Harvard Class of 1960

William C. Newhall

The kind and gentle soul, Bill Newhall, 80, died on June 13, 2019. An advocate for people with low income, a mental health advocate, and a spiritual astrologer, Bill was known by many in Montpelier and Plainfield, Vermont as a friendly person ready to help anybody in need. He was a longtime executive director of Another Way drop-in center which he helped found and supported for close to three decades. His friend Roy Parker put it best: “Bill lived and died like a buddha”. Bill was born in Salem, Massachusetts on December 4, 1938 as Stephen Cutler Newhall. He changed his name to Bill in his 20s. He grew up in Marblehead, Massachusetts and was educated (he would say “crippled”) at Phillips Exeter Academy (where he was a top student) and Harvard College (Class of 1960), receiving an A.B. degree in 1963. Throughout the 1960s and 70s, Bill traveled extensively from Germany to Japan, mainly afoot and then across America in a VW bus. He characterized his wanderlust by writing he was “heavily influenced by psychedelic trips and world travels in the 1960s…opening the door to other realities on and beyond this planet.” Bill was a passionate autodidact and intellect who generously shared his understanding with others as a teacher without a classroom. He described consciousness as a layer cake and awakening as a psychic journey of connection. He understood people and relationships intuitively, and gave love, compassion, and kindness to all, most especially to those in crisis. In addition to many friends in Vermont, Bill leaves his older brother John B. Newhall and John’s wife Katharine; his nephew Charles L. Newhall; his nieces Mary N. Higgins, Ann Walters, Jenny Rademacher, Hannah Sanger, and Becca Newhall; and his sister-in-law Virginia D. Newhall. His parents, Charles Boardman Newhall and Mary (Nason) Newhall, and his brother David N. Newhall, predeceased him. There was a memorial gathering at the Montpelier Unitarian Universalist Church on Monday, July 8, 2019 at 3 p.m. Because so many of the things Bill cared about are under threat (LGBTQ rights, the rights of the mentally ill, social justice, racial justice, voting rights), a memorial has been established in honor of Bill Newhall with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).