November 13, 2025. Bill Jebb Has Finally Turned 84. November 13, 2025. Bill Jebb Has Finally Turned 84. I met Bill Jebb in 1965 when we both were part of Class 35 of UDTRA at the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado, Califrornia. UDTRA is the name of the training program for aspiring Navy Frogmen then used and which was replaced with the title of BUD/S which is in use to this day. Both of them are acronyms that are derived from words that describe underwater demolition or SEAL training. When I met Bill, he was 22 and I was 24. During the course of our training together, I was able to observe Bill and discern that he was and still is one of the most unusual and unique people I’ve ever met. He’s very bright but also brash and loud. He’s obsessed with physical fitness, reads voraciously and can out talk just about anyone. He loves to both pontificate and argue. He’s politically conservative but open to other points of view. However he holds on to some ideas doggedly, and I love to hear his descriptions of his volatile arguments with his progressively minded and very bright and beautiful daughter. In business he was and remains an inveterate risk taker tempered with a distinctive and pronounced streak of kindness and generosity, unusual in some New Englanders. He is also unbelievably persistent and a trifle odd. Today is Bill’s 84th birthday. The fact that my younger friend had now been an octogenarian for four years is somewhat sobering, but as they say, “it is what it is.” Happy birthday, Bill, but don’t do anything too weird today.