William R. Tierney

Weston – Mr. William R. 'Bill' Tierney, of Weston, died Monday, February 6, 2012 at Newton-Wellesley Hospital. He was 85.

Bill was born in Boston on December 5, 1926, a son of the late John and Mary (Mulrenan) Tierney, and grew in West Roxbury. After graduating from Mechanic Arts High School in Boston he served with the United States Army in a quartermaster salvage repair company in the Pacific.

After the war he went to work for over fifty years for A. Schulman, Inc., an Akron, Ohio company that bought and sold products made of rubber and plastic. Bill was the company's broker for the New England region and was in the forefront of what was then a brand new industry. In 1951 he met his future bride, Anne F. Fitzmaurice, an Arlington native, on a New Hampshire ski trip and the couple wed on May 28, 1955. A few years later they built a home in Weston where Bill did most of the finish carpentry in the house. He had been a parishioner at Saint Julia's Church for more than fifty years.

Always a talented mechanic and a skilled carpenter, Bill's passion was to restore Chris-Craft boats. He belonged to the Antique and Classic Boat Society which awarded him first prize for the work he did on a craft he dubbed 'Pursuit', a 1940's era Chris-Craft which he re-made with original parts and genuine mahogany.

Though Bill was an Army man he was also an accomplished navigator and seaman. He loved salmon fishing in the United States and Canada and belonged to the Atlantic Salmon Federation. He and his family enjoyed yearly winter sailing trips where Bill captained his own boat around Virgin Gorda, an island in the British Virgin Islands, where he holds the distinction of being the first Santa Claus to visit the island to meet with youngsters before Christmas, which he did at the Bitter End Yacht Club almost twenty years ago.

In addition to his wife of 56 years, Anne, Bill leaves his children, John J. Tierney, D.O. and his wife, Margaret, of Westwood and James A. Tierney of Palm Beach, Florida; his grandchildren, Meghan, Ryan and Charlene Tierney and Zachary Heger and many nieces and nephews.

Bill was also the father of the late Charlene A. Tierney and a brother of the late John A. and Lawrence E. Tierney.

Family and friends will honor and remember Bill's life by gathering for calling hours in The Joyce Funeral Home, 245 Main Street (Rte. 20), Waltham on Thursday, February 9th, from 4 to 8 p.m. and again at 9 a.m. on Friday morning before leaving in procession to the Holy Spirit Chapel at Campion Center, 319 Concord Road, Weston where his Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Burial will follow in Linwood Cemetery, Weston.

Memorial donations may be made to the Zack Heger Foundation for Muscular Dystrophy, 232 Grove Street, Westwood, MA 02090 or online at www.zackhegerfoundation.org