THE JOURNAL TIMES : November, 2002
Out of the Fire
After almost dying in an accident, Bill Ester is still chasing his dreams
By Pete Wicklund
On a family vacation as a youth, Bill Ester saw Mount Rainier and told himself he had to climb it. He did at age 18. A couple of decades later he climbed all 14,411 feet again. This time it was two years after he nearly died in a fiery tank truck accident.
Having worked as an accountant, truck driver, furniture refinisher and even as a successful ice cream vendor, Ester is a man who is no stranger to risk and challenge and chasing dreams. These days he's spreading his message through his work on the motivational speakers' circuit.
After looking for his niche for several years, Ester was planning on leaving a part-time job as a fuel tanker driver when on May 28, 1994, the tanker he was driving rolled on the Highway 45 on-ramp near Good Hope Road in northwest Milwaukee.
As the tank hit the ground, it ruptured. Soon the tanker, just filled with 8500 gallons of fuel, and the truck cab were engulfed in flames.
Miraculously, Ester pulled himself from the inferno and was tended to by people who came to his aid. He said his instinct of closing his eyes and holding his breath saved him from a near-certain death.
With third-degree burns on 60 percent of his body, painful therapy and skin grafts followed in the next couple of years.
It was a picture of 18-year-old Ester at the summit of Mount Rainier in Washington state accompanied by a passage from Psalms in the Bible that did the trick. Within hours of his parents bringing that old photo and biblical passage to his bedside, Ester was telling doctors, nurses and family members he would again climb the mountain.
He accomplished the goal in 1996, being one of only four members of a climbing group of 20 to make it to the summit. Even Ester's oldest son, Paul, then 20, and Ester's brothers didn't quite make it all the way.
One of four sons of a farmer and nurse, Ester learned early about a strong work ethic. Despite his mechanical skills learned on the farm, Bill, an accomplished pianist, pursued his lifelong love of music and went to Illinois Wesleyan College to study music education.
It was there that he made one of his first decisions to change, abandoning his music studies to pursue a degree in accounting, but not before meeting Nancy, his wife of 28 years, in a music practice room. Nancy is now a music teacher in the Burlington Area School District.
After graduation, Bill combined his business and mechanical skills and his love of biking by running bicycle shops in north central Illinois. He then headed to Kentucky to take on an accounting job and two years later went to work for Ray-O-Vac batteries as a plant accountant in Fennimore, Wis.
"Wisconsin was alwasy a state that meant a lot to us," Ester said, noting his grandparents have long had a summer home near Lake Kegonsa.
After changes in management at Ray-O-Vac, Ester bought out a milk hauler and his two semi rigs. For seven months, Bill drove seven days a week, did truck maintenance at night and, with Nancy's help, did the business paperwork. It all came to an end in July when on of Bill's part-time drivers rolled one of the tankers.
The next five years he was back in accounting as part of a local partnership in Fennimore. Another stint in corporate accounting followed, this time for Super-Valu foods in Green Bay.
Bill's restless spirit again took hold. In 1989, he learned of a furniture refinishing business available in Burlington, and he and Nancy invested all the had in acquiring the business and its automated equipment. But a grueling seven-day-a-week work schedule and breathing in noxious fumes convinced the Esters to abandon that business. With Nancy and their young family still in Burlington, Bill returned to his accounting job in Fennimore.
In 1992, Bill enrolled in an aircraft mechanics training program at Milwaukee Area Technical College. But facing his bills and a downturn in the aviation business, Bill, already back to accounting full time, took on semi driving on a part-tieme basis.
It was after he climbed Mount Rainier for the second time, and calling by cell phone from the summit those who helped him after the tanker fire, that Bill was encouraged to think about sharing his story with others. Today he balances a summer job of vending Dippin' Dots ice cream at fairs and festivals with his speaking engagements.
He talks to church groups, school groups and civic organizations. The high school level is his favorite.
"I believe life is 10 percent of what happens to you and 90 percent of how you react to it," Ester said. "You can be bitter, or you can be better."
