William Pinkham
1943 - 2024
William Pinkham, age 80, passed away unexpectedly on May 7, 2024 as the result of traumatic brain injury related to a fall at home in California. Although Bill had been in relatively good health and was physically active, he had also suffered a concussion just three weeks earlier in a bicycle accident. The unfortunate combination of events proved to be fatal. Bill was a bicycle enthusiast and loved to be on his bike. It can be said he died doing what he loved. He is survived by his wife Wanda, younger sisters Carol and Joan, and several nieces and nephews.
Bill graduated from Cromwell High School in1961 and earned his B.A. degree at the University of Vermont in 1965. He relocated to Berkeley, California in early1967, just in time for the Summer of Love. As Bill was fond of saying, he “managed to parlay my degree in Philosophy/English Literature into a job as a carpenter.” He became a skilled finish carpenter and worked on many custom-design homes.
Bill met his future wife Wanda Mar in 1972. They were a couple for many years before marriage in 1989 and resided just across the bay from San Francisco in the city of Richmond. They took great pleasure in the many amenities and natural attractions of the Bay Area. They had no children but shared a great love of the outdoors and enjoyed a wide variety of activities together – camping, travel, theater and the arts, all kinds of music, SF Giants games, and innumerable dog walks. Bill was also a writer of poetry, and continued to write throughout his life. During the Covid pandemic, he self-published a book of his own poetry for distribution to family and friends, titled It’s About Time: Old Poems of an Old Man.
After retirement from construction in 2007, Bill began a second “career” and became a dedicated advocate for causes that he believed in strongly, particularly environmental and climate change concerns. He was an avid bicyclist and worked to promote bicycles as an alternate form of transportation. He was on the board of directors for the East Bay Bicycle Coalition. He served on bicycle advisory committees for both the city and the county as well as for the BART transit system, working to improve bicycle safety and promote ridership. Bill was also heavily involved in local climate action groups. His love of life was large. His passions and interests were many, and his dedication was whole-hearted. He left a legacy of work that was warmly recognized by the many friends, family, and fellow activists who attended his Celebration of Life.