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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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Longtime Vancouver attorney dies at 82

Bill Boettcher was bar association president, a mentor to many

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A longtime Vancouver attorney and former bar association president, William “Bill” C. Boettcher, has died.

He died at 3:45 p.m. Wednesday while under hospice care at the Hampton & Ashley Inn Alzheimer’s Community in Vancouver. He was 82.

His cause of death was not immediately clear, according to the medical examiner’s office. He suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and also had heart issues.

A lawyer since 1953, Boettcher operated a successful law firm in Vancouver for decades, specializing in personal injury law, said his former law partner, James Ladley, Boettcher also represented businesses clients.

He was a past president of the Clark County Bar Association.

“Bill was a leader. There was no question,” Ladley said Thursday. “He was a big factor in the Clark County Bar Association for many years.”

“Bill was a mentor for a lot of people,” Ladley added. “I think that’s a good word for him: He was a mentor.”

Retired in 2008

During his lengthy legal career — he didn’t retired until 2008 — Boettcher worked alongside several lawyers who went on to become judges, including Ladley and another of his law partners, Tom Lodge.

In 1965, the law firm Boettcher and Lodge merged with Ladley’s firm, LaLonde and Ladley.

Boettcher became The Columbian’s chief legal counsel in the 1970s and 1980s, handling contract and general legal work. He was good friends with the newspaper’s former publisher, Don Campbell.

Mason Nolan, The Columbian’s retired chief financial officer, said Boettcher had a way of winning people over.

“He could make magic,” Nolan said. “He could talk to strangers and get them to become clients.”

A lifelong Vancouver resident, Boettcher attended Vancouver High School (located at Fourth Plain and Main streets, it later became Fort Vancouver High School) and received his law degree from the University of Washington.

He served in the U.S. Air Force in the early 1950s, Ladley said.

Boettcher is survived by his wife, Joan, and his three grown children, William Jr., Charles and Becky Weis.

A memorial service has yet to be announced.

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