William Robert Glenister

William Robert Glenister, family man, computer whiz and musician, died March 30, 2026. He was 70.
He died peacefully in the early morning hours in his North Windham home from complications caused by frontotemporal dementia, a disease that lowered a veil over his empathetic personality and caused him to speak in a whisper in the end.
He will be remembered for his singing voice, a bass that undergirded a regional a cappella group, carried quartets in church and helped lead Sunday worship. He will be remembered for a booming laugh that, perhaps, caused chagrin to others in many a movie theater. He will be remembered for how his voice grew husky as he read, per family Christmas tradition, that one particular story of a cobbler waiting for the Lord.
If the measure of a man's life is how much he loved, then there are few that have lived as large as Bill Glenister.
He was known as the man who gave the best hugs.
While the practice sometimes made his six children jealous, he often "adopted" youths at church and at the summer music camp where he volunteered as assistant director. His care for people went beyond lighting up a room, as he would also notice when someone was upset and then ask them about it during a quiet moment. When his children, over the years, had tough conversations with him over things happening in their lives, he was always accepting. Not every parent would be.
Bill Glenister was born on April 22, 1955, in Penn Yan, New York, the second child of Robert Francis Glenister and Janet (Bly) Glenister, who then fostered many babies after him.
Before graduating Rockville High School in Vernon, Connecticut in 1973, Bill Glenister participated in an outdoor concert at the Kennedy Center in New York City with the school's concert band and jazz band. As a student conductor, he helped lead the jazz group in three songs, a newspaper story noted.
The mid-1970s were a formative time for him. In Boston, he came to faith in Christ as he attended Park Street Church. In 1974, he became engaged to his wife of 50 years, Barbara Glenister (nee Boettcher). On June 14, 1975, they married.
He graduated Berklee College of Music in 1976, studying trumpet. There, he participated in the creation of an album called Jazz in the Classroom Vol. XV, and he said one of the highlights of his time at the college was playing at Boston Symphony Hall, helping perform a piece by the chair of the school's composition department, William Maloof.
Returning to New England after spending eight years after college in Las Vegas, he began attending the Presbyterian Church of Coventry, which had recently lost its music director. And thus began a career leading worship for almost four decades. While at the church, he started an orchestra that played hymns during Christmas-time and then expanded it to play year-round, arranging its music. He also formed a choir.
Since 2005 until 2024, he sang with an a cappella group Take Note!, whose concerts raise funds for area nonprofits, and he was a major personality for years at Laurel Music Camp.
He worked as a driver and manager at Frito-Lay until the late '90s. After taking night classes to learn computers, the self-described "computer geek" went to work at WinZip Computing of Mansfield.
He is survived by his wife Barbara and six children: Geoff Glenister and his wife Elisabeth; Sarah Ehle and her husband Nelson; Rachel Embree and her husband David; Nathan Glenister and his wife Rachel; Libby Jackson and her husband Daniel; Joel Glenister and his spouse Iden; and between them all, 14 grandchildren.
He is predeceased by his parents and his sister, Phyllis Lepine.
A celebration of life service, which will be livestreamed, will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 11 at Talcottville Congregational Church, 10 Elm Hill Rd, Vernon, CT 06066.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to Take Note! c/o P.O. Box 144
Mansfield Center, CT 06250