W. Bunselmeyer Got A Kick Out Of Being An Engineer

Deep down and at an early age, William S. Bunselmeyer figured he would be an engineer.

The likable lad from Elmsford, N.Y., simply got a bang out of planning and building things. He shot for perfection every step of the way.

Mr. Bunselmeyer - who died of a stroke Aug. 11 at 67 - grew up to create the port at Anchorage, build airstrips in Argentina, and lay roads in Washington state.

But he took some interesting detours along the way.

Reared in a small town, he played sandlot baseball with his buddies and continued to play after serving with the Navy Seabees in the Pacific in World War II.

"We tried out for the New York Giants and were invited to a training camp in New Jersey," said a buddy, journalist Don McGaffin. "We played for a semipro team in Montreal one summer. We had a ball and a lot of dates."

But the contract offered was small change. So the men went off to college - Mr. Bunselmeyer to the Associated Colleges of Upper New York for an engineering degree.

"In school, he had the most prodigious, organized mind," McGaffin said. "He was a real catch for the engineering firms. In two days `Bunse' could tell you every bolt, every pound of concrete, every hour of labor needed for a job."

He also worked a year as a police officer to please his mother; her father was a police chief.

But it didn't stick. Mr. Bunselmeyer joined a small engineering firm, then TAMS Consulting, which sent him on jobs around the world.

He came to TAMS' Seattle office in 1963 and settled in Bellevue, where he coached Little League and took the family camping.

"When I played baseball he'd write out all the batting orders," said his son Kurt of Bellevue. "He knew which right-handers to put up against left-handers. He had folders on each player and kept all the information in his computer."

Mr. Bunselmeyer, who retired in 1991, always had the latest computer software. He would call the Microsoft help line and talk for hours.

"He was a typical engineer," said his wife, Evelyn Bunselmeyer of Bellevue. "Everything had to be perfect. He kept working on it until it was."

"He tried to make us perfect as well. He was always trying to make me get organized. I said, `I don't have to because you are,' " she joked.

Other survivors include his children, Glenn Bunselmeyer of Bellevue; Lynn Adams of Salem, Ore.; and Kim Bunselmeyer of Anchorage; and three grandchildren.

Services were held. Remembrances may be made to American Diabetes Association, 577 Roy St., Seattle, WA 98109-4219.