William "Bill" Gil

William “Bill” Yates GilAugust 18,1939-October 15, 2026

William “Bill” Yates Gil, 87, of Morgan Hill, California passed away peacefully surrounded by his family at his home on October 15, 2026, after a month-long battle with pneumonia and extended challenges with late-in-life dementia.

Bill was born on August 18,1939, in San Jose, California, to Rudolph “Rudy” Gil and Patricia “Pat” Grace-Starr. Bill grew up with his sister, Sylvia Mae Gil, in rural King City and moved to San Jose to live with his mother and sister at the age of seven. He loved sports in general and especially playing football during high school was a highlight. Bill graduated from Lincoln High School, San Jose, in 1957.

Bill was married to Barbara Lenell Howard of Saratoga in 1959. They settled in Campbell to start a family. Early in his career he worked for a San Francisco welding firm, Victor Equipment Company, working in sales for 10 years. In 1969, Bill had a wild (some thought crazy) business idea and took his family from the suburbs of Santa Clara to the rural community of Gilroy starting an ‘instant lawn’ business. A family conversation around a small kitchen table hatched the name “Grass Farm” becoming Bill’s first adventure in business and not his last. It took a lot of trial and error of learning how to farm quality lawn products at scale and introducing the ‘sod-lawn’ concept to commercial businesses and homeowners all over the greater Bay Area. After many years, Bill, become an ‘overnight success’. His daughter, Debbie Barncord, and son, Erin Gil stepped in to help Bill run the family business in 1986. They added a five-acre landscape and garden center called, Garden Accents in Gilroy in 2002.

Bill had many successful businesses and loved his farming community in the Morgan Hill area. For many years he loved meeting at “Cindy’s” with the local community of business owners, farmers and friends for what they called, “Breakfast Club”. He loved the people and characters of his hometown and was a good friend to many in the community. He had a wicked sense of humor and was loved and well known in the town of Morgan Hill.

He was a natural born entrepreneur with good common sense, a strong ethic work and love of building something of value for all concerned. In the late 1980s he became a part-owner and developing partner of an RV Park on Highway 101 between Gilroy and San Juan Bautista called, “Betabel RV Park”. During his last few years of life, Bill really enjoyed visiting the Betabel park and seeing everyone working on all the projects keeping the park beautiful and in good working order.

Bill also loved to travel. He visited many parts of the world including Europe, China and Africa (he loved elephants) and many places in between. He had a particular love for the Hawaiian Islands. For a long period of time, he owned a condominium on the Big Island of Hawaii in the town of Kona. He loved the tropical weather and the Aloha Spirit. His family spent a lot of time with him on a few of the Hawaiian Islands.

Bill is survived by his children; Deborah (Brad) Barncord of Morgan Hill, Erin Gil of Morgan Hill and Eric (Ellen) Gil of Aptos; six grandchildren, Sarah Benton, Hunter Gil, Mason (Chloe) Gil, Jarod Barncord, Jacinda Barncord and Olivia Miller-Gil; two great-grandchildren, Camille and Lucas Benton; his half-brother, Tom Gil; his half-sister, Carol Vasquez of King City; and his former wives, Barbara (Howard) Rodriguez and Johana Nisley. He was preceded in death by his sister, Sylvia (Gil) Grebe.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorials be directed to the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund. Please use the following link to donate to this loving cause - https://curealz.org/

Bill’s celebration of life will be held from 2pm – 5pm on Saturday December 12, 2026, at Kirigin Cellars.

3255 Day Road, Gilroy, CA 95020