William “Bill” Kettles, who pulled himself up by his bootstraps and devoted his life to helping others, died on September 18, 2023 in Colorado Springs, Colo. He was 91.

His son, Gregg, said the cause was myelodysplastic syndrome.

Mr. Kettles joined El Paso Community College in Colorado Springs as Assistant Financial Aid Director in 1972. The College was temporarily housed in a former Safeway supermarket building on the city’s westside, and was affectionately known as “Safeway University.” Mr. Kettles was soon promoted to Financial Aid Director. He was later named Admissions Director. He traveled to high schools inside Colorado and out to recruit students to the College, which had since been renamed Pikes Peak Community College and relocated to a new purposebuilt campus on the city’s southside. High school students and their parents would approach Mr. Kettles to learn about the College. Some parents treated their children as passive actors in the process. Mr. Kettles’ approach was to direct the conversation to the students and draw them out. It was their future after all. Mr. Kettles wanted to make sure their questions were answered.

He left the College in 1985 to become an agent for Bankers Life and Casualty, specializing in life and longterm care insurance. Never shy, he took great pleasure in meeting people in their homes, sitting at the kitchen table, educating them about various types of insurance coverage. “Service doesn’t stop with the sale,” he said. Mr. Kettles regularly advocated on behalf of his clients to ensure that they received the benefits to which they were entitled. He also visited his clients in skilled nursing facilities to make sure they were being treated well. Facility management at first bristled at his attention, but grew to understand that he was helping management deliver the kind of high quality care they wanted to provide. Some of his fellow agents thought Mr. Kettles was wasting his time. “What are you, Bill, an insurance agent or a social worker?” Mr. Kettles believed that if you took good care of the clients you had, more clients would follow.

Mr. Kettles was born in the Roxbury section of Boston, Massachusetts in 1932. His mother, Catherine O’brien, was a second-generation immigrant from Ireland. Mr. Kettles never met his father. Catherine was a domestic servant. Starting at age 12, Mr. Kettles hawked newspapers on street corners and took other odd jobs to help his mother make ends meet. He credits Catherine and Officer Kelly, an Irish-american cop who walked the beat with a nightstick, for keeping him out of serious trouble. Mr. Kettles graduated from Dorchester High School and joined the United States Air Force in 1950. He met and married Lynne “Penny” (Greene) Kettles, who was also serving in the Air Force, in 1955. They raised two children, Tracey and Gregg. Mr. Kettles spent most of his 22-year Air Force career in education, first serving as a drill instructor, and eventually running programs to help enlisted men and women earn college credits no matter where they happened to be stationed. Mr. Kettles taught the first Air Force Academy class at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado while the Academy’s Colorado Springs campus was under construction.

He retired from the Pentagon in 1972, moved to Colorado Springs, and began taking classes in public administration at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Mr. Kettles’ instructors urged him to drop out, telling him that he already knew everything they could teach him, and that he should take a job in higher education administration. He took their advice. Mr. Kettles did not finish work on his own college degree, which he earned at Regis University, for another 20 years.

Mr. Kettles was a member of Downtown Colorado Springs Rotary for 50 years, serving as club president in the 1990s. Penny, his wife of 64 years, died in 2019. He is survived by his son, Gregg, and two grandchildren. His daughter, Tracey, died in 2008.

Mr. Kettles found it most rewarding when he saw people he knew as students—whether in basic training or at community college—had eventually earned college degrees and enjoyed successful careers. Though ever outgoing, Mr. Kettles shied away from taking any credit for their success. He was once approached by a colonel in the Pentagon.“don’t I know you from somewhere?” the colonel asked. Mr. Kettles recalled that he taught the colonel in basic training years before. But he didn’t let on. “No Sir, I don’t think so. But nice to meet you, Sir.”