William Louis Day

1935 – 2023

Born on June 25, 1935, Bill departed for heaven on Friday, March 24, 2023 – the same day his second great-granddaughter was born.

Bill was born in Norwich, New York, the second son of Emerson Day and Katherine Elizabeth Whitney Day. Bill is predeceased by his parents and his brother Samuel Whitney Day, and by his wife Betty. Bill grew up in an idyllic small town in upstate New York – Oxford – where he was close to many cousins and relatives who also lived there. His uncle was the mayor, and his father owned the Rexall drugstore in the center of town. He spent much of his free time outdoors at the family summer cottage located outside of town on the banks of the Chenango River. He graduated from Oxford Academy and Central School in 1953.

He attended Syracuse University, majoring in forestry, where he was a member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity; he graduated in 1957. Shortly after graduation he married the love of his life, Betty Ann Tollefsen, also from upstate New York, and they settled in Syracuse where Bill completed his master's degree in forestry while teaching undergraduates.

In 1959 the young family, with their first child - Mark, moved to Pawling, New York, where Bill joined US Plywood as a wood chemist. Daughter Katherine was born shortly thereafter, and the family was complete. Always very active in church and church leadership, Bill felt the call to ministry, and entered seminary at Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1964, graduating with his Masters of Divinity three years later.

After graduation he was ordained in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City and joined the staff of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Mamaroneck, New York as a curate in 1967. After two years he accepted the position of rector of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Unadilla, New York. This move took him and the family back upstate to a location almost exactly in between Bill's mother and Betty's mother, who were both widows by then.

Bill, or Father Bill as he was then known, worked tirelessly in Unadilla, as the position there also made him the rector of a small church in nearby Franklin, New York. Every Sunday he led the 8:00 am service in Unadilla, drove nine miles to Franklin for the 9:30 am service, and then drove back for the 11:00 am service in Unadilla. He had one day off a week – Monday.

His ministry flourished and the parish grew. In 1978 he was offered the rectorship of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Bellaire, Texas, a much larger church, which marked the beginning of the Texas chapter of his story. In Bellaire, Father Bill identified the need for a ministry to the growing Spanish-speaking population living in the apartments near the church, and he began an outreach program and ministry that resulted in rapid growth. That ministry continued to flourish, even after his departure, and the church is now 100% Spanish-speaking and is known as San Mateo Episcopal Church. He still continued to work six days a week.

In 1987 Bill retired from the Episcopal church and moved back to upstate New York. He started a second career working in the physical facilities department of Binghamton University. He began at the bottom and finished his career as the individual in charge of energy procurement and energy management for the university. While working full time, he also founded and led a small, independent Anglican church called Grace Covenant Community that met weekly in Norwich, New York.

He retired from the university in 2002, and he shared openly his doubts that anyone on staff could competently do his job. He apparently was a prophet, as he was soon contacted about stepping back into his role, which he did on a contract basis for another year.

During his golden years he filled in at various Anglican churches in upstate New York and made periodic trips to Houston to see family. During these years he hired a local handyman as a full-time assistant, and the two of them partially dismantled the old family summer cottage (or "Camp," as it was known) and then designed and rebuilt it – converting it into a house fit for year-round habitation. He and Betty moved in as soon as it was complete. He named the house "Rexall," as the planks in the inner and outer walls of the original cottage had come from Rexall shipping crates. To say that Bill had a strong connection to that place would be an understatement. Bill spent the last two months of his life in an assisted living facility in Texas, but his heart was still in the little house he built on the Chenango River.

Bill is survived by two children, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. His family tree includes:

Mark Emerson Day (Deana), and sons Christopher William and Patrick Emerson (Kimberly), and their daughters, Anna Bea and Grace Cora.

Katherine Marie Day Turner (James) and children Jessica Marie Turner Sohns (Ben) and James Austin Turner (Maeson.)