His maternal grandfather, William Blancken worked as a gardener for the Agnews, who lived at the estate that would later become the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory. Anna, his mother, worked at the “pep shop” run by the Lavalle family on Oak Tree Rd. (“Peps” are artificial flowers and decorations for ladies hats.)

For grammar school, he attended the Palisades school (now the Community Center) through eighth grade and graduated in 1931, in a big class of 8 children. The graduations were a big event in those days, and the peony bushes we still have provided the decorations for many years at the event. He went to Tappan Zee High school in Piermont, but could have chosen to go to other local high schools. Some went to Nyack for their sports programs and he had one friend who took the train to go to high school in Haverstraw.

Growing up in Palisades was a real adventure at that time. The roads didn’t get plowed in the winter, so they used to go sledding down 9W and Rockland Rd. Of course they spent a lot of time on the river. He built his first boat when he was 14. It was a 16-foot dory with a sail. He and his friends would spend countless hours fishing and crabbing, and even go to the movies across the river in Dobbs Ferry if the tide and the wind were right. The river also froze over in those days, and they built an ice boat one time, which went so fast it completely fell apart! There were fewer trees around then; he could ring the school bell by shooting it with his BB gun from his bedroom window.

After high school he worked with his father and paternal grandfather at their construction business in lower Manhattan, at the site of what would later be the World Trade Center. The business did not survive the depression, however, so he took a job building sub-chasers and air sea rescue boats for the war effort at Julius Petersen Boat Yard in Upper Nyack. He enlisted in the Merchant Marine for the remainder of WWII, then returned to Petersen’s where he worked for over 50 years as a carpenter, electrician, plumber, etc, because as he said “when you work on boats, you have to do it all.”

He married Nellie James of Tenafly, NJ, on March 25th, 1956. She was an artist and drama major, and they developed a lovely collaboration where he would make frames for her paintings, do lights and staging for her play productions, and provide technical expertise and construction for anything she might dream up. Together they made the nativity scene that still graces the yard every year at Christmas time. Their daughters, Barbara and Carol, both shared his love for boats, each having sea-going careers. Barbara now lives in Vermont, while Carol lives at the house on Closter Rd, with her husband, John Guzewich, and children, Ellis and Vienna.

Bill was very involved with the Palisades Cemetery and the PLOT (Palisades Lot Owners Tribute) organization which helps to maintain it. Up until the last year or so, he could often be seen on his daily walk up to the Post Office often stopping at the cemetery to take care of it.

He was a part of the history of Palisades, and will be greatly missed by all that knew him.