BOUNTIFUL—William Reid Rowland has lived through a lot of major events in his 100 years of life. From the introduction of television, the Great Depression, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, the internet, COVID and now AI, he’s had a front row seat to just about everything. On Feb. 26 Rowland will be a century old.

“He was born in Logan,” said his daughter Nancy Stephens. “They moved to Salt Lake City where his dad was a contractor.”

He joined the Army toward the end of WWII and served for 18 months, she said. 

“When I got home I worked for my dad,” said Rowland. “He was in construction. He built big buildings and roads and everything all over the country.”

Rowland was building a bridge in southern Utah with his dad when an accident happened. “A bank sloughed off and trapped me. I got buried up to my waist and my leg got curved. So I went to a hospital in Moab.”

While he was there, Rowland said his mother brought him a book called This is Photography. “She knew I was interested in photography. So while I lay in the hospital I studied photography.”

That started his career as a photographer, he said. “When I got back to Salt Lake I got a job in photo finishing but my main job was processing film. We’d go to drugstores and pick up the work that had been submitted and I would process the negatives.”

Shortly after he got married he and his wife moved to Sun Valley, Idaho, said Rowland. “I was doing photo finishing up there. I learned photography and bought myself a camera. I was working part time for the news bureau doing their photo finishing.”

They finally said they needed a full-time photographer in the news bureau, Rowland said. “I transferred over from the photo shop to the news bureau. One of my main jobs was to become the Hometown (news) photographer.”

Rowland said he was skiing with a lady who was about 50, he said. “I thought she was an old lady. She was locating well-known guests that were up there and I would go over and take their picture standing with their skis or skiing.”

At the end of the day, Rowland said he would process the negatives. “These were the days of black and white film photography. I would go into the dark room and print the pictures. I would print two pictures, one to keep and one to give to them.”

William Rowland captured this picture at an Idaho rodeo. Rowland took photos of several celebrities when he was living in Sun Valley.

 They could sell it to the guest and the other one went to the Hometown with a story the lady had written, he said. “I met Stein Eriksen. In 1952 he got the gold medal in downhill skiing. Sun Valley hired him to teach a special class of racing.”

Rowland said he went up to Eriksen one day. “I tried to talk with him but he didn’t know English. I told him I wanted to take his picture. He just shook his head. I don’t think he knew what I was saying. When he found out that I was one that he really should get associated with because I could make him famous he came up to me and says ‘you take my picture.’”

They went up on top of Bald Mountain, he said. “We manufactured a little ski jump. He came down and jumped off that jump up in the air. I took his picture but he over corrected and landed headfirst. I thought he was going to be dead.”

He just curled his head under and rolled up when he was skiing, said Rowland. “He says, ‘gotta fix jump.’ We rebuilt it and he tried it again.”

He did this kind of swing with his arms out feet behind him and jumped, Rowland said. “We sent the picture to either Look or Life Magazine and they said ‘this is fabulous, we’re going to send a crew out.’ That’s my story about Stein Eriksen. I’ve got lots of pictures of him.”

Rowland took pictures of many other famous people while he was in Sun Valley, said Stephens. “(Swimmer) Esther Williams and Bing Crosby’s wife and other starlets.”

Now he uses his photography skills taking pictures of his large family. “During Thanksgiving, we came up to my house and got a group picture,” he said. “There were 57 people in the group.”

Rowland has seven children and 25 grandchildren. “I think I have 60 great grandchildren. I’m not sure, they just keep coming and I have one great great grandchild.”

The family is celebrating his birthday with an open house Feb. 28 from 3 p.m. – 6 p.m. for any friends and neighbors who would like to share stories and memories of him. It will be held at 3350 S. 100 East, Bountiful.