The Man Who Collected the World

“All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson American essayist, poet and philosopher

Editors Note: You may recognize Bill, our resident travel writer who started contributing to PCM a little less than a year ago. Bill passed away in June of this year, and this story is the first of a two-part tribute to his amazing life, and some of the projects that were special to him. We are so grateful for his contributions to our magazine, to our community and to our world.

What do we remember about people we knew once they are gone? The wealth of memories of those who knew Bill Lawter during his rich and full life are almost overwhelming in their abundance. Lawter certainly had a life to celebrate—because he celebrated life while he lived it.

Of course, his early life is important. He was raised by a loving, but modest family. They made up in family life what they didn’t have in money. During that time, the Lawter family instilled work ethics and family values that would stay with him forever.

Lawter was a long-term employee of Conoco, and they brought him to our community in 1971 after his second graduate degree. He had first obtained a BS in Chemistry and Biology from Baker University in 1967, which is where he met the love of his life, his wife of 57 years, Susan. Next up was earning his Juris Doctorate in 1970 from Washburn University School of Law. He also earned a Master of Law in taxation from New York University. He began a 30-year career with Conoco after this degree, and even though he began and ended up in Ponca City, he lived in Connecticut, Houston and Delaware while with the company.

Having been an exchange student in England during college, Bill had already discovered he loved to travel. While there, he saw much of Europe and north Africa. While at Conoco, he traveled to Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq and lived in Nigeria, Angola and Egypt for extended periods of time.

He loved being busy, and after he retired, he started Write Communications with two colleagues. He, Phyllis Larson and Phil Cobb began the professional communications company using their vast knowledge of benefits and other professional needs of companies who contracted with them. Phyllis remembers being approached by Bill saying, “We are bored,” and that began a company they ran from 2002-16. His friend Phyllis says Bill was “inquisitive and wanted to learn everything.” Mostly she remembers how he cared about people and was always willing to help, usually anonymously, when others had needs. She says, “He changed a lot of people’s lives.”

Friend Vince O’Brien is one of those lives he changed just by being his comrade in many endeavors. O’Brien says, “What defined Bill was his character. He carried a massive, brilliant intellect wrapped in a fierce sense of loyalty and integrity.”

Vince was able to join Bill on many of his trips and was part of the travels and research for the book Smokey Bear 20252: A Biography, a book that began from a trip to Capitan, New Mexico, where he became enamored with the story of the bear. Not Smokey the Bear. First name Smokey. Last name Bear. For those who do not know, the 20252 ZIP code that is part of the title was created by the U.S. Postal Service in 1964 because there were so many letters being mailed to Smokey. A bear cub was saved from a forest fire in 1950 and became the living representation of Smokey, who lived at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Lawter meticulously researched Smokey Bear and, after publishing the book, spoke at events for organizations supporting the Smokey Bear Historical Park, the Village of Capitan and the Smokey Bear Hometown Association. Once you were Bill’s friend, you stayed friends and often became family.

Although daughter Allison explains how Bill collected people even more than interesting items from all his travels, friend O’Brien says, “Above all his travels, titles and accomplishments, his greatest devotion was the love that lit up his face whenever he spoke of his wife and daughter.” They were a very close family, and Susan and Allison were left with a multitude of memories.

Many of those memories involve travel that included them—his favorite travel partner was his wife—and others that were on his own or with friends. While most people have one bucket list, Bill had seven just for travel goals. It was said he would be in the middle of one trip planning the next. And there were rules. He had developed “Ye Olde Packing List” that varied depending on the type of trip; however, you could only pack one bag and it had to fit under the seat on flights. Layovers only counted toward meeting his goals if he left the airport and stomped on the ground. Always get a local guide (remember, he wanted to meet people and see the real culture of those where he visited).

One list was to make it to all 50 states (completed in abundance); to make it to 100 foreign countries (he hit over 200); publish travel articles (he did so in 65 newspapers and magazines); visit the top 25 Civil War battlefields (completed in 2018), presidential homes and libraries (by 2021 he’d visited all 112 major presidential sites), and national parks (completed 2022); and see a football game in all 135 NCAA Division I stadiums. An interesting part of this that helps us see who Bill Lawter really is, is that he almost never purchased a ticket to those ballgames!

The ballgame trips began during a good season for OSU, starting with traveling to other stadiums when they played. His first taste of local hospitality came with Iowa State when he was invited to eat with a group of dignitaries. It led Bill to wonder how it would be to travel to stadiums where he had “no dog in the hunt.” So, he began trips across the country, making his way to the tailgating with his downhome attitude, and as Allison says, “Inevitably someone would offer him a ticket—usually free.” He often ended up on the 50-yard line, or in a donor’s or the university president’s suite, and even had access down on the field. He was everyone’s friend, even those he’d only just met.

Bill’s interests were vast. He loved music and playing the guitar, even attending a Kingston Trio fantasy camp and playing with surviving members of the group. He loved art and spent considerable time in numerous museums all over the world. He kept to-do lists along with his travel bucket lists, and that seems to be how he managed to fit in so much all through his life. Allison remembers many projects over the years, like the Eiffel Tower made entirely out of toothpicks and the dollhouse he spent years making for her that was based on a southern plantation. She also remembers how much he loved to read, usually having two or three books going at once, and that he designed and installed built-in bookcases in every house they lived in over the years. Everything was always done to perfection.

Bill was a very present dad in Allison’s life, and he was a loving and devoted husband. Having been raised by parents who encouraged him to pursue his own interests, he and Susan did the same for their daughter. He is certainly a product of those who raised him. Having grown up in a big family on a tight budget but who always had room at the table for one more, Bill showed this same compassion as he helped others and made friends all over the world.

Friend Phyllis says Bill wanted “everyone to be able to do the things that enriched them.” He certainly lived this way. If you are looking for a way to honor Bill, find one of those enriching activities and act on it. His family and good friends realize that is what he would want for everyone. Even his obituary ends with the idea of donating to a local charity (he believed your time and money was best spent with local organizations, and he was active in many over the years), or “getting out to see the world in Bill’s honor, even if it’s just a day trip to someplace you’ve never been.” My question for you is, “What will you do to enrich yourself today?”