During the Great Depression of 1929, young Bill Fowler taught himself to play blues harmonica, dirt-band mandolin, Dixieland tenor banjo, and finally jazz guitar, ending up at age 17 in a Salt Lake City speakeasy trio. Still unable to read music at 21, Bill headed a Continental combo at Sun Valley, Idaho, Union Pacific's plush ski resort. In 1944, Bill married Beatrice Cottam, the daughter of University Botany Professor Dr.Walter P. Cottam. Marrying into this family meant your “degree” was a PhD and nothing less, but Bill’s education would have to wait until after the war. At 25, after induction into the U.S. Army during WWII, he put together a non-official battalion marching band, which upon landing in Marseilles, became . . .

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