Obituary: William H. Birney Jr., 84; Formerly Of Hamden

WALLINGFORD, CT — (From Wallingford Funeral Home): William (Bill) H. Birney Jr.’s miraculous third lease on life ended according to its natural terms on January 19, 2022, when he peacefully departed from his home in Wallingford, Connecticut, a few months shy of his 85th birthday, surrounded by his loving wife of 62 years, Kathy Moran Birney, and his cherished family.

Bill is something of a medical miracle, long defying and baffling some of the world’s most renowned oncologists. In January 2004, at the age of 66, Bill was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer that had metastasized to his liver. Bill was serendipitously introduced to Yuman Fong, M.D., a Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center surgeon who pioneered a revolutionary but risky liver surgery.

With some hesitation because of Bill’s age and advanced medical condition, Dr. Fong performed the surgery and ultimately saved Bill’s life. Bill was toasting Kathy, beer in hand, at her 65th birthday party less than a week after discharge in July 2004. Dr. Fong can still be heard lecturing surgical residents about Bill, his miracle patient, and the importance of looking beyond quantitative factors when deciding to perform lifesaving surgery. Bill was not cancer free for long, though.

In December 2004, Bill was again diagnosed with cancer, this time stage 4 melanoma. The same successful result followed Bill’s surgery at Yale and for the last 18 years, Bill has been a public service announcement advocating routine cancer screenings—"schedule your colonoscopy, please”—and liberally applying sunblock.

Bill was born in New Haven, Connecticut on April 18,1937 the oldest child and only son of William H. Birney, Sr. and Alice (née King) Birney. Bill was raised in Hamden, Connecticut, attending Saint John the Baptist Grammar School (New Haven), where he used to walk home to Third Street for lunch, and Hamden High School, where he graduated in 1955.

Growing up Bill had fond memories of traveling with his father to Thompsonville, Connecticut to visit his paternal grandmother, Nana Birney. Together, they often spent Sunday afternoons on Bridge Lane, which overlooks the Connecticut River, watching the trains of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad pass by. Bill also spent plenty of time with the King first cousins, and friends Dave and Chuck Battle.

Bill entered the management training program at W.T. Grant Stores on Chapel Street in New Haven after graduation. It was at Grants that Bill met Kathy Moran, two years his junior, who was working part time after school. Look through the 1957 Sacred Heart Academy yearbook, and you will find a candid picture of the two at Kathy’s Senior Prom. The photograph positively captures the love they shared until the moment of Bill’s death. They dated until their engagement in 1957 and were married on November 21, 1959.

Between 1957 and 1959, Bill actively served in the U.S. Army with Mortar Battery, 1st Battle Group of 15th Infantry, Third Infantry Division and continued his military service in the Army Reserves until 1962. While in the service Bill was stationed in Fort Benning, Columbus, Georgia and Warner Barracks, Bamberg, Bavaria, West Germany. Bill was introduced to another love, travel, when stationed in Germany and returned to Bamberg multiple times over his life. Unquestionably, Bill’s favorite place on earth besides Wallingford was Bamberg.

Bill had an unparalleled memory and an insatiable appetite for learning. While attending college, he contributed to our understanding of human behavior by volunteering in the now iconic Milgram Experiments at Yale University. Bill was instructed to administer electric shocks to a (unbeknownst to Bill) staged actor. At one point during the study, Bill refused to continue and stormed out of the laboratory. Weeks later in 1962, he received a letter from Yale revealing the study’s purpose and design.

Bill and Kathy moved to Wallingford in 1962, where they bought their first house. Interstate 91 had yet to be completed and Wallingford remained a toll call from Bill’s parents in Hamden, but it was a much shorter commute to North Haven’s Pratt & Whitney, where Bill was working third shift in support of the cold war effort.

Bill and Kathy moved into their second home on Burke Height’s Drive in August 1964. Bill often recounted a story that The Meriden Morning Record, the predecessor of today’s Record-Journal, was delivered to new homeowners for one week free of charge. Bill read the newspaper from cover to cover on the first day of the free delivery, including a classified advertisement that immediately altered the course of his life. Bill would be quick to also note that he ultimately subscribed to the newspaper when the free delivery lapsed and read it thoroughly every day he was in Connecticut since 1964, including completing the crossword puzzle.

1964’s Wallingford was experiencing unprecedented growth and the Town was actively recruiting for police patrolmen. Bill had always dreamed of being a police officer and, unlike other police forces in the area, the Wallingford Police Department’s minimum height requirements were more lenient. Bill immediately drove to the police station on Center Street and applied for the position. Notably, Bill’s second son, William J. Birney, was born later the same day. Bill was hired shortly thereafter, his modest 5-feet, 7-inch frame acceptable, his other credentials exemplary.

But for provisions of Wallingford’s police pension that imposed mandatory retirement age of 65, prognosticators believe that Bill would have been carried out of the Wallingford Police Department on January 19, 2022. Bill reached 65 on April 18, 2002.

The Wallingford Police Department was surely Bill’s second love (only after Kathy) and is a better place today because of his 38 years of service. Bill was promoted to Patrol Sergeant in 1973 and Lieutenant in 1979. Bill was always grateful for the support he received from then Mayor Rocco J. Vumboco, who long recognized Bill’s strengths, and the overtime shifts he was able to work to support his growing family, which by 1975 included six sons and one daughter.

Bill wore many hats during his tenure on the force, at times wearing multiple hats at the same time. In addition to working in and leading Patrol Division shifts at the beginning of his career, Bill headed the Department’s Records Division for much of the 1980s, where he successfully persuaded the Wallingford Town Council to fund the purchase of the Town’s first IBM AS/400 mainframe computer and was the driving force behind the Department’s transition from paper records to online records. Bill spent evenings and weekends teaching himself RPG, the programming language used with the AS/400, and then C++ when the Department transitioned to server technology, so that he could truly maximize the Department’s cutting-edge technology.

During this period, Bill also served as the Department’s Chief Training Officer and Court Liaison Officer. As Court Liaison Officer, Bill interfaced with judges, judicial staff, sheriffs, prosecutors, and criminal defense attorneys in the Superior Court in Meriden. Bill was held in the highest regard by all and there was an unkept secret that if you wanted to get something done in the Meriden court, you didn’t need to know the judge, you just needed to know Lieutenant Birney. Bill served as Interim Police Chief for a time in 1989 when both Chief Joseph Bevan and Deputy Chief Darrell York were on medical leave. He finished his career in 2002 after heading the Department’s Detective Division for eight years.

Bill was an amazing story teller and continued to mesmerize listeners with gripping stories until almost the end, including investigating and solving crimes during his career on the force. Two stories stand out. Reported by the Record-Journal as one of “the most sordid crimes in the area’s history,” three teenagers were brutally attacked off Tyler Mill Road in Wallingford during the early morning hours of April 12, 1969. Bill led the Department’s investigation, which culminated in the arrest of six members of a New Haven-based motor cycle gang, the Slumlords, all of whom were ultimately convicted and imprisoned for the assault. In May 1980, Bill, along with members of the Wallingford Detective Division, investigated the disappearance of Wallingford resident, John Abram, after he failed to show for an important work-related meeting. When family members went to Abram’s home, they found Martin Ziel, his wife and young child living there.

Bill often recounted how Ziel incredulously told him and other investigators that he purchased Abram’s home; however, no records substantiated Ziel’s claim. Ziel was arrested shortly after Abram’s body was found in July 1980 and was convicted of murder in February 1981. Bill was steadfast in his opposition to Ziel’s multiple parole requests.

Shortly after retiring, Bill was appointed to the Wallingford Zoning Board of Appeals, chairing the Commission for a large part of his decade plus tenure. Town Council Chairman Vincent Cervoni was a fellow ZBA Commissioner and marveled at Bill’s encyclopedic memory, calm demeanor, and deliberate decision making. Indeed, Cervoni attributes the development of some of his own skills as Town Council Chair while witnessing Bill in action as Chair of the ZBA.

No doubt Bill’s third love was traveling, and he and Kathy saw a vast majority of the World, at least once, including most of the 50 States. It was not long after Bill recovered from melanoma surgery in 2004 that he and Kathy were back on the road, touring the entirety of England. Since then they traveled to China, Russia, France, Ireland (twice), Italy, Greece, Turkey, Canada, all the Caribbean Islands, and back again to his beloved Bamberg, Germany, where he was able to tour Warner Barracks.

On January 5, 2022, Bill decided to stop treatment for acute lymphocytic leukemia, which was diagnosed in late September and was likely a long-term side-effect from the chemotherapy he received in 2004. When describing the rationale for his decision to stop treatment, he simply repeated the epitaph he had etched on his headstone: “It’s been a wonderful life.”

Besides his Mom and Dad, Bill is predeceased by his sister, Alice Ritchie. Bill is survived by his bride, Kathy, who is left to cherish in Bill’s memories with their seven children, Ralph (Tina) Birney of Perkasie, PA, Elizabeth (James) Gagliardi of Wallingford, CT, William (Shelley) Birney of Branford, CT, Patrick (Paige) Birney, Jon Birney, James (Christen) Birney, also of Wallingford and Randy (Kristina) Birney of Andover, MA. Bill’s memory has also been undoubtedly preserved with his 17 grandchildren—each of whom can recount a special own “Pop” story—Katie (David) Caplan, Nick (Blake) Gagliardi, Conor (Samantha) Gagliardi, Ryan, Evan and William Birney, Madison, Spencer, Maya and Griffin Birney, Benjamin and Emily Birney, Mikayla and Morgan Birney, Piper Birney, and Alexis and Ava Birney, and two great grandchildren, Louis and Lena Caplan, whom Pop was able to see in October and again over Christmas. Bill is also survived by Kathy’s brother and sister-in-law, Charlie and Rafael Moran and five nieces and nephews.

The family is forever indebted to Bill’s neighbors and great friends, Bob and Elaine Johnson. In 1977 they met across a shared driveway and spent the next 45 years sharing so much more, including life’s most treasured memories.

The Family would also like to specially thank Emily Layman, Liz and Paige, the amazing and caring staff at Smilow Cancer Center, Masonicare Home Health and Hospice and Masonicare at Home; each was instrumental in providing Bill care and comfort during his recent illness.

Donations in Bill’s honor can be made to either: to the Masonic Charity Foundation of CT, P.O. Box 70, Wallingford, CT 06492, or Gaylord Hospital, EBG Fund, (Elizabeth Birney Gagliardi Endowment Fund for MS and TBI) 50 Gaylord Farm Road, Wallingford, CT 06492.

Friends and relatives are invited to attend calling hours on Wednesday, Jan. 26, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Wallingford Funeral Home, 809 North Main St. Ext. Wallingford. A Memorial Service will be held at the Wallingford Funeral Home on Thursday at 11 a.m. There will be a graveside service with Military Honors following at St. John Cemetery, Christian Street, Wallingford, CT.

For more information and to leave online condolences, visit Wallingford Funeral Home here.