In the Centennial Year of the Congressional Passage of the 19^th Amendment.”  Bill will share stories of  some of Tacoma’s most notable “Woman of Destiny” from Thea Foss--to arguably the most improbable Olympic gold medalist in modern history—Tacoma’s own Gretchen Kunigk Fraser. Some remarkable stories of  personal achievements and how that defined our City. 

Bill was born and raised in Tacoma, graduated from Stadium and attended the University of Puget Sound where he received a BA degree in political science in 1964. After graduation, he became the first Tacoma student to receive a Scottish Rite Masonic Fellowship for graduate study at George Washington University in Washington D.C.

In 1968, he accepted a faculty position at the University of Puget Sound where he taught courses in political science, business management, public administration and urban studies.

In 1991, he was elected to the Tacoma Council as an at-large council member. Since the council position was part-time, he continued his career at UPS where he established the public administration program. In 2001, Bill retired from UPS upon being elected Tacoma’s 37^th mayor.

During Bill’s terms as council member and mayor, Tacoma participated in the successful completion of the Museum of Glass, the Tacoma Art Museum, the restoration of Union Station, the Murray Morgan Bridge, the Seaport Museum, the Albers Mill and the environmental cleanup of the Foss Waterway. The University of Washington -Tacoma became a four-year undergraduate institution during his tenure as mayor. Tacoma also constructed the largest municipally owned telecommunications system in North America (Click network).

Bill is now retired and volunteers as the president of the Tacoma Historical Society and as a board member for several non-profits. He and his wife Carol live in Tacoma’s North End. He has a son, Bill, a daughter, Katya, and three grandchildren.

Gabriel Bringman comes from Saltsjobaden, STOCKHOLM, Sweden. He is 17 years old. His father, Magnus is an engineer and his mother, Cecilia, is a physiotherapist. Gabriel has a brother, Jakob, 24 and a sister, Lovisa, 21 both at university. This young man is English fluent and studies German as well. He loves a wide variety of sports including golf, soccer, kickboxing and skiing. He also loves coaching the sport of Floorball in his town.“I’ve visited Antelope Canyon in the US which definitely was a highlight for the …beautiful narrow paths combined with amazing stone walls. When I swam with whale sharks in Tanzania and dove in the beautiful coral reef was one of my favorite moments.”  Gabriel is a good student; friendly, thrifty and curious. He may study engineering but is curious about being an entrepreneur. Gabriel is eager to join your family and bring some joy from Swedish culture to our Tacoma host families.

• There are about 1.6 million new cases of cancer in the U.S each year
• 600,000 deaths
• Prostate cancer is most common for men and breast cancer most common for women
• Over the last 15 years, survival rates have increased by 15% due to better screening, risk reduction and better treatment
• The South Sound Care Foundation was founded in order to bring leading treatments and clinical trials to Tacoma and the surrounding region and to continue pushing down the path to a cure.
• CAR T-cell therapy is a form of immunotherapy that uses specially altered T cells — a part of the immune system — to fight cancer. A sample of a patient's T cells are collected from the blood, then modified to produce special structures called chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) on their surface. When these CAR T cells are reinfused into the patient, the new receptors enable them to latch onto a specific antigen on the patient's tumor cells and kill them.