Obituary of William B. Mueller

William “Bill” Mueller, age 58 of 2208 Nevada Avenue, formerly of Cedar Rapids died Saturday, February 4, 2006, at the Iowa City Health Care & Rehab Center. Funeral services will be held at 8pm Thursday, February 9th. at Gay & Ciha Funeral and Cremation Service in Iowa City with the Reverend John Caldwell officiating. Visitation will be from 6 to 8pm Thursday at the funeral home. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to Iowa City Hospice in Bill’s memory. Following services, cremation services will take place with Bill’s remains being scattered over Lake Baikal in Russia at a later date as he had requested. William Mueller was the founder and Director of Rural Enterprise Adaptation Program. He has been a writer, consultant and educator. As a writer, his specialization's include the environment, sustainable agriculture and the former Soviet Union, which he first visited in 1988. Following graduation from the University of Iowa in 1970 he taught high school for two years. Then came a series of jobs while he established himself as a professional writer. About 25 years ago he became a full-time free lance writer, eventually publishing over 1,000 articles. His credits include such leading magazines and newspapers as Harper's, Omni, Savvy, Chicago Tribune, Nation's Business, Saturday Evening Post, Arete, American Spectator, MD Magazine, Robb Report, Sierra, Barron's, American Scholar, Buzzworm, Venture and many leading farm publications. He also produced a Monograph for US EPA on Iowa's groundwater program. In 1982 he became an adjunct faculty member of the University of Iowa's School of Journalism. Later he taught four years in the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. In 1988 he visited the Soviet Union for the first time. That occasion was a Peace Walk that brought together 235 Americans and 270 Soviets for a five-week walk from Odessa to Kiev. It was a powerful introduction to the country, and lead to his decision to stay involved with the FSU. In March 1989 he returned to the USSR as a writer/environmental participant in a delegation which worked with Soviet grassroots environmental activists. That trip introduced him to environmental leaders who were getting things done. In 1990 Bill was delegate in a group that assessed Lake Baikal for sustainable economic growth. Out of that assessment came several projects that have influenced Baikal to this day, including Mueller's commitment to help Baikal's rural sector. Also during that trip he visited Latvia, where a member of the Latvian Parliament invited him to bring American sustainable farmers to her country to work with Latvia's emerging private farmers. In August 1991 he made good on that request with "The Latvian Sustainable Farm Group." Mueller was then asked to help establish a Latvian national advisory center for farmers. This lead to creation of REAP International and partner Rural Innovation Centers - not only in Latvia, but also in Lithuania and Russia; notably at Lake Baikal. He has developed training programs for farmers and rural educators, created conferences on sustainable agriculture and curriculum development, designed high school exchanges, tourist programs; and designed and supervised rural development projects in Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude. His family includes two sons and their wives, Tom and Elizabeth Mueller of Hampton, VA, and Steven and Emilie Mueller of Iowa City; three grandchildren, Tamara Provost, Nathan and Michael Mueller; sister, Sandy Preston of Bremerton, WA; fiancé, Ludmilla Konstantinovna of Sandanova, Ulan-Ude, Russia; and Bill’s children’s mother, Joyce Lanxon of Iowa City. Gay & Ciha Funeral and Cremation Service of Iowa City is caring for Bill’s family and his services.