Remembering Bill French

Kabeyun is saddened to announce the death of Bill French, a pillar of our community whose impact on camp cannot be overstated.

Bill passed away on February 10, 2025, in Cambridge, MA, after a series of illnesses. He was 83.

Bill was proud to be a direct link back to Kabeyun’s founding. His father, Frank, was one of camp’s original five campers in 1924, and founder John Porter would occasionally visit for dinner at Bill’s childhood home. Bill became a camper in 1954 and went on to spend more than 45 summers at Kabeyun as a camper, counselor, Assistant Director, and trustee, always following Porter’s founding principles in serving campers and their families.

Bill was influential in moving Kabeyun from a privately-owned camp to its current non-profit structure, with a key role in the 1973 founding of the John & Anna Newton Porter Foundation. He served as a trustee from the board’s inception until his death.

“I am most proud of the fact that we established the foundation when we did,” Bill said in 2023. “It basically saved camp.”

In the 1960s and 70s, skyrocketing property values and the corresponding taxes made it difficult for many camps, especially in New Hampshire, to afford the land they’d occupied for decades. Camps across New England were closing as owners sold their property in lucrative real estate deals. Others became non-profits. Bill was among those who guided the Porters to preserve Kabeyun and protect its precious land from development by establishing the charitable entity that operates camp to this day.

Bill’s time at Kabeyun began at age 12. As a camper, he loved trips; he joined the Kabeyun Mountain Club in 1958 and became a lifelong advocate for the KMC and its traditions. As a young counselor in the 1960s, Bill led canoe trips all over northern New England. He returned to camp as an Assistant Director beginning in the mid-1980s. When Bill stepped down as Assistant Director in 2005, he began offering two activities that exploded in popularity: croquet and Kabeyun history. First on foot and later in his bespoke golf cart, Bill would guide campers around Kabeyun’s property, sharing historical photos and documents and imparting stories about camp’s founding and gradual evolution over the decades.

In his later years, Bill also took up two traditions that connected campers and counselors to Kabeyun’s roots through literature. Early each session, he explained how camp took its name from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem, “The Song of Hiawatha,” as he read an excerpt from the Lodge stage. A few weeks later, he would close each session’s final Pine Point gathering by reading a passage by playwright George Bernard Shaw known as the “Splendid Torch,” which declares that life should be lived with purpose and passion. This passage had been a favorite of John Porter, who had likewise read it annually at the last Pine Point of the summer. It reads:

“I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. Life is no 'brief candle' to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.” - George Bernard Shaw

Born and raised in Woburn, MA, Bill attended the city’s public schools, graduating in 1959. As a student at Rutgers University, he became an Episcopalian and developed an interest in church music. After graduating in 1963, Bill’s passion for liturgical music took him to England. He studied organ at the Royal School of Church Music at Addington Palace in Croydon for several years and was honored to meet Queen Elizabeth II when she visited the palace. During his years in England, Bill enjoyed traveling throughout Europe with his dear Kabeyun friend, John Hallowell.

Upon his return, Bill worked for the classical music station WCRB-FM and the Boston Symphony Orchestra before launching a career in real estate. He enjoyed a very long and successful career as a residential broker beginning in the late 1970s. A longtime resident of Boston’s Beacon Hill, Bill came to specialize in properties in that neighborhood as well as the Back Bay and South End. He was a devoted member of Trinity Church in Copley Square and later St. Bartholomew's in Manhattan, with a special affinity for both churches’ music programs.

Bill loved to travel, both domestically and abroad. He enjoyed sailing trips in the Virgin Islands, Grenadines, and Turkey with camp friends, including Kabeyun’s former director Bill Old and his wife Susie. Along with Lake Winnipesaukee, Pratt’s Island in Maine had a special place in Bill’s heart. Following his father’s death in 1986, Bill, his mom Barbara, and his sister Nancy would gather there every September for the next 20 years.

In addition to Kabeyun and his churches, Bill was an active member of the Lakes Region Conservation Trust, New Hampshire Boat Museum, and the Greater Boston Real Estate Board, and he served on the Board of Directors of the New York Chamber Ensemble.

Bill is survived by his sister, Nancy French of Woburn, MA, and countless friends whom he inspired with his devotion to Kabeyun, the natural world, and the arts.

Services in Bill’s memory are being planned for Boston, likely this winter or spring, as well as during Family Camp. Kabeyun will share the details of these remembrances as soon as they are available.