William Bertus Voortmeyer, Jr. died in Suisun, California on February 8, 2005, at the age of 89. He had a military funeral, and was buried in Mountain View Cemetery, in Oakland, California.

He was born in San Francisco on September 21, 1915, the firstborn son of Captain William Bertus Voortmeyer, Sr., a Master Mariner, and his wife, Bertha. In 1918,the family moved Oakland. Young Bert, as he was known by family and friends, attended the McChesney and Glenview Schools, where he received Honorable Mention in track, crew, baseball, and basketball and was on the champion swimming team. He was also a Class President and 'yell leader.'

In 1931, Bert entered Oakland High School, where he earned Block "O"s in Track and Field, and Football. He was a writer for the Aegis, the school newspaper, which published his stories of his summers on the high seas. His father sent him to sea in the summer of his fifteenth year, and thereafter he loved the life of a sailor. In 1934, he graduated from Oakland High School, voted as "The Boy with the Perfect Physique."

From 1934 to 1936 Bert sailed around the world on small freighters. In 1936, at age 20, he was the youngest member of Pan American Airways' North Haven Expedition to Wake and Midway Islands. He spent ten months on these remote islands bringing cargo across dangerous reefs and building air bases for the first flights across the Pacific Ocean.

On August 20, 1937, he married Eleanor Maker, who had sat behind him in Biology class in 1933, in Oakland High School. Theirs was an enduring romance which produced five daughters and encompassed more than thirty moves to various states and countries during Bert's military and civil service careers.

In 1942, Bert joined the Army as a Second Lieutenant, and spent three years in Australia and New Guinea. In 1962, he retired as a Lt. Colonel, after which he went to work for the Civil Service as a Cargo Specialist, living in Alaska, (during the 1964 earthquake), Stockton, California, and Panama. Throughout his life, he was always associated with ships, always loved travel to exotic lands, always welcomed new experiences and new friends, while cherishing the old. In his last years, he lived in Port Orchard, Washington, and in Rio Vista, California, always near the water and boats.

He is survived by his wife, Eleanor, daughters Carol Nickisher, Patricia Bryte Lynch, Lani Arredondo, Trina Lee, Valerie Crocker, ten grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

As a tribute to her father, his eldest daughter, Carol Nickisher, wrote a book of his adventures on Wake and Midway Islands, entitled Riding the Reef, A Pan American Adventure, With Love, published by Paladwr Press, in 2005.