Bill Ottley's Christmas Cards

Submitted by Pat Moore D-1814

I had the privilege of knowing Bill Ottley D-298 for many years. I first encountered him at Manassas, VA in the summer of '66. The Pelicans and Targeteers were sharing a DZ. I was an avid barefoot water skier at the time and tried unsuccessfully to teach Bill on the Shenandoah River at Front Royal. He ultimately learned as you'll see below. Later when I enlisted in the USAF I was a dirt poor airman and Bill would pay me $2 a rig to pack for him at meets. It was a lot of money to me.

Early in his career Bill was in the advertising business in NYC and started creating memorable Christmas cards. He would recruit others to help him stage the shots. My brother Mike and his friend Doug Colley can be seen in the rock climbing card. Happily Bill added me to his card list. Sadly many of the cards were lost over the years but I was able to locate a few of them and thought I'd share them with you here. Does anyone else have some of his cards so we can add them to this page? Update: Peter Andersson has contributed images 19-22 and Phil Chiocchio has submitted #23 - one of the first Bill sent back in the mid sixties. Update: My brother just unearthed four more that have been added to the collection. Tommy Bryant has submitted Bill's 1971 card.