William "Bill" Emerson Beggs

Born in Boston, Bill grew up in Woburn and Lincoln, spending summers with his family on the Cape at Oyster Harbors. The oldest of 5 sons to Sidney Adams Beggs and Dorothy Damon Beggs. He attended The Belmont Hill School in Belmont, MA and graduated from the Choate School in Wallingford CT in 1945. 2 weeks after graduation, at age 17, he enlisted in the US Navy and served as bos’un’s mate on a PT boat in the Pacific. After discharge from the Navy Bill attended MIT, Northeastern University and the Pratt Institute before going to work in the family business, Beggs & Cobb Tanneries in Winchester, Massachusetts and Maine.

In 1950 Bill married the girl he’d known since they were 12, Carol Ames of Osterville. They lived in Winchester, MA where children Bill Jr., Vicki and Charlie were born. In 1957 the Beggs family business was sold and Bill moved his family to Osterville where children Molly and Amy were born. He bought the Stork Club Diaper Service in Hyannis and ran that business until 1974. He worked for Mid-Cape Home Centers for several years opening and managing the Kingston store until 1982 when he started building Northern Energy Homes on the Cape and southeastern Massachusetts and continued until his retirement in 1998.

Bill was an active athlete all his life. A single digit handicapper in his younger days he enjoyed playing golf until he was 85. He had a wicked serve on the tennis court, a sport he enjoyed into his 70’s. He was the varsity goalie for 3 years at Choate and enjoyed playing with the Cape Cod Amateur hockey league in the 50’s and 60’s, remarkably not losing any teeth in the days goalies played without a mask. An avid sailor during the summers, growing up he raced beetles, Wianno Jr.’s and Sr.’s, a love he passed on to all his kids. In his 80’s he enjoyed bowling candlepins and ten pins with the seniors at the lanes in Kingston.

Bill was a member of the Hyannis Rotary Club for many years and a Barnstable town meeting representative. He supported the Cape Cod Youth Hockey league and coached the “farm league” and the Puritan Redwings for several years in the 1960’s and the pee-wee all-star team in the early 60’s that went to the finals for the national championship.

Bill lost his wife Carol to cancer in 1989 and is survived by his Brothers Dudley and George, his children William E. Beggs, Jr. and his wife Carol, Virginia L. Beggs, Charles A. Beggs and his wife Karen, Molly B. Patterson and her husband Richard Patterson, and Amy B. Heifetz and her husband Andrew Heifetz as well as grandchildren Caroline Lauver, Worth Parker, Charlotte Parker, Morgan Patterson, Allison Beggs, Lilly Heifetz and Alexander Heifetz and great granddaughter Hazel Lauver.

The family is very thankful to Anne Cresswell, Bill’s home health aid and partner in crime for the past two years for the companionship and care she gave him.

A service in Bill’s honor will be held at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 421 Wianno Ave, Osterville, MA at 2:00 pm on September 1, 2015. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the National Parkinson’s Foundation or Cranberry Hospice. For online condolences, please visit www.doanebealames.com.