William Pittman

Dr. William Howard (Bill) Pittman of Niskayuna, a 32-year resident of the Capital District, died peacefully on
October 15, 2025 after an illness.
Dr. Pittman was born in Moscow, Idaho (that's right, Moscow, Idaho!) in 1935, to William Henry Pittman and
Elsie W. Pittman. In his first ten years, his parents were constantly "movin' on" from Idaho to Massachusetts,
Kentucky, Missouri and Maryland. While living in Lexington, KY, as a boy 3 years old, Bill was twice afflicted:
by the abandonment of the Lexington trolley cars and by Type 1 diabetes. He received medals in 2013 from Eli
Lilly Co. and in 2018 from the Joslin Institute for living successfully for 75 and then 80 years with diabetes.
The lack of trolleys proved to be a more serious trauma.
Bill was educated in chemistry at the University of Missouri and the University of Illinois (Ph.D. 1960), and in
law at Cleveland-Marshall Law School and Georgetown University (J.D. 1964).
Bill was employed as a patent practitioner in Painesville, OH, Washington, DC and the Cleveland area by
Diamond Alkali Co. and The Lubrizol Corporation of Wickliffe, OH. He joined GE Global Research in
Niskayuna in 1982, retiring in 1998 as Intellectual Property Counsel-Chemical & Materials Technology. He
considered his employment to be a series of excellent positions in declining "rust belt" cities and their suburbs.
Dr. Pittman was a retired member of the New York Bar and the US patent bar. He served as a president of the
Eastern New York Intellectual Property Law Association and was a member of the American Chemical Society,
American Intellectual Property Law Association and American Bar Association. Following up the passion for
trolleys that had begun in Lexington, upon retirement he became a member and volunteer motorman at the
Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven, Connecticut.
Bill was also a musician, having played violin and viola starting at the age of 9. He attended the Interlochen
(MI) Summer Arts Camp; played with the University of Illinois Orchestra and the Cleveland Philharmonic
Orchestra; and sang in the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and the Albany Pro Musica.
He is survived by his beloved wife, with whom he recently celebrated 50 years of loving marriage, Meme
Gibson Pittman; three children, Alan Pittman of Middle Island, NY; Erica Pittman of Amherst, MA; and James
Pittman of Mora, NM; a brother, Robert F. Pittman (Dorothy) of Columbia, MO; and countless cousins, mostly
in the states of Washington and Minnesota. He was predeceased by his parents, numerous aunts and uncles and
his ex-wife.
Memorial contributions may be made to the William H. Pittman endowed law professorship at the University of
Missouri-Columbia (established in memory of Dr. Pittman's father); the Schenectady Symphony Orchestra;
the Cleveland Orchestra; the Joslin Diabetes Center; and liberal organizations such as the American Civil
Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood Mohawk-Hudson, NARAL, and the Southern Poverty Law Center