wpainterw Bill Painter
 

A thread was kindly posted by a fellow SR member recently enquiring about wpainterw - Bill Painter who I think had the longest period of sobriety of anyone on SR and whose own posts were always supportive and insightful to those with less distance on the sobriety highway.

Bill has not posted for some time now. I miss him and knowing how he is missed by others here I did some online research and with great sadness I believe Bill has passed away. I will not be linking what I found because of the outside chance that someone sees it as an invasion of privacy but I have attached an abbreviated screenshot of what I found and his name, age and location do seem to match his SR profile though I would love to be wrong.

I had only begun to follow Bill's posts in the last 18 months or so so i'm really hoping there are others out there who read this and who might want to say something and perhaps flesh out Bill's character more than I am able.

RIP Bill.

I am so sorry to know that. RIP, Bill.

Unfortunately it appears that you are right Saoutchik. I corresponded with Bill a few times and he shared some details about himself that align with the obituary in his local paper with the dates you found.

He was a wise and gentle soul, I am sure he helped many with his posts on SR.

Rest in peace, my friend.

I've been missing his posts and sadly worried he'd passed. He was a true gentleman , kind and inspirational. RIP.

Rest in peace, Bill. He was truly a gentleman.

Thank you, Saoutchik, for the digging it took to find this sad update. You are a true friend to the SR community.

I've been thinking of him, too. Thank you so much for the information, Saoutchik.
See you later, Bill.

damn..I was worried that may be the case when I read the last thread asking how he was. Such a nice guy with loads of wisdom.

Rest in peace, Bill. You will be sorely missed. :(

Thank Sao

For some reason I thought Painter was a pseudonym but the dates match up.
If Bill has passed then I'm sorry to see him go, He'll be missed

D

Thank you, saoutchik, for letting us know.

RIP Bill.

Sadly, it does look like Bill has passed away.

He was such a caring person and wanted so much to contribute here and to help other members. I will miss him.

I'm going to bed now but I have thought a little more and will share some details of Bill's professional life (no family stuff) which is from his local newspaper so it is not private details. I want to share it because it shows what an impressive and learned guy Bill was, I sensed he was very well read and i'm sure many of you did too and this underscores that

A member of the New York Bar, he was a law professor for most of his professional life, teaching at the University of Illinois from 1972 to 1987 and at George Washington University from 1987 to 1997. From 1971 to 1972 he was the chief counsel to a U.S. House of Representatives Committee studying the securities industry. He was the author of dozens of books and articles, and his expertise was in corporate law, securities law and tax.

He was an active member of the American Bar Association, the American Law Institute, and the Cosmos Club, a social club in Washington. D.C.

His hobbies included reading, collecting first editions of English literature, and showing his beloved English Setters.

Thanks sao

R.I.P. Bill.x

Aww, another blow to our ranks. I really enjoyed Bill’s posts. I hope he found some peace before he passed....I know he was a bit sad last year. :(

Thank you, saoutchik. I'm so very sad to hear of Bill's passing.

He was such a kind man. I'll miss him. :(

R.I.P Bill :flow:

If so, I'm crushed. Similar to when I learned about CarolD many years after I'd left then returned to SR.

I'd been worried about his absence but hoped this wasn't the case. I'll always treasure the time he took to try and guide me to where he was. A true gentleman and I'm proud to say he was a friend. Rest in peace wonderful soul.

I too am sorry to hear this. May he rest in peace.