Bill) Friday was born in Pendleton, Oregon in 1942. He has been cartooning for almost 50 years. In 1953, he and his two older brothers along with several neighbor kids produced a neighborhood paper called the “Snooper Review.” Friday’s cartooning career began on the pages of that gossip sheet. His cartoons have since appeared in publications and exhibits worldwide, from Portland, Oregon to Saint Petersburg, Russia, winning state, regional and national awards and recognition.

Cartoons by Friday have appeared on HBO TV, in Life Magazine and on TV news programs in Eugene, Oregon. He has taught drawing, painting, cartooning, and been an Artist-in-Residence for the District 4-J schools in Eugene. He was self-syndicated for a short time in the early 1990s with gag writer Brad Cook. Together their political cartoons appeared in about twenty small western papers. Other cartoons by Bill appeared in the Bend Bulletin, the Eugene Register Guard, the Klammath Falls Herald News, the McKenzie Weekly, Old Oregon Magazine, the Sagebrush News, the cover of Earthwatch Oregon, and American Timberman and Trucker.