Newton Bill

William James McGillvray (aka Newton Bill), 96, of White Rock, BC died Oct 12 on a beautiful sunny fall afternoon… a “Golden Day” as he might say. He was surrounded by love as he made his transition. Bill was born in Manitoba on Oct 8 1922 but grew up in Vancouver. The first 30 years of his life were those that he said many times he would never want to live over again due to his battles with the bottle. During this time he did, however, travel the world with the Merchant Navy (which became fodder for some of his never ending stories) and later became a respected friend, worker and tradesman. His real life began in March 1952 when he was able to get sober and joined the recovery community. At the time of his death he was 66 years sober and had become a respected old timer in that community. In that time the number of people he helped numbers in the thousands. He met and married Margaret Gale (Peg) who he was with until her passing at age 84. They had two boys, Hugh and Craig who kept life interesting early on. He worked for years as a saw filer in many different mills up and down the coast but retired from Lamford Cedar in New West many years ago. His real joy was attending meetings where he seemed to have a special knack of reaching the hard to reach cases and helping them on the road to recovery. His colourful language and stories made sure that all who came in contact with “Newton Bill” had a lasting memory. Almost without fail anyone who has been around the community for a long time has a favourite story of how they were impacted by this man. Almost as much as his family, the friends that he held close and spent time with in meetings were the bright spot of his days and many returned that love in the later years by taking heartfelt care of him, running him to doctors, meetings or groceries…or just coming over for tea. For that we are very grateful. He is survived by his two sons, his step daughter Jodie and two grand kids Owen and Griffin who loved their grandpa very much. In lieu of flowers we ask that anyone wishing to please make a donation to the Alzheimer's Society (which Peggy suffered from) or simply buy a Big Book for a newcomer in Bills name.