William I. Atwood ’44


William Irving Atwood was born June 21, 1926, in Waterbury, Connecticut, and died October 17, 2018, in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Bill graduated from Williston Academy in 1944, Wesleyan University in 1950, and received an MA in Educational Studies from Trinity College in 1961. He served in the U.S. Navy on Okinawa during WWII. He enjoyed a long, dedicated career as a middle and high school teacher in Hartford, West Hartford and Coventry, where he touched many lives with his love of literature, art, architecture, music, travel, the environment and theater. He loved gardening and attending theater in New York City, and devoted many hours to his work with the Hartford Stage Company, the Auerbach Library of the Wadsworth Atheneum, and the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington. A spirited and animated man, Bill had a sense of humor that was recently described by a friend as “sometimes wicked but never unkind.” He is survived by his wife Margaret, his son Jeffrey Atwood and son-in-law Stephen Vamvakas, his daughter Jillian Martin and son-in-law Richard Martin, his grandchildren, Christina Martin and Alessandra Martin, and his sisters Pollyann Merriman and Cynthia Couch. Funeral arrangements will be private. Donations in his memory may be made to the Farmington River Watershed Association, 749 Hopmeadow Street, Simsbury CT 06070.

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