NEW PORTLAND – William J. “Billy” Anderson passed away from a sudden heart attack April 25, 2021 at Redington-Fairview Hospital Skowhegan with Susan Hellewell, his partner of nine years, at his side. He was 78.

Billy loved his New Portland community, his life, his friends and his family. Born in 1942 in Mt. Vernon, N.Y to Irish parents, a motorcycle-driving father with his mom, a dressmaker, in the side car. Later, his mother joined his father in New York, after he had emigrated to America, where they raised a family of two girls, Ruby and Marjorie, and later, Billy. As a young man, his family had vacationed many times in Maine, where his father got out of the car, strung up his hammock, and the family relaxed by the shore.

Billy attended New Rochelle High School, and went on to Colby College on a hockey scholarship as a stellar goalie, solidifying his connection to Maine, where he met his lifelong dearest friends, Mike “Hago” Harrington, Peter Roy and Ruby May. Years later, through his good friend Gordon Corey, Billy was able to reunite with his Colby hockey coach Jack Kelly at the Farmington Fair track, in the twilight of their lives.

After Colby, Billy joined the Air Force, and was stationed both in Indiana, where he met his wife Molly, and later they moved to Taiwan, for the rest of his service as Captain Anderson, enjoying touring the beautiful marble-lined mountainsides and tunnels on his motorcycle. He worked on the flight line, with brief maintenance forays with the planes to Vietnam, and there he met other life long friends, among whom are Jim Provenzano, Gary Pope, Bramble, and B.C. Harris. He came back and settled right into a home they bought in the little village of East New Portland, Maine.

Billy later built a home on Millay Hill, on an old, discontinued county road, amid abandoned apple trees and stone walls, married Paula Anderson, and had two sons, Sam and Woody. Here he created a great life for his family, gardening, cutting wood, expanding his home, and working in the old Kingfield Wood Products mill, firing the night wood-burning boilers. Billy was a great raconteur and during this time period he wrote a novel and met his beloved friend Harold Booth.

In 1987 Billy began building his home on the George Cole Road in New Portland with Jan Allen, whom he later married, and his sons. This would be the first of many construction projects taken on by the family crew over the next 20 years. Billy was an artisan and honed his craft as a cabinet maker. He built beautiful furniture pieces over the years for his family and friends as well as clients throughout New England.

Later, grandchildren came: Dylan, Ashley, and Hailey, Sam and Lisa’s children. Wherever the grandchildren were, Billy came: to Turner, to Millay Hill, to his home, and they played store in the back of his truck and built projects in his shop on the George Cole Road. In his later years Billy met and partnered with Susan Hellewell, initially as traveling companions and eventually to share life, love and wonderful adventures together for the rest of his years.

Billy led, in a way, a charmed life, and shared it with many great people. He adored his sister Marjorie with whom he loved to travel and visit in Greenwich Village. He had a great love and appreciation of woodworking, art, helping friends, grumbling/complaining, cooking for his guests, a kayak around the pond, Sox/Celts/Pats/and a cold beer on the deck. We will all miss him, and remember him in stories, amid laughter and tears.

Friends are invited to come together to remember and say farewell to Billy outside his home at 106 George Cole Rd., New Portland, on Saturday July 10, at 2 p.m. to share memories and funny anecdotal points of his life that touched yours. For information please call 207-474-1056. Covid precautions will be observed.

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