William C. "Bill" Platt

1961 - 2025

William "Bill" C. Platt

Contoocook, NH - William "Bill" Crosby Platt, 64, of Contoocook, NH, died at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston on Wednesday, September 17, 2025, after a long illness.

He was born January 31, 1961, in North Hempstead, N.Y., to Harold and Elizabeth Platt. Bill grew up in Manhasset, N.Y., and in Tulsa, Ok. He was a graduate of UMass-Boston and received his master's degree from the University of Montana. He was a writer to his core, rarely traveling anywhere without a notebook and pencil in his pocket.

He married Paula DelBonis-Platt in 1995 in Kalispell, Mt. Bill and Paula moved from shared bylines to a shared life in higher education and parenting their two beloved sons, the adventure and loves of a lifetime. Bill especially treasured these moments and memories with their sons, Nate and Will -- dinners, projects, automotive exploits, concerts and theater, movies, golf, celebrations, travel, and long talks.

Bill was a senior writer in Dartmouth College's Office of Communications for the last 13 years of his life. He had held writing and editing positions from his student days onward, including an internship at the Boston Globe; as a reporter at the Vineyard Gazette; leading the Montana Standard's bureau in Anaconda; overseeing and editing translations at Bowne in New York City; writing for the Dow Jones Newswires, including the famous Times Square "ticker"; working as a stringer in France for the Associated Press; and editing on the night desk at the Concord Monitor. He greatly valued his colleagues, connections, and friendships from each of these times in his life.

When not writing professionally, he was busy penning screenplays and stories or reading about writing and writers. Rarely devoid of hope, he died with a fresh sheet of paper in his Remington Quiet-Riter Eleven typewriter and a fresh supply of pen and ink cartridges on his desk.

He also reveled in music, from Tin Pan Alley to Tulsa Sound, and had passed his own instruments, the guitar and banjo, to his children to play.

Bill is survived by his wife, Paula; sons, Nathaniel Platt (partner Kirsten Hanchett) of Manchester, N.H., and William Platt of Contoocook and Fort Collins, Co.; brother, Donald Platt of Marietta, Ga.; sister, Allison Platt of Goldsboro, N.C.; and a close cousin, Dianne Platt of Tulsa, Ok. He was predeceased by his parents and an infant sister Pamela.

A celebration of Bill's life will be held on Tuesday, October 14, at 10 a.m. at Wesley United Methodist Church in Concord, N.H. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's Jimmy Fund or the American Cancer Society.