Former Ketchum Mayor William Brand died Feb. 16 at his home at the age of 97.

Brand, a World War II veteran who also served as Ketchum’s fire chief, moved to the Wood River Valley permanently in the late 1960s after a stint as a private pilot in Sun Valley in the 1950s. Originally from New York, Brand served as a fighter pilot in Okinawa in the Pacific Theater in World War II. In the early 1970s, he became Ketchum’s mayor, stepping down in 1974 to become fire chief, a department that he helped organize and train.