WATERVILLE – William “Bill” Dellert,76, died peacefully Thursday March, 28, 2024, at Mount St. Joseph’s Nursing Home in Waterville where he had been a resident since January.

Bill attended Gardiner Public schools and graduated Gardiner Area High School in 1965 where he was a member of the track and cross-country teams. As a boy, he delivered the Kennebec Journal door to door for many years. He shared a route of 90 papers with his brother that once relinquished had to be broken into two separate routes it was so large and demanding. He spent his childhood summers fishing and swimming on Lake Cobbosseecontee at the Y Camp where his father was director for two decades.

He worked for many years at the Bates Mill Edwards Division in Augusta until its closing in 1985. He then worked in the kitchen for the Augusta House of Pancakes where he is remembered by a formal portrait painted of him which still hangs in the restaurant.

He was an avid sports fan and supported all things Boston, most recently the Bruins.

Earlier in his life he was keen to take himself to Boston, stay at the Y, and attend Celtics and Red Sox games.

He read voraciously, and was something of a Civil War historian and expert. He often read two newspapers a day, a habit he continued even while in the nursing home.

He is survived by his brother Peter and a sister-in-law Motoko Inoue of Holyoke, Mass.; nieces Laura Raskin of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Rebecca Raskin of Burlington, Vt., and cousins in Maine, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C. His sister Annie Raskin died in 2020.

William was born in Bridgeport, Conn., Nov. 15, 1947, to W. David Jr. and Jean (Traquair) Dellert, moved to Southington, Conn.,until the age of six, then spent the rest of his life in either Gardiner or Augusta.

A memorial celebration will be scheduled in the future in Gardiner.

Arrangements and guidance are entrusted with Staples Funeral Home and Cremation Care, 53 Brunswick Avenue, Gardiner, Maine. Condolences, memories, and photos may be shared with the family on the obituary page of the Staples Funeral Home website, http://www.staplesfuneralhome.com.

In lieu of flowers, gifts in his memory should be made to the YMCA Camp of Maine in Winthrop, Maine, or to the Boys and Girls Club of Kennebec Valley.

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