William Ellithorpe

Lebanon, NH – William "Bill" J. Ellithorpe, Jr., 86, a 50-year resident of Newbury, Vermont, passed away on Friday, October 11, 2024. He spent his last hours surrounded by loving family members and his "sweetie" in the comfort of the Jack Byrne Center for Palliative and Hospice Care. We know that he happily rode a sulky behind Cambro Time--one of his favorite standardbred horses--out of this life, across the field on his old Newbury property and beyond to a place of peace, good grazing, and cribbage games with Bev.
Bill was born on August 26, 1938, in Palmer, Massachusetts, and grew up in the Thorndike section of town. He graduated from Palmer High School in 1956 where he was active playing baseball, football, and basketball as well as the accordion! He then abandoned the possibility of playing in a Polish polka band in order to pursue a career in teaching. He attended Keene State Teacher's College, NH, and graduated with a B.A. in 1961 and was hired for his first teaching job at Woodsville High School, NH that same year. He later went back to school to earn his M.A. in Teaching from St. Michael's College in Colchester, VT in 1965.
Bill taught history and government at the former Monson Academy in Monson, MA from 1963 through 1966. He also coached both football and basketball. It was there that he met his loving wife of 54 years-Beverly. They married in 1966, and Bill took on the task of helping raise her two sons, Larry and Glenn.
Bill taught history and coached basketball at Tantasqua Regional High School in Fiskdale, MA while Bev taught French, Spanish and English at Palmer High School, MA. After a short stint in Springfield, VT, Bill was hired as Principal of Palmer High School in 1969, serving there until 1972, when he moved to the "North Country to become Principal of the former Orford High School in Orford, NH. In 1980 he decided to try something different and began a coffee/hot drink distribution operation to area businesses back when this was a novel idea. In 1984 he returned to education and taught English and social studies at the Haverhill Cooperative Middle School in NH until he retired from full-time teaching in 1996.
Bill's lifelong love of fishing and hunting was nurtured by his father while growing up and exploring the woods and streams of western Massachusetts. He was also involved in beagle trials for those years and was a member of the Palmer Beagle Club. While living in Newbury, Bill particularly enjoyed camping along the White River with his father, nephew Terry, and brother-in-law, Wayne to fish for trout and made a few longer excursions, such as to the remote waters of Chibougamau in Quebec to fish for pike. He had several Brittany Spaniels over his later years for the purpose of bird hunting in the fields of the Upper Valley. In addition, Bill was a big Patriots fan but favored the Yankees over the Red Sox (to the chagrin of other family members)!
Bill's love of standardbred horses and racing began in his college years and the family's move to the farmhouse and 23 (or so) acres in Newbury, VT in 1974 enabled him to pursue this dream. He had numerous horses over the years, including such frequent winners as "Cambro Time" and "Swift River Connie," and he raced not only at racetracks throughout "the North Country," but at numerous fairs. He could always enthrall listeners with stories of photo finishes or of hazardous trips pulling the horse trailer through Sherburne Pass in Vermont or Crawford Notch in New Hampshire during snowstorms.
Bill was known for being outspoken and was always involved in politics and his community. This is evident both in his informal "holding court" while sipping cups of coffee at the Newbury General Store, engaging in debates from the seat of his pick-up as well as actually running for office and serving on local boards. The latter included a nine-year stint on the Newbury Board of Selectman, several terms on the Oxbow School District Board and time as the Moderator at the Newbury Congregational Church, in which he and Bev were both active. Of course, there were also the informal, but always loud conversations that were a tradition at all family gatherings, such as at Thanksgiving or New Year's Eve, when Bill and his loving sister, Chris, would banter back and forth as the tv might be doing play-by-plays of a Patriots game in the background.
Bill and Bev loved to travel and, especially, gravitated to historical sites including Gettysburg in Pennsylvania and the Fortress of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia. They enjoyed camping at Wassampki Springs in Maine for many summers and spent numerous winters in Jensen Beach, Florida, where they relaxed on the beach, visited other retired friends, went out for seafood, or explored nearby environs such as Lake Okeechobee. There were also trips to England, Scotland and Wales as well as to the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec and Canada's Maritime provinces.
One of Bill and the family's earliest adventures was the trip "out West" back in 1968 in a Ford Mercury that pulled a pop-up camper. Sites visited included the Badlands in South Dakota, Yellowstone National Park, Zion and Bryce Canyon National Park, and the Grand Canyon. For many years afterward, the family would subject visitors to a slide show of the trip and such stories as when Bill and Larry hid from a curious bear in a campground bathroom.
However, both Bill and Bev loved the farm in Newbury above all else and the caring, supportive community of friends they had there throughout their 50 years in the town. Just as treasured as their many trips were quieter times spent in the kitchen, looking out the picture window to the field where a group of deer might be grazing at dusk.
Bill and Bev were both cribbage and rummy fiends and neither took prisoners when they played! Both would howl with frustration or gloat when they skunked each other or were caught in the "dead hole" at the end of a cribbage game. Bill also partnered with a friend and competed in local cribbage tournaments with an eye on the first-place trophies. Many ended up on a table or shelf in the family room. Bill later continued to play cribbage and other games, attend plays or movies, and get in one last trip to Florida with his companion of the last two years-Joan.
Bill learned many carpentry skills from his father growing up and was also known for creative resourcefulness in dealing with problems. For instance, in his post-retirement years he remained busy on the farm growing and selling corn, pumpkins or other vegetables at various times. Needing plenty of water for this endeavor and with some summers being particularly dry, he set up a system for pumping water from the swamp at the edge of the property for this purpose. He'd also, at various times, raised some banty chickens for the purpose of making fishing lures, built a dog kennel in the back yard when living in Palmer and installed a system for rotating the roof antenna at the stone house in Orford and then in Newbury in order to pick up a whopping two channels! This was in the days before cable or satellite tv, of course. Locals are also sure to remember days when Bill sold his corn from the back of "Old Blue" at a Route 5 pull-off down in Bradford, as well as when school groups picked his pumpkins from the field behind the Newbury house in the month before Halloween.
Bill is survived by his dear sister Christine Smith and his brother-in-law, Wayne Smith, of Palmer, MA; his nephew Terry Smith of Ware, MA and Terry's son, Evan; son Glenn Reed and his partner, Timothy Brennan, of Wilder, VT; son Larry Reed of Fair Haven, VT; granddaughter Devyn Reed of Pittsford, VT; granddaughter Brianna Thompson and her husband, Zach of Rutland, VT along with their two children, Eli and Norah; his companion Joan Ponzoni of White River Junction, VT; and many, many long-time friends in Newbury, VT and elsewhere. He was predeceased in 2020 by his wife of 54 years, Beverly Ellithorpe; and by his parents William J. Ellithorpe, Sr. (2007) and his wife, Madlyn (Kmon) Ellithorpe (2006), of Thorndike, MA.
A graveside service will be held at the Oxbow Cemetery in Newbury at noon on Sunday, October 27. This will be followed that day by a celebration of the lives of both Bill and Beverly in the Newbury Congregational Church vestry at 1 p.m. Both are open for family and friends, and all are invited to come and share stories/fond memories of Bill and Bev. Memorial gifts in honor of Bill, in lieu of flowers, can be sent to the Jack Byrne Center for Palliative and Hospice Care in Lebanon, NH: online at https://dhgeiselgiving.org/cause/palliative-hospice-care#giving-options or call (603) 646-5919.
Ricker Funeral Home & Cremation Care of Woodsville is assisting the family with arrangements.