William Alfred Merritt, Jr.

Bill was born in Flushing, NY on August 7th,1936 and raised in Amityville, Long Island with his sister, Justine by Florence and Bill Sr. He attended Chaminade High School, Holy Cross College and Harvard Law School. Between college and law school, he spent 3 years in active duty in the

Navy and 20 in the reserves before retiring as a Captain. Bill was an entrepreneur who worked in various businesses from grain to telephones, tugboats to real estate. In 1975, after spending his formidable bachelor years in NYC, Bill and his wife Chris, moved to Darien, CT to begin the next chapter of their lives. Bill’s accomplishments were long and admirable, but what really touched all of us were his stories and his big personality.

Bill liked to recount frequently that he was one of the “fastest” men in the East and “just missed” qualifying for the Olympics. He loved track and ran the 400m relay at Boston Garden and Madison Square Garden with one of his best friends, Dingle Daly. Bill’s proudest achievement was being inducted into the Holy Cross Hall of Fame. He enjoyed running late into his life, often jogging with Daly, their kids and a motley crew of dogs at Waveny Park.

The Navy was deeply influential in his life, instilling a strong sense of discipline, camaraderie, loyalty and honor. Bill remained closely connected with his Navy buddies throughout their lives. One of his great Navy friends, Alan Haas, showed up for him until the end, taking Bill out to lunch weekly through the late stages of Alzheimer's. The Navy also provided Bill with an endless catalogue of entertaining stories, some of their authenticity questionable. He loved telling the story of seeing the Beatles in a small pub in Hamburg before they were famous. As the story evolved over the years, Bill could be heard saying that he was the one who discovered the greatest rock band of all time. From what we could tell, Bill hung out on a destroyer in the Mediterranean on the French Riviera during an era of peace. However, according to Bill, he was hard at work chasing Russian submarines (not unlike a Tom Clancy novel). Another story he loved to share happened during a violent storm while he was on the Destroyer Fiske. In the rough seas, Bill was swept overboard to a certain death (or so we’ve been told). By divine intervention, another huge wave came along and swept him back on board to the astonishment and great relief of his shipmates. Following his adventures at sea, he was fondly nicknamed Captain Bill, a name he wore proudly to the end (along with his naval baseball cap).

Bill loved his kids with unabashed pride. He especially loved watching them play sports and used his encyclopedic mind to catalog useless obscure sports stats of his kids’ teams that nobody else cared about. You might hear him say something like, “Kelly, if you were 2 seconds faster in your 800m split, you would have had the fastest time for a junior girl in the first half of the mile in southeastern CT.”

One of Bill’s favorite rituals was the weekly Breakfast Club. He and a group of friends and fellow sports fanatics met Saturday mornings at Scooters to prepare for each high school game and to brace themselves for Bill’s unsparing post-game commentary. These often included reflections like, “She’s the worst goalie I’ve ever seen; she couldn’t stop a beach ball.” Or “You’re the biggest disappointment this team has ever seen.” (To be fair to Bill, he intended this as a compliment because the player was sidelined with an injury and the team missed him). Bill had an unfiltered candor and outrageous humor that caused those around him to laugh, grimace or cringe. But there was something refreshing about his brutal honesty. If you wanted the truth, you knew Bill would tell you: the good, the bad and the ugly. He will be remembered as the biggest fan and supporter of his kids, never missing their games, traveling all over the country to watch them and driving endless hours to drop off forgotten shin guards or other equipment.

His work with McAllister Tugboat was an important culmination of many of his loves: the sea and his captainship, New York City, loyal friendships and great business deals. Over the years, our family enjoyed many outings in New York harbor on the McAllister tugs, including his 40th wedding anniversary, Chris’ 60th birthday and engagement parties for his children. Thank you Brian and Rosemary.

Bill had a rich life which he loved to share with his friends and family. He is survived by his wife, Chris, his sons, Tyler and Brian, his daughter, Elizabeth and his grandchildren, Cody, Sage and Nina Strawbridge, Hadley, Lincoln, and Asher Merritt and Mazzy Merritt. We will all miss you Bill. You were one of a kind. As Brian’s friend noted, “An oak has fallen and the forest mourns.”

A small Celebration of Life is being held by his immediate family on a boat off the coast of Maine where his ashes will be scattered into the sea.

In Lieu of flowers donations in Bill's memory may be made to the Alzheimer's Association at donorservices.alz.org

Please visit www.lindquistfuneralhome.com to leave condolences for the Merritt family and sign Bill's online guest book.