William Joseph “Bill” Hourihan Jr. was born on May 9, 1938 in Charlestown, MA, the son of William and Mary Hourihan. He graduated from the Boston Latin School in Boston, MA in 1955 at age of 17.
Bill brought to West Point all the dogged determination that Boston has to offer—plus a passion for hockey. Initial academic setbacks required him to repeat plebe year as a “recognized plebe.” This immensely benefited his Class of 1960 classmates, as he greatly assisted them get through a very challenging plebe year. During his time at West Point, Bill took advantage of the many extracurricular activities that the school had to offer, including serving as the manager of the Hockey Team and involvement with the Catholic Acolytes, the Debate Council and Forum, the Dialectic Society, the Public Relations Council, the Pointer staff, and the Newman, Ordnance, German, Astronomy, Outdoor Sportsman, Golf, Sailing and Skeet clubs. Obviously, he was a person of varied tastes and interests. On graduation from West Point, he married Joan, the young lady he had pinned the previously year.
Bill was commissioned Artillery but made a branch transfer to Ordnance and was assigned to Watervliet Arsenal. He resigned his commission in 1963 and entered the next phase of his life. Bill and Joan had two children: son, Chip, born in 1961, and daughter, Erin, born in 1964.
Bill’s first civilian job was with New York Telephone, beginning in 1964. He then worked his way through the corporate world in jobs with Raytheon, Xerox, and Datapoint until, in 1973, he and his family settled in Wellesley, a sleepy suburban Boston college town. Bill had received an MBA in marketing and computer science from Boston University in 1970 and decided to put this knowledge to good use. In the meantime, Joan had tired of practicing real estate tax abatement law, and Bill and Joan decided to work together as partners. They set up their own business venture, Boston Telecom, a telephone interconnect company they ran from their home. They provided business telephone system sales, service, installation and repair in competition with the local telephone companies. They also had an associate consulting business, which primarily serviced their installed base. Bill was a major player in guiding State Street Bank through Y2K for IBM.
In the late ’60s, Bill’s sports interest switched from skates to skis. He and Joan became volunteer members of the National Ski Patrol, and they skied in Vermont as much as possible. Skiing became a lifetime sport, and it played a larger role in their children’s lives. Erin became a slalom specialist, racing in Division I at Bates College; Chip competed in club programs before graduating from Yale, and he participated in the Ski Patrol at Dartmouth.
Unfortunately, Bill’s business career, as well as skiing and other activities, came to a screeching halt around 2000 when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Still, he maintained a positive attitude. As late as 2009, in his writeup for his 50th Yearbook, Bill stated, “I might not be able to sail in Plymouth Harbor anymore, but I can still sit in the bar in the Yacht Club.”
Bill died on March 10, 2011. He is survived by his wife, Joan, of Farmington, NM; his daughter of Erin, also of Farmington; Erin’s husband, Mike; and their children, Mia and Max, who are college students; and his son, Chip. Erin is the executive director of Childhaven, which is a center for abused and neglected children. Chip lives in New York and manages the independent film company that produced the film Frozen River, which was a winner at the Sundance Film Festival a few years ago.
— Company classmates and wife