James William (Bill) Flanders Jr.

James William Flanders Jr. died from complications of advanced dementia on November 15th, 2023. His wife, Susan, was by his side. He was predeceased by his first wife, Claire Altenburger Flanders, who

died in 2003

Bill was born in 1933 in Meriden, CT, to Helen and James William Flanders. He attended Andover Academy and Yale University, where he was a member of the glee club. During his final semester, he decided that Yale, "wasn't asking the right questions," and traveled to France, in search of his own answers. He set himself up in a small walk-up apartment in Paris and continued to study French. That summer, he became a counselor at a camp by Lake Annecy, where he met a young and spirited French woman named Claire. After a nine-month courtship, they wed in Paris in the spring of 1956. They were married for forty- seven years and had four children: John, Lili, Sonia and Will.

When Bill returned to the US with Claire, he finished his studies at Yale. Upon his graduation, they moved to New Hampshire, where Bill taught at St. Paul's School for a year, before attending Virginia Theological Seminary. During the following decade, Bill worked as an Episcopal priest in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.

During the social and political turmoil of the late sixties, Bill's growing frustration with what he then saw as a hypocritical institution led him to leave the church and pursue a career in music. The family moved to DC and Bill opened the Singer's Studio, where he developed and taught a method of training non-singers to sing and hosted musical evenings for performers from across the region. He also wrote and composed his own songs and produced several albums, as well as a musical. Bill was active in local Yale Alumni concerts as well as worldwide tours with the full Yale Alumni Chorus. He was especially known for his solo rendition of the spiritual "Deep River."

The family often traveled back to France, and Bill and Claire raised their children bilingually. After friends from St. Paul's invited them to Truro, Cape Cod, they spent part of every summer on the Cape, eventually building a vacation home in Truro. Four generations of the family continue to enjoy the tradition of gathering there.

Bill eventually returned to the church on his own terms and rejoined St. Mark's parish in DC, where he served as adjunct clergyman and wrote hymns, which were occasionally played during services. After Claire died, Bill married Susan Gresinger, an Episcopal priest whom he had known and worked with since 1987. So began the second love story of his life. Bill and Susan were married for eighteen years and shared faith, a love of family, music, travel and the coasts of Cape Cod and Maine along with their dogs,Barney and then Sparky.

In addition to Susan, his four children and their spouses, Bill is survived by ten grandchildren, three great-grandchildren (with a fourth near birth), his sister, Betty Foster, two nephews and a niece. Bill loved and was loved by many friends and leaves us all with the ache of his absence, but also with the music of his long and rich life.