The Mercury News25%
William Coe (Bill) Slocum Obituary 82%
By The Mercury News94%
7/19/2026, 7:05:00 AM
Topics: Obituary
Keywords: William Coe Bill Slocum, Obituaries
BS Summary: This article contains 19 faulty reasoning types, including Halo Effect, Appeal to Emotion, and Indoctrination, with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 77.2% saturation with 550 hits. Analysis detected 1,688 faulty-reasoning hits from 712 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 74% and a BS Rank of 82% (3,524 of 18,604 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 81.10% of the article peer group.
Our amazing Dad, William Coe (Bill) Slocum passed gently into heaven on a placid Sabbath morning in San Jose on Nov.
30, 2025.
Bearded and feisty, at last weary from long life but still full of love, he left nothing on the table or field of life.
He was 100 years and four months old.
Bill was born in 1925 in San Francisco to Sue and General LeCount Slocum.
He attended Palo Alto High School, and earned a business degree from Stanford University and retained an unwavering passion for the institution, its standards and Stanford sports throughout his life.
Even casual mention of University of California sports would alter his mood to the tune of face wrinkles and a touch of gas.
He served proudly in the U.S.
Army, and the annual Army-Navy football game was a thing to him, but nothing compared to the yearly Stanford-Cal Big Game event.
Later, Bill sold cars, insurance, and then found his business bliss with real estate in the 1950s, 60s,70s and 80s, becoming a realtor, broker and developer and one of the most trusted and successful at his craft in the San Jose/Cambrian/Milpitas area.
Colleagues, friends and clients often would marvel that he was perhaps the most honest and decent person they had ever met and dealt with.
A velvet hammer type, he was tough but kind and empathetic, and always straightforward, genuine, and honest.
His warm sense of humor was a thing of beauty.
Bill married his wife Sally, a shockingly beautiful girl whom he suavely wooed out of Wisconsin in 1948, and the pair raised four cool kids.
Bill's life was based firmly on his love of God.
He was a devout Christian, a long-time member of Presbyterian Church of Los Gatos, and earlier, a long-time member of Calvin Presbyterian Church.
He loved all sports, but golf was a particular passion, and he was able to play many of the great courses in our country and overseas.
He was good at the game, not great, but uncannily nailed a hole-in-one FOUR times.
In a weak moment, he once did admit, "Yeah, but one of them was a cheapie, a ground ball that I skulled.
No idea how it found the hole.
Sort of like the scenic route on a bad road."
He was incredibly proud of his family, loving his wife, three boys and daughter dearly and unconditionally.
He also loved the Giants and 49ers, and almost never missed a Stanford home football game.
He taught his boys how to throw a football, catch passes, play golf, hit a baseball, pitch horseshoes, play ping-pong and even croquet.
And there always was a basketball hoop and sturdy backboard above the garage at home.
Bill was able to retire in his early 50s thanks to his real estate and property investments savvy and travel the world with Sally.
He lived an uncommonly full life of love, faith, good health and success, deftly sloughing off periodic setbacks as though they were an annoying gnat.
He died very peacefully at home, where he insisted on staying until the end, surrounded by his kids and Christian music playing softly in the background.
He loved the hymn "Stand Up for Jesus", and often, when the spirit moved him, he would just begin belting it out with emotion, with an improbably good voice for one flirting with his 100th year.
And so, almost certainly and fittingly, when our Dad took his last breath, Jesus Himself stood up to greet him with the incomparable warmth of a Holy Hug, and possibly a high-five, welcoming him to Eternal Life.
Bill is survived by his sons Bob and Steve, and daughter Kristi; grandchildren Jennifer, Joshuah, Chloe, Amy Grace, David, Daniel, Abbey Rose; and great grandson Theo.
He is predeceased by eldest son Bill, and amazing wife of 74 years, Sally.
Dad...
Steve and Kristi and I miss you and love you and thank you so much for all you, and Mom, gave to us all of these years.
You were an unspeakable gift.
We celebrate you with our hearts and gratitude and will see you again.
A celebration of Bill's life will be held Saturday, July 25, 2026, at Presbyterian Church of Los Gatos at 2 p.m.
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