Eighty years ago he was christened Walter Baumgartner (but changed his name to William in 1993). As a child and as a teenager in Bavaria, he felt closer to truth when out skiing the Alps or mountain climbing than when sitting bored in school. His school teachers, exasperated at his constant questioning, quoted books written by authorities. “But you always search;” he told me. “You have a feeling something is not right in this whole scientific edifice.” He nevertheless went on to get a mechanical engineering degree from Technisches Institute in Zurich, Switzerland.

His love of nature led to a dream of living off the land in a trapper’s hut in northern Canada, so he emigrated in 1954. The dream gave way to the immigrant’s reality of working in a sawmill on Vancouver island and studying English on the side. Then he landed a job as an electrician on power dam projects which paid high wages to young men who worked long hours and didn’t question the environmental wisdom of hydro power. British Columbia’s frenzy of river-damming was then in full flood. Later he would read books such as Living Water, a biography of Austrian naturalist Viktor Schauberger, and see the importance of letting a river run naturally in unfettered spiraling movements. At that later time also he learned that there are workable alternatives to hydro dams or polluting sources of energy...

Full article: http://changingpower.net/articles/w-baumgartner-will-be-missed/

Also, check Jerry Decker's memory of Walter: http://www.keelynet.com/#whatsnew