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FRAMINGHAM – William Charles Wing, 87, died December 7, 2022 with his family by his side.
A Celebration of His life service will be held March 13th, 2023 11am at Plymouth Church in Framingham, and we welcome guests to share a short story of Bill as part of the service.
Bill was born in Appleton, Wisconsin on June 29, 1935. His father owned and ran one of the largest paper companies in the United States, Fox River Paper. Family values and an entrepreneurial spirit was in his blood. Growing up in the Midwest would develop Bill’s lifelong obsession with trains; summers on Lake Okoboji in Iowa, his love for water.
Bill was a serviceman in the Korean War and graduated as a photographic engineer from RIT. While attending school and on a ski trip to Whiteface Mountain in Lake Placid he met the love of his life Sandy. A smile and a song or two played on his guitar was the start of a relationship that would last his entire life. Sandy and Bill were married on June 9, 1962 in Fulton, New York. “My Bill” and “Love that smile” were two phrases that were never far from Sandy’s lips over those 60 years.
Throughout their life together Bill and Sandy traveled extensively throughout the world. Some of his most memorable trips were China, Hawaii and a ride on the Orient Express around Europe.
Bill’s love of all things related to water would compel the young couple to buy a sailboat, move to the east coast and eventually settled down on Lake Cochituate in Framingham to raise a family.
He worked as a photographic engineer for Polaroid and then started Wing Press in Framingham. Wing Press still exists today under his son Beau’s management. Bill was also active in the community as a Scout Leader, President of the Framingham Rotary Club and a Deacon at Plymouth Church. During this busy time in his life, Bill also found time to build a model train that took up most of their basement and on several occasions drove some actual locomotives.
In 2005, looking for a new place to explore and new waterways to be navigated Bill and Sandy bought a house in Bluffton, SC. He quickly became involved in the community and of course the president of the local model train club. Retirement suited him well, full of boating and travel. They moved back to the Northeast in 2019 to spend more time with family.
Bill’s love for adventure, boats, and trains continued throughout his life. He captained his son’s boat around Cape Cod and Long Island Sound last summer. Ate many lobsters. And to celebrate Mother’s Day last year Bill and his family rode the Cogg Railway where he hiked to the top of Mt Washington one last time. He will be missed but not forgotten, and a part of us all forever.
This love of life and adventure lives on in his wife Sandy and three generations including William (Beau) is his namesake and owner of Wing Press, and Freddy a pilot for Delta Airlines. Bill showed his son’s how to be a man; how to care for a spouse and put family first; how to run a business; and how to be kind and help others. These values will be carried on in Bill’s many grand, and great-grand children.
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Chesmore Funeral Home 
Norton, McKinney & Lawler Funeral Home