In Memoriam: William Krieger

by USATAA Communications | Mar 3, 2017 | Blog, General Content | 0 comments

William Krieger, PhD, former USATAA council member, a long-time ITAA member (since 1975) and former Script editor, died on 8 February 2017 from complications related to recent cancer surgery.

His close friend and colleague Abe Wagner writes, “It is with a sense of sadness that I write about Bill Krieger’s passing. He was an exceptional human being who spoke his mind with sincerity and assertiveness whenever it was important to do so. He was a great contributor to the mental health profession and will be greatly missed.”

Abe also recalls, “I hired Bill to be on my staff at a Colorado resident summer camp in the late 1950s. This was the start of a life-long friendship. Bill created an large cadre of TA followers in New Mexico and often recruited good numbers for workshops done by me and other TA presenters. We laughed a lot. He loved to create humorous situations, including by singing at our camp off key. I already miss my good friend.”

Bill a counselor and educator, a scholar and voracious reader. He loved to debate and did it very well. He also had a passion for Torah learning and taught many classes in it over the years, including starting the weekly Rio Rancho Torah Learning Group.

Bill’s was well-known and highly regarded throughout the United States, especially in the counseling field, which he championed for much of his professional career. His accomplishments included:

– An award-winning dissertation on the positive effects of summer camp

– President of the American Mental Health Counselors Association from 1991-1992

– National board member of the American Counseling Association

– Chair of the National Academy of Clinical Counselors

– National Mental Health Counselor of the Year Award from the American Mental Health Counselors Association

– Founder of the Enhancement Network and Enhancement Theory

Best known to ITAA members as Script editor for 5 years (1986-1990), Bill faithfully wrote a thoughtful, challenging, endearing column for each issue during that time. In his November 1987 he wrote these words, especially poignant as we mourn his passing:

“Life is a shopping spree in which every day we get to spend the seconds of our lives. Time is a finite commodity, yet we often value it less than money, an infinite commodity. How many of us ponder what we have bought with our time?

“Because there is death, we each have a finite number of seconds and minutes to spend. Although in the end some of us will have ended up having more time than others, the rules of life make it mandatory that we each go off on our shopping spree every day and spend 24 hours—no more, no less. No one has more time or less time to spend each day than anyone else.

“Being a winner involves the wise expenditure of the seconds of our lives. Eric Berne said winners are people who fulfill their contracts with themselves and the world—people who accomplish their declared purposes. I believe a winner puts as much thought into the purpose as into the ‘how.’ TA can give us little insight as to purpose; it can only give us some tools with which to accomplish this purpose. . . .

“Winners have clearly defined goals and purposes for their lives (i.e., they know what they are going shopping for). . . . Being a winner isn’t a one-time decision or a one-time event. It is a continuous struggle to be effective in accomplishing your goal—to wisely spend the seconds of your life.”

Those who knew Bill have no doubt that he was a winner through and through and that he spent the seconds and minutes and days and years of his life making the world a better place, with intelligence, commitment, dignity, and humor. He will be long remembered and sorely missed.

Bill was laid to rest on Sunday 13 February in Albuquerque, New Mexico.