MERNER, R. William "Bill" 1931-2004

MERNER, ECCLES, LECHNER, FERRA, TREROTOLA

Posted By: S. Bell
Date: 5/4/2013 at 23:55:12

R. William "Bill" Merner, 73, of Cedar Falls, Iowa, died at home on Tuesday, April 20, 2004.

Bill was born January 11, 1931 in Cedar Falls, the son of Roland and Jane E. (Eccles) Merner. He married Shirley Lechner on July 17, 1972 in Cedar Falls.

Bill was a 1949 graduate of Cedar Falls High School and graduated from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. He served with the U.S. Army from 1956-57. Bill received his law degree in 1958 from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan and joined his father and grandfather at the law firm of Merner & Merner in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

He is survived by his wife, Shirley Merner, of Cedar Falls; a daughter, Marci (Paul) Merner Ferra, of Newport Richey, Florida; a son, David W. Merner, of Cedar Falls; two grandchildren, Megan and Leah Merner, of Cedar Falls; a sister, Marianna Trerotola, of Waverly and a nephew, John Joseph Trerotola, of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

He was preceded in death by his parents.

Memorial services were 2:00 p.m. Thursday, April 22, 2004, at First United Methodist Church in Cedar Falls. Private interment will be at Greenwood Cemetery.

Memorials may be directed to the Cedar Falls Municipal Band or the Cedar Falls Historical Society.

[Source: Dahl-Van Hove-Schoof Funeral Home]

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Friends remember Bill Merner's legacy

[April 22, 2004 Jon Ericson, Courier Staff Writer]

CEDAR FALLS - Bill Merner came from the kind of stock that built Cedar Falls.

Both his grandfather and father were attorneys. And Merner followed them into the profession.

His grandfather, Will Merner, served two terms as mayor. His father, Roland, served one.

While Bill Merner didn't follow his family into the mayor's seat, he left his own mark on Cedar Falls.

His friends and family today remember him as a great host, a friend of the Cedar River, a man who liked to make people at home and a Cedar Falls guy through and through.

He died Tuesday in his home at the age of 73.

"We've lost kind of an institution. The Merner name was always important to Cedar Falls," said longtime friend Rosemary Beach.

Merner's influence can be felt today in his various causes. He was a longtime supporter of the Cedar Falls Municipal Band, and he worked with the Cedar Falls Historical Society. Merner always loved music and thus had involvement with the Cedar Basin Jazz Festival and the Sturgis Falls Celebration.

But more than organizations, Merner liked people.

John Hansen was friends with Merner since birth. They were baptized together. They grew up on the same block, where they attempted to dazzle the neighbors with the Hansen and Merner Master Magic show, although Hansen admits they never quite became masters.

They would pester their neighbors to support their soda pop stand.

And years later, they would get together at Sturgis Falls with their high school class to tell old stories.

The Sturgis Falls Celebration was created at the Depot restaurant that Bill and his wife, Shirley, owned in the 1970s.

Beach worked as a waitress for the Merners at the Depot when the first Sturgis Falls was planned.

She and Judi Cutler and Tom Klemuk were talking about a summer celebration inside the restaurant.

"We were still talking about it when we walked out, and we decided we could do it," Cutler recalls.

In 1998, Bill and Shirley Merner were the official hosts of Sturgis Falls.

The Depot was like a second home for many people when the Merners ran it.

They bought the run-down old train depot and restored it to become a popular spot for the lunch crowd, happy hour crowd and dinner crowd. To hear Merner's longtime friends speak of the Depot conjures up images of the television show "Cheers" - the type of place where everyone knows your name and everyone feels comfortable. If that were the case, then Merner was Sam.

"He was kind of the listening post when they had the Depot restaurant," Hansen said.

While friends say Bill had a tendency to be a little reserved and private, that didn't mean he wasn't social.

Sturgis Falls isn't the only Cedar Falls institution that can trace roots back to the Depot.

The Cedar Falls Saints Dixieland Band made early appearances at the Depot.

Longtime law partner John Saboth remembers Merner's love for music but that he wasn't particularly skilled with the sticks.

"Bill was not a polished musician, and they moved on from there," Saboth said, remembering the Saints took in a more professional drummer not too long after the band formed. "But when they started, Bill was on the drums."

Saboth and Merner had law offices above two different banks on Main Street in the late '50s and early' 60s. Their firms merged in the late '60s, and they practiced law together thereafter.

To Saboth, Merner's contributions to Cedar Falls were a natural outgrowth of his personality and his upbringing.

"He and his family had been in the community for a long time, and he did the things that people do when they were in the community for a long time," Saboth said.