William “Bill” Andrew Ceci was born on February 10th, 1945 in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. A third generation, working class Italian American bred on the streets of Southern California, Bill spent his early days playing baseball with his brother and soliciting bets at Hollywood Park. Entrepreneurial from the start, he took gigs keeping score at bowling alleys and running his own paper route at 11 years old. His strong-willed, competitive, and mischievous spirit, along with a complicated home life, led him away from school and into the revolving door of the California Youth Authority throughout his young adult years. During his final bid he recalled fighting forest fires for .50 cents a day before he was released and swept up into a young love that made him change his ways. 

He married his first wife and started a family in 1967, settling with their two children and dog in Claremont. Bill apprenticed in electrical and tile trades. Working hard to set himself apart, he joined the union and established his very own multigenerational family business. Ceci Tile would go on to train and hire many over the years, completing countless projects from a waterfall in Century City Mall to an Olympic sized swimming pool in Brentwood. Not to mention the houses of Lucille Ball, Jimmy Durant, and Paul Michael Glaser. 

Dubbed the happiest years of his life, Bill coached his son’s little league teams and played board games with his daughter every weekend. He would later go on to persevere through years of heartbreak triggered by the dissolution of his first marriage. Ultimately, Bill would travel thousands of miles across all but 3 continental states in the US for work, grow his family through a second marriage and divorce, and take an active role in the lives of his 5 grandchildren throughout his later years,  cherishing the opportunity to walk his eldest granddaughter down the aisle at her wedding in 2022. 

Grandpa Bill was a beloved and consistent presence infusing dependability and all things sports, spaghetti and meatballs, fun and games into the lives of all who took the time to appreciate him. Underneath a fiery and stubborn exterior was a gentle and sensitive soul who humbly sought life’s simple joys and pleasures. He passed away just 3 days shy of his 79th birthday the night of February 7, 2024. Wild Bill is remembered by all for the warm and inexhaustible sparkle in his eye.