Thanks Corry. Once you provided the correct spelling of the name I found this bit in the San Francisco Chronicle of January 11, 1998 (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1998/01/11/PK13632.DTL).

POP QUIZ -- Q & A With the Dead's Bill Kreutzmann:
...
Q: Is it true that when the Grateful Dead first came together you were known to some as Bill Sommers?

A: (laughing) I hope I don't get in trouble for this one. We formed in Palo Alto when I was about 18 years old, and all except for Jerry and Phil Lesh were under 21. I was working at Behavior Research Labs out behind Stanford as a gofer -- I carried books for professors. So I got access to their equipment and made these phony draft cards. I used Bill Sommers as my alias. We didn't care about drinking. We just wanted to get into places where you could play music for people.


P.S. I had asked this question over at the InternetArchive.org forum and have copied your reply from here. Thanks again.