Bill Moss (Norval William Moss Jr.) passed away quietly in Malad, Idaho on Saturday, September 23, 2017, with his devoted wife of 70 years, Lila Scott Moss, by his side.

Bill was the second child born to Norval William and Isabel Davis Moss. He was born on January 6, 1927, and eventually had three siblings: Glenna, Beth, and Sam. During their childhood, they lived in Malad, Woodruff, Downey, and Ely Nevada. Bill never wanted to live anywhere but in Malad, so when he was in 7th grade, he moved back to Malad to live with his grandmother.

Shortly after he turned 18, Bill was drafted into the Army and sent to Japan and was poised to be among the troops preparing to invade the Japanese homeland. However, because of the deployment of the atomic bomb, that invasion never took place. Instead, he became one of the first of the occupying force after the war. He had already fallen in love with driving and worked as a driver for the commanders in the Japanese theater. After the war, he returned home and sparked a romance with Lila Scott. They were married on November 14, 1947, and eventually had four sons: Norval, John, Ken, and Jim. Their marriage was solemnized in the Logan Temple on March 29, 1965.

Bill loved nothing more than his family. He was building a dairy herd and one of the proudest days of his life was when he pulled up to the barn with his truck sporting a new paint job with a Holstein cow and the words: Bill Moss and Sons Dairy. He farmed and ranched for a number of years before starting his own trucking firm, Moss Trucking. Today, two of his sons, Ken and Jim, still keep that dream of Bill’s alive.

Bill loved being a member of the Veteran’s Honor Guard. Until declining health interfered, Bill would march in every 4th of July Parade, and would participate every Memorial Day in honoring the Veterans in each of the cemeteries in the valley.

When they were first married, Bill and Lila tried the big city life in Salt Lake where he worked for Kennecott and even tried his hand as a taxi driver. However, he was not cut out to be, as he called it, “A sidewalk bum” and they quickly returned to Malad where they slowly built their lives in the valley. They felt they had hit the mother lode when they were able to purchase a dairy farm, which included a home and 30 acres that has become the center of their lives for the past 6 decades.

Bill had an aneurism in his brain in 1975 that changed his life forever. The damage to his brain was great, and he needed to learn how to do almost everything again, including how to walk and talk. Doctors gave him very slim chance of survival at that time, but survive he did. Later he also survived emphysema, a second aneurism, this time on his aorta, an episode of cancer, a stroke, and numerous similar challenges. But he recovered well enough to return to truck driving for another 15 years, long after he had been told by the doctors that he would not survive. This past few weeks, during his final battle with death , it seemed to be more of a gentleman’s agreement that he should not fight quite so hard this time, and let nature finally get a win!

The joys for Bill during his last few years were his wife, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Family has been the key to happiness for him from those very early days after he and Lila married. In addition to their 4 sons, Bill and Lila have 16 grandchildren, and 30 great-grand-children. He was preceded in death by his father and mother, and his younger sister, Beth.

Funeral services will be held on Thursday, September 28 at 12 noon in the Malad LDS 2nd Ward Building, 20 S. 100 W. Friends may visit with the family on Thursday at the Horsley Funeral Home from 10:30-11:30 a.m. Burial will follow in the Malad Cemetery.