Deceased February 15, 2022
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In Memory
Bill died peacefully in February 2022. He played baseball, basketball and football at Deerfield. At Amherst, Bill was named the College’s best intramural athlete, majored in economics and pledged Theta Delt.
After graduation, he served in the U.S. Air Force, finishing navigation training at Ellington AFB in Houston and radar observer training in Waco, Texas. He flew F-89s until discharge in 1960. Bill then worked for Western Electric in NYC, where he met Carola Gewinner. They married in August 1961 and moved to Oneonta, N.Y., taking over the family business, Oneonta Grocery Co., which he transformed, constructing a new warehouse with refrigeration and freezers, enabling considerable growth.
Bill and Carola raised sons Mark, Graham ’90 and Britt. Bill was a practiced skier, golfer and tennis player. He was a Giants football fan with season tickets for more than 50 years, a lover of Cooperstown’s Otsego Lake and a passionate world traveler.
Bill was remarried in 1989 to Karen. Together they built warm communities of friends in Cooperstown and at The Villages, Fla. He served on Hartwick College’s board of trustees from 1985 to 2003, receiving an honorary doctorate in 2016. He also was president of the board of the Oneonta Unitarian Universalist Church, as well as a member of the Oneonta Kiwanis and Elks Clubs, Cooperstown Country Club, SUNY Oneonta Educational Foundation Board, Catskill Symphony Orchestra, Mechanics Exchange Savings Bank and Dime Community Bank of New York. He was also an active member of the Congregational Church in Summerfield, Fla. Bill’s quick wit, love of people and sense of loyalty brought him many dear friends. Truly a role model for all who knew him, he is remembered for his amazing generosity and kindness.
Bill is survived by wife Karen; three sons and daughters-in-law; stepdaughter Jessica and family; and seven grandchildren.
Peter Levison ’56