William Carey Newton

1951 - 2023

William "Bill" Newton of Virginia Beach died on August 5, 2023 at the age of 72. He was predeceased by his brother Roy M. Newton, Jr. and his parents Vera and Roy M. Newton.

Bill was born in Whitestone, Virginia in 1951 and raised on Walke Street in Virginia Beach in the Cape Story neighborhood. His attachment to the Chesapeake Bay began there and shaped his life. He graduated from Cox High and attended Old Dominion University.

Growing up in a family of sailors, Bill learned to sail as a child and along with his sisters, crewed for his father and older brother, Mac in Penguins and Hamptons; becoming an accomplished sailor in his own right. He sailed and raced extensively on the Chesapeake Bay and up and down the east coast. He crewed in several of the early Worrell 1000 regattas, racing Hobie Cats from Florida to Virginia Beach. He owned and competitively sailed Lasers, and several classes of catamarans and also windsurfers. He learned how to build and restore boats, building his own Whitehall Rowboat and restoring a classic Jersey Skiff. On the beach at Wake Forest Street where he kept his "fleet", Bill taught his nieces, nephews and many neighborhood friends how to sail. He gained an early appreciation for the wonders of the Chesapeake Bay and came to understand and value it then and later in his life as an active environmentalist. There was very little he didn't know about the Bay and its marine habitat.

Bill's passion for the sea took him on far-reaching adventures, once on a mission to Cornwall, UK to deliver a racing yacht. He held a 100-ton Master's License from the US Coast Guard. With this Captain's License, he worked as a professional mariner aboard commercial fishing vessels, pleasure yachts, environmental response ships and with NOAA's National Ocean Service serving aboard research vessels on Long Island Sound, the Gulf of Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, the North Atlantic and back home on the Chesapeake Bay.

In recent years, Bill has been an important part of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) and Lynnhaven River NOW (LRNow) organizations' combined efforts to restore the oyster population in the Bay and particularly in the Lynnhaven River. At the CBF Brock Center on the Lynnhaven River, Bill designed and maintained the operating systems for the CBF unique mobile oyster restoration facility producing and deploying millions of oysters annually. He particularly enjoyed the CBF sessions he led for area high school students at the Brock Center.

Bill lived life to its fullest. The quintessential waterman, he was a sailor, surfer, diver, fisherman and photographer with a lifelong love and repect for the sea. He loved a hurricane, cats, animals of all kinds, weather forecasting and oysters.

As the youngest of four lively children, he kept us constantly amused with his unpredictable sense of humor. Bill will be forever missed by his sisters, Sally Newton Herbert (Steve), and Vera Newton White (Cabe), and nieces and nephews, Glowyn White, Jack Herbert, Peter Herbert, Roy Newton III, Ashley Sierant, and Tanner Roughton.

On Tuesday, August 22nd at noon, a Celebration of Life followed by a reception will be held at Eastern Shore Chapel, 2020 Laskin Road, Virginia Beach VA 23454. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his name to Lynnhaven River Now, 3712 Holland Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23452 or the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Condolences may be offered to the family at www.hdoliver.com.