William E. Endelman, AIA, Founder

May 10, 1948 - February 21, 2026

In the late evening of February 21, 2026, Bill Endelman passed away peacefully after a long and debilitating bout with lung disease. He is mourned and missed by many people.

Bill was born in New York City and grew up in Brooklyn and then Merrick, Long Island, where he attended Wellington C. Mepham High School. When he was 14, he discovered jazz at a small record store in Merrick. The old man who owned the store recommended to Bill his first jazz albums and this became a lifelong passion. Bill has always expressed his gratitude to this man whose name he didn’t even know. 

In 1973, Bill graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. Thus, a second passion developed, for the visual arts and building design. During his graduate school days, Bill met Dee Coletta who became Dee Endelman on October 14, 1973. Together they moved to San Francisco, beginning a lifetime of love, friendship, conversation and not a little head butting!

In 1988, with their four year old daughter Elise, the Endelmans moved from San Francisco to Seattle. Bill held various architectural management positions before finally opening his own consulting firm in 1995. Later, this firm became Endelman & Associates, which specialized in accessibility for the disabled. Bill was deeply committed to this field and to creating a warm and creative working environment for the Endelman & Associates staff. 

After his retirement from the firm in 2019, Bill devoted himself to mentoring small business owners as a volunteer for SCORE. He only stopped this mentoring in late 2025 when his illness became so severe that he no longer had the energy to Zoom with his many clients.

Throughout his adult life, Bill built a fantastic stereo system, listening to many hours of jazz with friends at the Pacific Northwest Audio Society and with his wife at various local jazz clubs.  They were regulars at Tula’s, before its closure, and at Jazz Alley. 

He was a devoted father to Elise and grandfather to Mina Jo as well as a father figure to several of his nephews and others who counted on his practical advice. Bill was a man of strong and thoughtful opinions. His nephew Lee wrote recently, “…of all the people to sit around and be opinionated with, he has always been one of the most fun.” 

He is survived by his wife Dee, his daughter Elise (Spencer) and granddaughter Mina Jo Spencer; his sister Janet Endelman and various in-laws, nieces and nephews, audio buddies and work colleagues, who treasure his memory which is a blessing to us all.

Anyone wishing to honor Bill’s memory may make donations to SCORE, Easterseals or the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra.

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Mr. Endelman founded and was Principal of E&A for 23 years. He was a nationally recognized accessibility expert.  Mr. Endelman was a licensed Architect and was founding Principal of Endelman & Associates PLLC (E&A). With over 30 years’ experience in facility accessibility, architectural business operations, project management, and architecture in high level management positions for architectural, real estate and other design-related companies, Mr. Endelman consulted for major banking, institutional, educational, residential developer, legal, real estate asset management clients, and enforcing agencies in dozens of states.

Since 1995, Mr. Endelman grew E&A from one person to a nationally recognized 12-person accessibility consulting firm, with work in over 30 states. He was hired as a Consultant and Expert Witness in Accessibility for several jurisdictions, consulting for the U.S. Attorney’s Offices, the U.S. Department of Justice, State enforcing agencies, and attorneys for building owners and developers.   

Prior to founding the firm, he managed up to 25 professionals and highly complex projects such as the $300 million U.S. Embassy Complex in Moscow for the Gruzen Partnership and the $97 million renovation of the Federal Building & U.S. Courthouse in San Francisco as  Executive VP & Director of Del Campo & Maru.

In Retirement:

• Mr. Endelman kept in contact with the firm, where he did occasional internal consulting, and also sometimes served as a corporate memory.
• He was a SCORE Business Mentor, where he volunteered by mentoring startups and small business to become more successful by sharing what he learned after running E&A for 23 years.