Ellsworth
William (Bill) Frederick Reeve, 89, passed peacefully in the arms of his wife, Barbara, on Friday, Oct. 22, 2021, at home in Ellsworth.
Bill loved people and people loved Bill; he was truly a special man. His soul went where gentle souls go when their work on this Earth is ended. Swimming or coaching at the Ellsworth YMCA, campaigning or protesting around town, buying or selling books, singing in the church choir or in the grocery store, wherever you found Bill he would have a smile and a cheerful greeting. More often than not, he would have something funny to say as well.
Bill loved to talk about his hometown of Hibbing, Minn., on the Mesabi Iron Range. His parents, Charles Hubert Reeve and Sharon Charlotte Schustedt, moved to Minnesota in the early 1920s to teach school in what was then a frontier town. Bill was born on Dec. 10, 1931. He and his older brother Chuck grew up playing in house-high snowdrifts, delivering newspapers on their bikes and fishing in Perch Lake, where their dad had built a summer cabin.
The Hibbing School was built in the 1920s and was a model for modern education. A huge gym with a running track around its balcony, an indoor swimming pool and “the largest theater west of Chicago” were the envy of neighboring communities. Bill participated in every kind of school activity he could, especially swimming and acting (as the tallest kid in his class he was often cast as the father). He graduated from high school in 1949 and attended MIT for a year before joining the Army in 1951.
Bill often talked of how much he enjoyed the Army. Advice to the contrary notwithstanding, his eagerness to volunteer led to exceptional assignments like spending the summer as a lifeguard at the officers’ club swimming pool. He learned Russian in Monterey, Calif., and was then assigned to Berlin to listen to Soviet radio chatter during the early Cold War.
Following his Army service, Bill returned to Minnesota with his German wife, Margot Rummel, and attended the University of Minnesota on the GI Bill. Their daughter, Sonja, was born in 1957. Bill earned a BS in electrical engineering and built an adventurous career as a field engineer installing and troubleshooting complex equipment all around the world for “the customer” — usually the U.S. government. After living in New Jersey, California and New Mexico, he settled near Baltimore, Md., where he worked for Westinghouse and served as a church elder at Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church in Severna Park. He swam with a local master’s swim team, joined Mensa and the Triple Nine Society (both high IQ clubs) and hosted many hikes, luncheons, wine tastings, dinners and other social activities throughout central Maryland. He was elected president of Mensa’s Maryland group in the mid-1980s.
In 1987, Bill met Barbara (Smith) Woolf, the love of his life. They married on June 25, 1988, and moved to Roland Park, Md., where he helped to raise his teenage stepdaughter, Anna N. Woolf. He remained active with Maryland Mensa, took up duties in his new church (Light Street Presbyterian in Baltimore), continued swimming, attended graduate school at Loyola University of Maryland, and even began acting again in community theater.
After 29 years with Westinghouse, he retired in 1991 and moved with Barbara to Ellsworth. He didn’t stay retired for long, as he parlayed his love of reading into a home business that expanded into the storefront shop Appletree Books. He created a master’s swim club at the Down East Family YMCA and went on to coach the Ellsworth High School swim team as well as the Y kids’ team, the Dolphins. He served on the YMCA’s board of directors and was active with the Hancock County Democrats and the Ellsworth Community Union. To give you a sense of just how active he was, Bill confessed to leading several others in demonstrating for a $15 minimum wage in the Ellsworth Walmart by marching through the store on Black Friday singing “Solidarity Forever.” He was also a deacon in his church, the Union Congregational Church of Hancock, UCC, and he served as a delegate to the annual meeting of the Maine Conference, United Church of Christ (UCC) and the UCC General Synod meetings in Minnesota (2003) and Atlanta (2005).
Bill Reeve had an extraordinary effect on countless lives. He will be dearly missed by his wife Barbara, his stepdaughter Anna Woolf and her husband, Neale LaSalle, his grandchildren Olivia LaSalle and Charlie LaSalle, his four nieces and nephews, his great-niece and great-nephew and his great-great niece and nephew. He was predeceased by his daughter, Sonja Justus, of Severna Park, Md., and his brother, Charles H. Reeve, of Sun City Center, Fla.
A service will be held at 2 p.m. Dec. 5 at the Moore Community Center, 125 State St., Ellsworth. Donations in Bill’s name may be made to the Down East Family YMCA, P.O. Box 25, Ellsworth, ME 04605, Attn: Jean Wood or to the Union Congregational Church of Hancock, UCC, P.O. Box 443, Hancock, ME 04640.
Arrangements by Jordan-Fernald, 113 Franklin St., Ellsworth.
Condolences may be expressed at www.jordanfernald.com.