William Beardslee died on Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. 

Born in Bound Brook, New Jersey, in 1930, he was raised in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. When graduated from Northwestern Michigan University, he then joined the Marine Corps, serving in Korea.

Returning from the service, he and his first wife, Josephine, raised a family: Lindsey now of Harbor Springs, Michigan, William Jr. of Miami, and Brooke of New York and London. He adored his grandsons, August, Jasper, William C. III; and his granddaughters, Margot and Reading.

In Michigan, he founded and ran WCB Boatworks on Harsen’s Island. He was a member of the Yondotega Club, the Canada Club and the Country Club of Detroit, and was president of the Grosse Pointe Hunt Club. Always the sportsman, he was an avid fisherman, bird hunter, graceful golfer and fearless horseman. 

Bill was also an accomplished seaman, and was mad for boats and boating. When he married Susan in 1998, they said their vows, bought Snap Dragon, a motor yacht, and set off on an extended cruise, Bill as captain and Susan as navigator.

Together, they went up the eastern coast of Florida, into the Inland Waterway, locked through the Eerie Canal System, toured the Chesapeake Bay, returned to the Great Lakes through the St. Lawrence Seaway and from there went south to winter in the Bahamas. 

He accompanied Snap Dragon on a ship carrier through the Panama Canal, landing in Vancouver.  From there, the two set off and toured Alaska and the Northwest Coast for another year.  Altogether, it took two years, and they agreed it was “the trip of a lifetime.” 

When they finally came ashore in Tryon in 2003, Bill served on the FETA Board for several years, helped his friend Joe Phayer scout sites for the Smith-Phayer facility of Hospice of the Carolinas, then went onto the Tryon Planning and Zoning Commission.

It was always important for Bill to spend summers in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in Potaganissing Bay. 

There, at the cottage on Big Trout Island, he kept a breath-taking garden of vegetables, annuals and ornamentals to which he was dedicated and tended every day for hours all summer long. It was meticulously planned and recorded, and his great joy was to share the garden bounty.  All the neighboring islanders had armfuls of flowers and veggies.

His warm smile and sly sense of humor were captivating.  Ever the consummate gentleman, he was giving of his time and heart.

As one of his dearest friends said to him, “You are facing this illness with grace and courage and I salute you.”  Hear, hear.

– Submitted by

Susan Beardslee