Prolific writer, world traveler, beloved patriarch

William “Bill” Vos of Claremont, California died of pulmonary failure at the Claremont Manor Care Center on July 21, 2013. He was 89 years old.

Mr. Vos was born on October 19, 1923 in Santa Monica, California to John and Winifred Vos. He spent his early childhood in Santa Monica and, upon his marriage, moved to Pacific Palisades where he lived for 37 years.

He was employed in advertising, first as an advertising salesman for the Santa Monica Evening Outlook and later as the advertising manager for that newspaper’s group of weekly newspapers. He later was the advertising director for the Westward Ho Markets grocery chain in West Los Angeles for 19 years.

After his retirement, he moved to Penn Valley (Lake Wildwood) in the Sierra Nevada foothills of northern California. He moved to Claremont Manor in 2000.

Along with his wife Eleanor, Mr. Vos once owned and operated Four Corners Travel, a travel agency in West Los Angeles. Later they established a special-interest tour company, “Woolcraft Holiday Tours,” organized to take wool spinners and weavers to specialized locations. This interest led to extensive travel and they visited 69 countries, including the southernmost city in the world, Ushuaia, Argentina, and the northernmost city in the world, Honningsvag, Norway, above the Arctic Circle. Through their travels, Mr. and Mrs. Vos made friends all over the world. Mr. Vos has written extensively about their unusual travels and had a collection of more than 30,000 color slides documenting their travels.

Mr. Vos was past president of the Santa Monica Junior Chamber of Commerce, past president of the West Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and a former member of the Santa Monica 20-30 Club and the Westwood Village Rotary Club. He was also a member of the Presbyterian churches in all of the communities where he lived in California.

He is survived by his two sons and a daughter-in-law, Richard Vos and Nicole Hamon of Claremont, California, and John Vos of Corte Madera, California. He was grandfather to Eric, Carl, Olivia, Nicholas and Skylar Vos.

Memorial services and a celebration of Mr. Vos’ life will be conducted on Saturday, October 19 at 2 p.m. in Manor Hall of the Claremont Manor, 650 W. Harrison Ave. in Claremont. In keeping with Mr. Vos’ wishes, memorial contributions may be made to the Charitable Care Fund of VNA Hospice of Southern California, 150 W. First St., Suite 270, Claremont, CA 91711 (online at www.vnasocal.org).