Blast From The Past — 3/3/1988

Twenty-five years ago, I wrote about the change in leadership at the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations:

“The Rev. Bill Wassmuth once joked that he was asked to be leader of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations because he was single and live in a brick house. That was before a pipe bomb exploded at the rear entrance to his home on Sept. 15, 1986. Coeur d’Alene attorney Norm Gissel isn’t single and doesn’t live in a brick house. But he, too, counted the cost before accepting his unanimous endorsement Wednesday by the task force board as Wassmuth’s successor. “I thought about the potnetial (for violence),” Gissel, 47, said after the 90-minute meeting at Wassmuth’s St. Pius X Catholic Church. “The history of civil rights in America has been a history of violence.” Complete story here . (1997 SR file photo of Bill Wassmuth)

DFO: This is continuing the series I just began re: looking back at the news I’ve covered in the last 29 years in Coeur d’Alene.

Question: How many of you knew Bill Wassmuth? Thoughts?