May 23, 1936 – Jan. 2, 2010

Longtime Alaska resident William James "Bill" Diedrich, 73, died Jan. 2, 2010, at home in the presence of his family after a long illness.

A Mass of Christian burial, presided over by the Rev. Steven Moore, was Saturday at Saint Andrew Catholic Church in Eagle River.

Bill was born May 23, 1936, in South Bend, Ind., to Emil and Augusta Diedrich.

He joined the Army Signal Corps in 1955 and served for three years. During that period, while stationed at Camp Desert Rock in Nevada, he took part (under orders) in the military's nuclear testing program. In 1958, he moved to Alaska and found employment as a technician on the White Alice project, eventually becoming the site supervisor by 1965.

In 1971 he moved to Anchorage, where he was responsible for setting up microwave links that allowed the city its first experience of live television. Bill went on to install television transmission and microwave communication systems in remote rural Alaskan sites, as well as on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, from 1974 to 1977. From 1978 until his retirement in 1996, he worked as a technician at the Eagle River Alascom Earth Station.