William Gary Forman

William (Bill) Gary Forman was born in February, 1950 in Chicago, Illinois to Jean Belle Muchman Forman and Morris Harry Forman. The second son of two boys, his family life started in Chicago. When he was three, his parents and his older brother, Hal, left the bitter cold of Chicago and moved to Long Beach, CA. It was here in beautiful, sunny California that would shape the first three decades of Bill’s colorful life.
It was a yellow Buick Special convertible that defined Bill’s late teen years. Being the oldest of his friends, he often drove the ‘party car’. At 29 cents a gallon, he and his friends partied in Palm Springs, surfed their way around Crescent Bay in Laguna Beach, and sang along to all of the “Summer in the City” songs. Having the Beach Boys living in their neighborhood was also an added plus.
Moving from a Buick Special to a Camaro in 1970, Bill ended up in Las Vegas with a friend who was able to get them comped tickets; front row-center to see Elvis perform live. Thus began Bill’s love of rock-n-roll and a colorful full life that followed.
During his youth, Bill played either first or third base on the Long Beach DeMolay softball team where his dad served as coach. Bill later served as the Senior Councilor in the Long Beach DeMolay Chapter providing service to their community.
Bill graduated from Millikan High School (1968) and Long Beach State (1974) where he majored in Political Science. He was an active member of Temple Israel Long Beach and was Bar Mitzvahed in 1963.
It was when Bill was working in the insurance industry that his best friend, Gene Day, set him up on a blind date to meet the love of his life, Paula. Of course, they meet at a rock concert. It was at the Hollywood Bowl where The Band was the featured act. Their second date was to the Grateful Dead on October 14, 1976 at the Shrine Auditorium; and as they say, the rest is history. Bill and Paula were married 45 years as they danced and sang their way through the music of their era.
In 1979, Bill and Paula moved to Springfield, Oregon where Bill continued his work as a claim’s adjustor for Allstate Insurance and Paula worked as a Respiratory Therapist at McKenzie – Willamette Hospital. They spent 21 years exploring the beautiful forests, lakes, trails and mountains of Oregon.
It was in the fall of 1990 when Bill and Paula moved to Utah. Bill worked for Equis International as a customer support manager for many years. The quickly growing company had “rock star” leadership and company culture. One year as a reward, they paid for a cruise to the western Caribbean, where Bill found more of his famous “tie die” t-shirts. They gave wonderful bonuses and bought everyone an airplane ticket to anywhere they wanted in the world. Bill and Paula chose Maui, Hawaii as their next favorite “stopping grounds” where two sets of lifelong friends, (Joan & Spencer and Mark & Katie) owned property. They spent many vacations in Maui; exploring and enjoying the flora and fauna of the Hawaiian Islands.
One of Bill’s greatest accomplishments was the 15 years of service he gave to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah. As Vice President of the Donation Center in Holliday, he was able to greatly increase donations in order to provide mentoring services for the “Bigs” and “Littles” throughout the greater Salt Lake valley. He attended many years of “Bowl for Kids’ Sake” fund raisers, teaching his nieces how to have fun and do service in the community as well.
Bill had many hobbies throughout his life, which included listening and dancing to rock-n-roll music, travelling, cross-country skiing, camping, watching all kinds of sports, and recently attending live concerts at Red Butte Garden.
He is survived by his wife, Paula, brother, Hal Forman, and many loved and treasured nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents; Jean Belle Muchman Forman and Morris Harry Forman along with an Uncle, Harry Muchman (Ava) and an Aunt, Mary Hollowick (Harold).
A drop in Remembrance/Celebration of Life will be held at Mountain View Memorial Estates located at 3115 East 7800 South (Bengal Blvd) in Cottonwood Heights, Utah from 10 am-12 Noon on September 10, 2022. A luncheon will be served after the Remembrance at the Cottonwood Heights 4th Ward located at 2522 East 6710 South, Cottonwood Heights, UT.
In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to Big Brother Big Sisters of Utah in the name of Bill Forman, or make a donation to your favorite charity.
Street Directions to the Mortuary and Cottonwood Heights 4th Ward as Fort Union Blvd will be closed from 7 am – 2 pm on this day for a marathon.
Directions to the Mortuary
1. From 900 East and 7225 South (South Union Avenue), go east on South Union Avenue. Stay on this street.
2. Go to the stop light at 1300 East; here South Union Avenue turns into Creek Road.
3. Go east on Creek Road to Highland Drive; which will be the first stop light.
4. Turn left on Highland Drive and stay in the right-hand lane.
5. At the top of the hill, the second stop light, there is a righthand turn lane; take this righthand turn and proceed onto Bengal Blvd.
6. After turning right, stay on Bengal Blvd until you arrive at Memorial Mountain Estates; approximately 3300 East.
Directions to Cottonwood Heights 4th Ward
1. From the funeral home turn left onto Bengal Blvd. (7800 South)
2. Proceed east through the four way stop to the first stop light, which is Wasatch Blvd.
3. Turn left onto Wasatch Blvd. and go north to Fort Union Avenue and Big Cottonwood Canyon Road.
4. Here you may need to stop for a runner in the marathon. Continue north on Wasatch Blvd.
5. This street will turn west and go under I-215. This street will become 6200 South. DO NOT get on the freeway.
6. Continue west on 6200 South to 2300 East.
7. At 2300 East, turn left and go south to 6710 South, which will be on your left.
8. Turn left on 6710 South and go east to the church which is located at 2522 East 6710 South.
 
The following are remembrances of Bill from a friend of his:
Mrs. Jean Forman and Mrs. Polly Alevy were members of “Young Matrons,” a organization at Temple Israel of Long Beach made up of young mothers of Baby Boomer kids in the late 1940s and early 1950s. They were both very active in the group. Back then, expectant mothers didn’t have large maternity wardrobes…usually just a “baby bump” smock or jumper or two. As there was a “succession” of post-war babies being born into the Temple family, these babies were literally “under” the same clothing that was passed from mother-to-be to mother-to-be. So naturally, several of us in our Tenth Grade Confirmation Class (and Bar Mitzvah classes) were “Babies of the Traveling Smock” because our moms all carried us under the same shared clothing – so as one baby was born, the clothing was passed on to another expectant mom and then the next. It included Billy, me, Dan Spellens, Terry Lapid and others we grew up with.
Bill and I first met in kindergarten class at Temple Israel Religious School in 1954. I was a typically bratty four-year-old and because Bill wore glasses, I called him four-eyes. It wasn’t very nice but we soon became pals despite my insensitive and dumb name. I never forgave myself. And four years later, when I had to get prescription glasses myself, Bill was the first friend I wanted to show my “four-eyes,” so I asked my parents to drive by the Forman home on Knoxville to show Billy that I too was now a “four-eyes.” We laughed about that for years.
Bill was fascinated with how happy being in DeMolay made me (and Gene Day). He came to a couple of our softball and basketball games and one of our parties and decided he wanted to join. So around 1966 I signed his application along with Gene, and his Dad was his Masonic sponsor. He became active and served as one of our Preceptors (part of the ritual team during meetings) right off the bat. A year later, we brought John Eagle into Long Beach Chapter too. It was and still is a strong bond.
When my sister got married in 1967, we had a lot of family from New York staying at our home. My dad, who was a letter carrier, borrowed a small trailer from a friend on his mail route and parked it on the patio in our backyard. It became Bill and my “Bachelor Pad” for several days as we were on winter break from our senior year of high school. Oh my – did we have a ball! My sister bought some beers for us (without our parents knowing) and we laughed for days. Then on the night of her wedding, Bill and I drove my Dad home (only time I ever saw him inebriated) and put him to bed, then proceeded to the trailer, where a case of champagne was waiting for us. We played music tapes and drank enough (way past midnight) that we thought it would be a fun idea to “christen” the trailer by breaking several bottles of the bubbly on the side of the trailer. What a mess!
Bill and I enjoyed playing on the Long Beach DeMolay softball team. Bill’s dad was our coach. He had played softball as a youth in Chicago and knew the game well. He wanted “speed up the middle” so he had me play shortstop, put Buzzard (John Eagle) in center field and Billy (who wasn’t the fastest guy on the team but had sure hands) played first base and sometimes third base. Sunday games were super fun and we picnicked or hung out for hours afterwards – sometimes with our parents and girls we knew watching from the stands. Bill helped me spray paint my baseball cleats white!
Bill turned 16 before Gene Day, me and a lot of our friends….so his hand-me-down yellow Buick Special convertible was our go-to way to get around. There were dozens of trips down the coast to Crescent Bay in Laguna Beach for full days of body surfing and surf football (played half on the sand and half in the breaking surf). The drives were so much fun, especially when the radio played “top down, summer in the city” and other summer music. And we ALWAYS chipped in for gas at 29 cents a gallon!
The most interesting “yellow convertible” story was Easter (or Spring) Break when we were high school seniors. My girlfriend and some of her HS sorority sisters were among the thousands who rented motel rooms in Palm Springs and enjoyed a week of hellraising and frivolity. We didn’t want to be left out of the action, so four of us we decided to drive over to Palm Springs for the day. We left early, got there before noon, hung out at the pool with my girlfriend (who had been in our confirmation class) and her friends, and then went “cruising” up and down the two main boulevards in Palm Springs, with the top down, of course! With Bill driving, we thought it would be fun to sit on the top of the back seat “parade style,” waving to everyone around. No harm…but a policeman pulled us over and wrote a ticket to Bill for allowing passengers to sit in an unsafe manner. Needless to say, Dad and Mom Forman were NOT pleased when we got home to Long Beach, and because Bill was under 18, his Dad had to take a day off from his shop to attend traffic court with Bill all the way back in Palm Springs. The next week (after Mom Forman grounded Billy for the week), Bill’s Dad pulled us aside at the house on Knoxville and, glancing back toward the house to make sure his wife wasn’t in ear shot, laughed out loud and told us it was a great prank.
Another fun car trip was during our junior year in college in 1970. I was at USC and Bill was back home from U. of Wyoming at Long Beach State. Bill had returned after his father passed away to help his mom. It was Spring semester and we both were a little antsy, and Bill was driving his new Camaro…so we decided to drive to Las Vegas for a few days. Great drive, and once you passed the state line, you could speed up quite a bit. I had a 2-for-1 coupon at the Sahara Hotel, and we checked in around 2 or 3pm and then we went to the International Hotel, where Elvis Presley was appearing. We played a few hands of Blackjack and Bill went to the rest room. All of a sudden, Col. Tom Parker (Elvis’ manager) slipped into the vacant seat. Friendly guy. He struck up a conversation, I told him that I worked part-time at KUSC (the student radio station at USC) and told him I was doing a “rockumentary” about Elvis (okay…so I told a little fib…). So the Colonel took my name, and told Bill and I that he would have comped seats for us for the midnight show that night. We showed up at 11:30pm and the Maitre D escorted us to seats dead center of the stage and immediately next to it – so we could actually rest our arms on the stage! Closest view of the six times I saw Elvis perform live. Billy was speechless. And after the show, we went to Foxy’s Restaurant on the Strip at 2am and had Monte Cristo sandwiches.
DeMolay conventions each summer were a ton of fun. Our first one together was in Long Beach at the Lafayette Hotel, and then a couple of times at the Riviera Hotel in Palm Springs (where we knew not to ride on the back of the rear seat!). One summer 6-8 of us went to the Colorado River ahead of the convention and stayed in a riverside cabin owned by Gene Day’s parents. We took a few vehicles, plus food and beer for several days. We skied all day using the Day’s boat, played cards at night and generally had a wonderful time. We were pretty tired out when we hit Palm Springs for the convention afterward. What a great group of guys – so many were really close friends then and for a long time.
Soon after Bill returned to Long Beach from Wyoming, there were some issues at the DeMolay Chapter and the Masonic advisors found us in need of some new leadership. Three of them brought Gene Day, Bill and myself into an ante room and sat us down before a chapter meeting. We looked at each other thinking “what in the heck did we do wrong now?” But the lead advisor, Bob McLaren, looked at us with a stern look and said, pointing to us one at a time…(to Gene) “the new Master Counselor” (and then to Bill) Senior Counselor” (and then to me) “Junior Counselor.” Just like that, we were the new leadership of the oldest DeMolay Chapter in the area. And we didn’t let them down. We appointed guys we could count on like John Eagle, Dan Spellens, Gary Ashcraft and Bill Bland to offices and had a few of the best years the Chapter ever had.
Paula, as I look back at these memories I am struck by how many have passed on…and it saddens me but brings back some wonderful memories. The day we found Gene Day was one of the worst ever. We’ve lost Darryl Davis, Dan Spellens, Bill Bland (I think), Phil Nameth and others who were a big part of our lives…not to mention our parents (who we shared quite literally). These are just some of the memories I have – but they are endless. Neither of us had to knock on the door at each other’s homes, and we always kept a change of clothes in the trunks of our cars. There was always room for another place at the dinner table.
Service Information

Memorial Service
September 10, 2022 at 10:00 AM
Memorial Mountain View Mortuary