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Oregon Trucking Associations, Inc.
Oregon Truck Dispatch
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES
high as the 30-foot ceiling. Bill keeps
daily office hours, and occasionally
hosts veterans’ association functions
and tours of his collection.
Bill doesn’t live in the past—he
usually wants to talk about his current
interest, serving in an Honor Guard
for military burials at Willamette
National Cemetery. He helped
officiate in almost 400 burials in the
last few years.
On the other hand, he’s interested in
history because he has seen quite a bit
of it. He plans to write a book,
documenting some of the giants he
has known in the trucking industry. A
look at the murals on the walls of
Bill’s Place underlines the point. Some
of the pictures are military and
patriotic, but an enormous section of
wall is devoted to his involvement in
the trucking industry.
Over the years, Bill has worked at a
regional level with Oregon Draymen
and Warehousemen’s Association and
with Oregon Short Haul Carriers. He
enjoyed the regional focus, meeting
governors, senators, and State and
Federal regulators as they came and
went, but it’s revealing to know what
he did when he stepped down.
What about those beautiful cars in his
collection? Whenever possible,
instead of having them shipped, Bill
drove them home—alone, from New
England or the Midwest—getting to
know the cars, and savoring those
long and solitary hours behind the
wheel.
…Like an old-time trucker.
Bill retired when the company was
sold, and his son Todd, who had
started moving trucks in the
Reddaway yard as soon as his feet
could reach the pedals, served as
President of Reddaway for six years
under TNT ownership.
Bill didn’t slow down much in
retiremen—he simply changed
directions. He had started a car
collection, and wanted to spend more
time with it. As a World War II &
Korea veteran—survivor might be a
better word—he wanted to become
involved with military veterans’
associations. He wanted to collect
some pictures. All of those goals have
been realized in a warehouse space
known simply as Bill’s Place,
containing (at the moment) 18
pristine cars and displaying murals as