December 14, 1935 – September 4, 2022

 

William B. Friday, 86 – our sailor, husband, devoted father, grandpa, teacher and friend – passed away at his home in Richmond on September 4, 2022.

 

William (Bill) was born in Oshkosh, NE, December 14, 1935 to Lee Roy and Helen Friday. Before the family moved from Oshkosh to Cape Girardeau, MO, Bill enjoyed spending time with his aunts and uncles that farmed around Oshkosh, sometimes riding horses and one notorious donkey, as well as tractors and stick shift farm trucks.

Bill spent much of his childhood in Cape Girardeau, getting involved in the Boy Scouts and eventually earning his Sea Scout and Eagle Scout badges. From an early age, he was attracted to water even in the landlocked Midwest and built several small boats that he floated on local ponds, graduating to canoes in the Scouts and then to larger sailing craft later in life. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, graduated from Duke University Divinity School, and became the Campus Minister at the State University of Iowa in Iowa City where he met Sandra Vavra.

Bill was passionate about human rights and desegregation and in 1965 asked his Methodist Bishop of Iowa if he could join a civil rights march organized by Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma, AL. He was told, “No”. Bill went anyway and broke from the church soon after.

Bill and Sandra were married July 10, 1965 and lived in Pittsburgh, PA where he served as a social worker at the Western State Penitentiary. They made two extensive trips abroad, traveling to Europe and Central America. Finally settling in New Haven, CT, they were live-in social directors and advisors for international graduate students attending Yale University. Bill later taught English at The Foote School in New Haven, where he went on to become the school’s business manager. During which time, his son Wyeth and daughter Abbey were born, and enjoyed an action-packed childhood of biking, camping, skiing, sailing, and gardening.

He never lost his love for working with students, designing and setting up a high-ropes course for student teambuilding at Foote, as well as running his own sailing school, taking small groups of high school students for overnight voyages on Long Island Sound in his Bristol 27 and later Pearson 35 sloops. During his life, Bill built four boats ranging in size from 9’ to 18’ and he helped Wyeth painstakingly rebuild and restore a 16’ Century runabout as his last major boat project.

He and Sandra divorced in 1995 and he moved on from Foote to be headmaster of the Raleigh Montessori School in North Carolina and later was a social worker while taking care of his parents on Sanibel Island, FL.

He met Christine Morgan through mutual friends Chet and Ricki Mottershead in Rocky Mount, NC and they were married in November 2000. Bill and Christine lived in North Carolina, Florida and eventually settled in Richmond near where Christine had grown up. They traveled to Europe, made a circuit of national parks out West (visiting Wyeth and his family in Montana on the way), sailed in the Caribbean, spent time in Maine, and enjoyed many other adventures together.

Bill fully lived so much in his 86 years and touched so many people. Beloved by Christine; Wyeth, Abbey, and grandchildren Parker, Samuel and Benjamin; Sandra; and Christine’s daughters Julie and Melinda.

Bill’s ashes will be spread in Oshkosh, the James River, and Long Island Sound. Contributions in his memory may be made to the Foote Fund (a scholarship at The Foote School, 50 Loomis Place, New Haven, CT 06511, (203) 777-3464, footeschool.org) or the organization of your choice.