Bill Altevogt was the founder of the Tidewater Bears (a bear club in Newport News, Virginia) in 1992. A native of Long Island, New York- he graduated from University of Nebraska with degrees in sociology, psychology and law. After school, he served in the USAF with a tour in Vietnam. Bill was a military magistrate; and had a keen interest in matters of law.
After retirement, Bill became heavily involved in gay political causes, including Virginians for Justice, the Peninsula AIDS foundation,doing demographic work for the owner of Bear Magazine, as well as founding and running the Tidewater Bears. Bill was truly a renaissance man: he built his own harpsichord, loved Richard Wagner and classical music, did carpentery work, restored an 19th century home in New Bern, North Carolina (the list could go on....) At the time of his death in Feburary 1995, he was learning how to purchase and operate a small printing press so that unheard voices in the gay community would never go unheard. Bill is sorely missed by many of his friends.