Bill Kamer (LAW’78) played hockey in high school, but he realized from his mediocre performance at a summer hockey school in Worcester when he was a teen that his career on the ice would go no further. As a lawyer in LA, though, he did join an over-30 league and enjoyed playing for years, until a bad leg fracture in a game laid him up for five months.

“I wanted to go back and play after I recovered,” he says, “and my wife, I thought, would be supportive. But she said, ‘You can go back and play again. But your second wife will be handling your next injury.’”

He laughs. “And that is not the direction I wanted to go in. So that ended my hockey playing life.”

It was a good decision, and they’re celebrating their 47th anniversary this year.

Kamer and his wife met while he was at BU Law and she was studying science communication at what is now the College of Communication.

“Some of our best experiences, and certainly our earliest dates with one another, were going to hockey games,” he says. “And probably most notably, and in terms of our life together, was that we survived the Blizzard of ’78 at the Beanpot at the Boston Garden. That experience, still lives on as one of the highlights of our lives.”

Kamer has endowed a scholarship for hockey players.

“It makes me really proud to be part of that,” he says. “And I’ve seen in general, I just think the Athletic Department does a fabulous job across the board with a program that develops leadership skills, and obviously team-building skills and personal responsibility skills.”

Getting to know people in BU Athletics, Kamer says, “I’ve come to appreciate them on a lot of levels, including that I just think it’s a wonderful family. And it’s one of the honors of my life that I have come to feel part of the Athletic Department family, and that’s probably the major thing that continues to attract me.”

It’s also the basis of his advice to other Terriers who are considering making a gift.

“Donors are, and should be, somewhat selfish about their decisions. They have a lot of choice in their charitable decisions. They should choose the places where they feel they’re getting more back than what they’re giving.” He hastens to add that he doesn’t mean accolades, or dinners, or “freebie” merchandise.

“I don’t care about those things,” he says. “What I’m talking about is getting the opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people who are also BU supporters, as well as student-athletes, and seeing how our donations touch their lives and help them to become better people.”