William Dries
November 04, 1930 - August 10, 2018
Obituary
MADISON- William C. Dries passed away and joined the stars on Friday, Aug. 10, 2018, in Madison. He was born in Milwaukee on Nov. 4, 1930. He attended UW-Madison and received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and his Master’s degree and Ph.D. in Metallurgical Engineering. William served in the U.S. Army for two years during the Korean War and was honorably discharged in 1955. He was an accomplished engineer and businessman with his company, Dries Associates, in Middleton, offering consulting services to industry, architects, and government agencies. William worked as program coordinator for the UW- Department of Engineering Professional Development and taught at UW-Madison and around the globe. He served as an alderman and president of the Madison City Council for six years during the turbulent 1960s. He traveled the world sharing his professional expertise and congenial personality. William had a gift for making lifelong friends everywhere he went, from the shores of the Black Sea to the Arabian Peninsula, from Europe to India to Mexico. He had a love of music and sang with the Madison Maennerchor and played classical guitar. William loved vintage cars and restored vintage radios. A good listener and storyteller, he was a student of history and wrote and published several technical and fiction books through his company Badger Books. A lover of nature, William was never without a vegetable garden. He was a kind and patient father and an honorable and chivalrous man. William is survived by his dear friend, Nancy Dolan; son, Eric Dries and his wife, Pamela Madsen, and their daughter, Annika; daughter, Laurie Dries and her husband, Thomas Wilcox; son, David Dries and his wife, Anna and their children, Maximillian and Leonardo; brother, Robert Dries; and sisters, Donna Coughlin and Virgie Nickels. All are welcome to attend a Life Celebration picnic that will be held at FESTGE PARK, 4894 Scherbel Rd., Cross Plains, Shelter No.2 from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 17, 2018. Acoustic musical instruments are welcome. In lieu of flowers, please consider donations to the Prostate Cancer Fund, www.pcf.org or a charity of your choice. Online condolences may be made at www.gundersonfh.com.
Gunderson West
Funeral & Cremation Care
7435 University Ave
608-831-6761
Events
Celebration of Life
Fri Aug 17, 2018 @ 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM CDT
Festge Park • 4894 Scherbel Rd., Shelter #2, Cross Plains, WI 53528
Photos
No photos of William have been shared yet.
Memories
KS
Kewal Saluja
Other •
Bill arranged a course on Testing and Testable design for Prof Kime and I
(plus another invited lecturer from the industry)
to teach in Munich. We taught that course for a number of years in the 90's during
summers. It was a short course that ran for three days. Bill always joined us for those three days.
Just about every evening after teaching the course during the day, Bill and us three instructors
will go around the city or see some places. We would then have dinner together and it was indeed
a lot of fun to be with Bill. We would normally have wine or bear with our meals. But at one
time, I wanted to have just tap water with my meal. So, I asked Bill to order a glass of
water for me. Oh forgot to mention that Bill was the only person among four of us who spoke German
so we always depended on him to ask things for us. So back to asking for a glass of tap water - well
Bill refused to order water for me. On my insistence, he said that the literal translation of
"tap water" in German would be "gutter water" and he could possible not ask for gutter water
for me. That is how all four of us had gutter water with our meals that evening.
Kewal Saluja
Emeritus Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering,
UW Madison, WI
Ph: (608) 831-1566