About Bill Krueger, ​Strategic Relationship Officer at Northwest Center

​Bill Krueger has come a long way from that skinny kid growing up in McMinnville, Oregon.  With little fanfare, Bill entered the University of Portland on a basketball scholarship in 1975 and was a 4-year starting guard.  He decided to turn out for baseball his sophomore year and played 3 years of 1st base for the Pilots.  After graduation, Bill hoped to extend his baseball career into the professional ranks but had no takers in the 1980 amateur draft.  Despite not pitching in college, Bill made a quick assent up the ranks and made it to the Major Leagues with Oakland in April of 1983.   
 
As a left-handed pitcher, Bill played for 13 seasons and was a member of the 1988 World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers. He won the American League Pitcher of the Month Award twice: July 1991-Seattle Mariners, April 1992 - Minnesota Twins. He played in Seattle in 1991 finished with a 11-8 record, with a starting staff leading 3.60 ERA. Bill continues his love of baseball as the senior analyst for Seattle Mariner Baseball for Root Sports Northwest.
 
Bill and is wife Jo were instrumental in establishing the Pacific Northwest Chapter of Cure Autism Now-a coalition of athletes, community leaders, board members, celebrities, and parents for private fundraising events and legislative lobbying activities. As parents of an autistic child, they have a personal investment in fundraising to find a cure for autism.
 
Today, Bill is the Strategic Relationship Officer for Northwest Center, a non- profit organization focused on supporting kids and adults of all abilities from birth through retirement by running two early intervention inclusive schools and a social enterprise business model that creates jobs.  Bill is a spokesman on the powers of inclusion in the workplace. The hiring of someone who has physical limitations or developmental delays is not a compromise but an advantage.

Learn more about the Northwest Center Celebrity Golf Classic, hosted by Bill Krueger on August 21, 2017.