INDUSTRY VETERAN BILL SUPPER PASSES AWAY

After battling cancer for many years, industry veteran Bill Supper passed away on June 20. He was 77.

Supper was best known for the years he spent at Ebonite International, where he was hired as the company’s East Coast sales representative. He spent 16 years with the Hopkinsville, Ky.-based company.

Following a four-year stint at Storm Products in Brigham City, Utah, Supper and his wife Joanne moved to Texas to be closer to their grandchildren, and where Supper completed a run of more than two decades in the world of bowling ball manufacturing with a brief stint at Columbia Industries.

Being in Texas made a move to the International Bowling Campus in Arlington easy, and Supper served as Deputy Executive Director of the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America, working alongside then-Executive Director John Berglund.

In 2009, he transitioned to executive director of the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame, as the museum was in the process of moving from its long-time home in St. Louis to the IBC.

When the museum build-out was completed in Arlington, Supper stayed in the non-profit area of the industry for the remainder of his career, serving as executive director of both the International Bowling Pro Shop and Instructors Association and the Billiard and Bowling Institute of America. IBPSIA serves pro shop operators and bowling coaches, while BBIA creates a forum for bowling manufacturers and distributors to work together.

Both organizations honored Supper at various times, IBPSIA with its President’s Award in 2009 and Bill Bunetta Lighthouse Award in 2021, and BBIA with its Industry Service Award in 2020.

“We are devastated by the loss of Bill, said BBIA President Brian Graham. “He served the organization honorably and faithfully since 2010. The bowling community lost one of the industry’s most accomplished executives who excelled in both the for-profit and non-profit environments.”

Supper is survived by wife Joanne, children Billy and Alice, and seven grandchildren.