William Henry Strong

William H. Strong, 81, of Decatur, Georgia, died on August 28, 2025.

Bill was born in New York City on November 5, 1943, to Ida (Krone) Strong and Henry William Strong. Bill's father, an infantryman in the U.S. Army, had departed for service in Africa four months earlier, and Bill would not get to meet his dad until Henry returned to the United States in April of 1945. They made up for lost time with many shared interests including math, music, swimming, dogs, and baseball.

Bill grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, with summer visits to his grandparents' cabin in Mahopac, New York. Both places would always be magical in his memory. He graduated from Teaneck High School in 1961 and from Columbia University in 1965. At Columbia, he was a math major, a manager of the men's basketball team, and a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity. He liked the Hungarian restaurant near campus and occasionally headed downtown to meet his Aunt Dottie at Stern's department store, where she worked, for lunch at a nearby automat.

After college, Bill moved to Hartford to work as an actuary at the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, where he would spend most of his career. In Hartford he met Marie Kissick (they lived in adjacent apartment buildings and he worked with her roommate Margaret). In 1971 Bill and Marie were married; traded the 1967 GTO for a new Volvo; and moved to Wethersfield, Connecticut, where they lived for 30 years and raised their daughter, Valerie. Bill was an active member of the First Church of Christ in Wethersfield, a softball coach in the town league, a big supporter of Wethersfield High School's athletic teams, an early adopter of organic gardening, and a breakfast regular at Three Sons diner. He was also a first-class helper with math homework. The study guide he sent to Valerie at Duke before her Calculus II final became the subject of some renown after it successfully predicted many of the problems on the exam and led to passing grades for Valerie and several other residents of her freshman hall. 

After Bill semi-retired, he and Marie moved to Sanford, Florida. After Marie died in 2010, Bill moved to Decatur, Georgia. From there, he was able to visit often with Valerie, her husband James, and their son William, as well as grand-dogs Lucky and Ares. Bill a/k/a Dad a/k/a "Grandpa Hat" (he wore a lot of baseball caps) regularly delivered "Friday candy" for William and beef jerky for the dogs, and on special occasions arrived with a bottle of Barolo for those of legal drinking age.  

You couldn't be around Bill without hearing music. He whistled all the time, sometimes including (despite the rules) at the dinner table. "It's a Small World" and the Association's "Windy" figured heavily in the whistling rotation. He had accordion lessons when he was little and later tried his hand at the guitar-going so far as to buy a Gibson Firebird like the one Brian Jones had-but his instrument was the piano. He played mostly by ear and could quickly pick out pop songs, classics, college fight songs, and even the theme music from Thomas the Tank Engine. He was also a lifelong sports fan and an avid supporter of the New York Yankees, the Duke Blue Devils, and more recently the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. He and his father were set to attend Game 5 of the 1956 World Series, but when the game was rescheduled to a school day after the Game 2 rainout, Bill's mom had to go in his place-to what turned out to be Don Larsen's perfect game. ("She said it was boring," Bill would deadpan.)  

Bill never met a dog he didn't like. Skipper (in Teaneck), Lucky (in Wethersfield), and Bandit (in Decatur) were his faithful companions. Bill and Bandit were well-known by all of the dogs, and most of the people, in their Decatur neighborhood. 

Bill will be sorely missed, but we take comfort in the fact that he found laughter, elegance, and music in nearly every day of his almost 82 years.

In addition to his parents and his wife Marie, Bill was preceded in death by his sister, Susan Mendez; his sisters-in-law Catherine Jackson, Vi Powers, and Pauline Brown; and an infant son.

In addition to Valerie, James, and William, all of Atlanta, Bill is survived by his brother Robert Strong (and wife Barbara) of Darien, Connecticut; his sister-in-law Joan Moser of Stanford, Kentucky; and his nieces and nephews.

The family will hold a celebration of Bill's life at a later date. For information about the celebration, or to share a memory or photo of Bill, please send a message to rememberingbillstrong@gmail.com.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University or to PAWS Atlanta.