Frederick William "Bill" Binzen

1918 - 2010

Bill Binzen of Salisbury, Conn., a prominent photographer and children's book author, passed away peacefully on November 1, surrounded by his family. He had recently celebrated his 92nd birthday, and had been bravely battling cancer and pneumonia. In his photography, Bill had an eye for balanced composition and subtle mood that made works of art of his nature shots, and he always had a project to work on. Though devoted to his art, he was even more devoted to his family, and to a good joke.
Born in Montclair, New Jersey on September 21, 1918 (the same year his beloved Red Sox won their last World Series for over eight decades), Frederick William Binzen was the son of Frederick William and Lucy Husted Binzen, who had a home in Salisbury for many years. The family often spent summers in Salisbury, and Bill developed an abiding love for the area. Bill attended The Choate School, where he was co-captain of the Track Team, and went on to the University of Virginia but left after a year to travel and study art at the University of Arizona. He was working as a tour guide at Radio City Music Hall when the news came over the teletype machines that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. Famous for his tall, lanky frame, Bill was underweight for admittance to the Army Air Corps, and so worked as a cowhand in Wyoming for nine months to get up to weight. He served in World War II as a B17 bomber pilot with the 15th Air Force in Italy, flying 26 missions. After attending the Art Students' League in New York City, he worked in advertising as an Art Director for the firm of Ogilvy, Benson, and Mather in NYC. In 1959, he married an advertising copywriter, Gaile Longden, and they went to live in Florence, Italy for a sabbatical year, during which he did a great deal of painting, drawing, and photography.
In 1962, Bill started a new career as a freelance photographer, during which he contributed to many national magazines (such as Life, Psychology Today, Parents, Time, and Fortune) in addition to advertising work. During the 1960s, he lived on 10th Street in the East Village which became the basis of a book of photographs (Tenth Street) and two children's books. This began a successful, and to Bill very satisfying, period of children's book writing, eventually resulting in eleven books for children, of which the best known and loved is probably the Alfred the Little Bear series.
The family moved permanently to Salisbury in 1970 and Bill was inspired continually by the people and landscapes of his beloved Northwest Corner. He served on the Democratic Town Committee, the Salisbury Association Historical Society, and the Board of Christian Action of the Salisbury Congregational Church.
Bill is survived by his wife of 51 years, Gaile, of Salisbury; his daughter Susanna of Atlanta; sons William of Woodacre, Calif., Timothy of South Hadley, Mass., and Nathaniel of Beacon, New York. He is also survived by six granddaughters: Naomi Binzen, Molly and Tessa Guthrie, and Mira, Thea, and Xenia Binzen, and by daughters-in-law Nancy Binzen, Bethanie Hooker, and Jennifer Sipple and by son-in-law David Guthrie.
A memorial service will be held for Bill at the Salisbury Congregational Church at 30 Main Street, Salisbury on Saturday, November 13 at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to: the Salisbury Association Land Trust (which works with interested landowners to establish conservation protection of their property, www.salisburyassn.org/land-trust); the Salisbury Visiting Nurse Association (providing high quality home health services to all residents of the Northwest Corner of Connecticut, regardless of their ability to pay, www.salisburyvna.org); or Lucy's Love Bus (an organization founded by a family friend in honor of her daughter, that seeks to deliver comfort to children undergoing cancer treatment, www.lucyslovebus.org).
Please visit www.billbinzen.com to see Bill's photographs, read a longer life history, and leave a comment.