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BRUNSWICK – William Barr Hetzel Jr., 90, died on Saturday, July 6, 2024. He was born on Sept. 18, 1933, in Pittsburgh, Pa., and he was the younger son of Dr. William Barr Hetzel and Helen Moffat Hetzel. His father served as an orthopedic surgeon in World War I.

Bill graduated from Deerfield Academy and went on to Princeton University, graduating in the class of 1955. He earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School and then completed basic training and five years of National Guard Service in Fort Dix, N.J., and Fort Smith, AK. He spent his entire career at the Boston law firm of Warner & Stackpole.

Bill was married in 1957 to Juliet Hammond Hetzel, and they shared 48 years together until her death in 2005. They lived in Concord, Mass., until retiring in 1996 to a home they built on Montsweag Bay in Woolwich. In 2013, he joined the retirement community at Thornton Oaks in Brunswick.

In 1942 at the age of nine, Bill took a train from Pittsburgh to the Camp Chewonki whistle stop in Wiscasset. He returned for many summers there and developed a love for sailing and the Maine Coast. He and Juliet spent their first married summer working at Chewonki and living in Juniper-Dell cabin. Ten years later, he applied his corporate legal expertise to help Chewonki become one of the first non-profit camps, preserving its spectacular Mid-coast peninsula forever.

Bill never missed a birthday for his children and grandchildren, marking each one with a call and a card. He adored his pets; after Tiger the cat during law school, he had a series of wonderful dogs: Patrick, Digit, Molson, Buffy, Winston, Maggie, and Bear. He made pink bowls of Ma Stamberg’s frozen cranberry relish every Thanksgiving, warning about the horseradish with a slight grin. Bill was a devoted fan of all Boston sports teams: shout out to the Patriots, Celtics and Red Sox for keeping him engaged right up through his 91st year. He built decades of Concord friendships through his avid biking, squash, tennis, and bridge games. He volunteered for 20 summers at Bath’s Maine Maritime Museum, often aboard the historic schooner Sherman Zwicker. Bill loved to travel and took pride in his meticulous planning, from an epic 1970’s family trip out West, to his later years when he drove his camper with Juliet each winter down to Jekyll Island, Ga., and other trips, visiting friends along the way.

Bill was predeceased by his wife Juliet and his brother George Hetzel. He is survived by his daughter Anne Metzger and husband Rodger and their children Katherine, Peter, Caroline, John, Sarah, and Grace Prause; his son John Hetzel and his daughters Remy and Kemper; and by his son Bill Hetzel and wife Jennifer Niese and their daughters Molly and Sarah; his sister-in-law Lile Deinard; and his other nieces and nephews and their children. Bill is also survived by his partner at Thornton Oaks for the last 10 years, Carol Anderson, and her daughter Deb and son Christopher and their families.

A Service of Remembrance will be held at 4 p.m., on July 20, 2024, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 27 Pleasant St., Brunswick.

To share a memory or leave a message of condolence please visit Bill’s Book of Memories Page at http://www.bibberfuneral.com.

Arrangements are in the care of Bibber Memorial Chapel, 67 Summer Street, Kennebunk, ME 04043.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to the Chewonki Foundation, 485 Chewonki Neck Rd, Wiscasset, ME 04578.

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