To borrow from a previous post, "his presence was presidential". At almost every conference and every event I can remember someone would announce to me "Billy is here and he's looking for you". With those words the focus turned to finding Billy in the crowd. It was never a difficult task, there was always a crowd near him and when you came up he did indeed make you feel special. His bear hug greeting was always the same no matter what his personal day was like. In the very early days when Scott and I stepped into business Billy was our mentor. Our early deals were most often on a hand shake with him saying "pay me when you can". Our business model was a Messer model; full of family members and those that weren’t family were always treated as such. Mere words can’t express what he has meant to our family and to so many over the years. His contribution to us all will live on as his legacy to life. I will truly miss hearing “Billy is here”….but yet, I know he will always be with us in spirit. God bless the Messer family, as they endure this loss.