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Remembering
Bill Hildebrandt:
Teacher, friend
By Ron P. Coderre
Some people die without realizing the impact they’ve had on individuals other than their immediate family and close friends. That’s probably the situation with William “Bill” Hildebrandt, who died at age 84 on Dec. 29, 2012, at Westview Healthcare Center where he had been living for the past few months.
Bill Hildebrandt was a math teacher at Putnam High School for approximately 30 years. He arrived in Clipperland sometime between the mid-‘50s to the late-‘50s, at a time when I was a high school student at Putnam.
As an impressionable teenager, Bill Hildebrandt was a teacher I came to know as a friend I respected despite the fact I never was a student in any of his classes. During my high school years I remember him as a man who enjoyed a good laugh and smoking his pipe and an occasional cigar. That’s the picture in my mind when I think of him.
I also remember afternoons in the gym after class, when some of us students engaged with him and Jim Gagnon and other teachers in friendly competitive pick-up basketball games. Although he was beginning to feel the effects of arthritis, which would be with him his entire life, it was a thrill to say we played hoops against Mr. Hildebrandt and other teachers.
During those years we also drew large crowds of students and fans in the PHS gym for charity games versus the faculty. He was always part of that faculty contingent that we eventually would beat, primarily because of our youth and their Harlem Globetrotter antics, which we as students enjoyed thoroughly.
Later in my life, when I was a student in graduate school, I recall principal, Miss McCulloch calling and asking that I serve as a permanent substitute for an entire school year. I replaced my friend Bill Hildebrandt who was out on medical hiatus due to surgery aimed at relieving his pain caused by the dogged arthritis.
Over time I came to know Bill Hildebrandt when we’d run into each other at a variety of locations in Putnam. His demeanor never changed, always pleasant and interested in how things were going with me. The laughs and conversations we shared are memories I cherish.
In reading his obituary I was surprised to learn that he was a World War II veteran and a graduate of Boston University. Why was I surprised? Because in reality Bill Hildebrandt was an accomplished man who was humble and secure within himself, never boasting of his achievements.
Bill Hildebrandt will be missed by his sons and his former wife. He’ll be missed by the faculty members he taught with in Putnam. He’ll be missed by his cronies that he played cards with at the Putnam Lodge of Elks. And he’ll be missed by a guy who enjoyed the pickup basketball games and had the honor of filling in as a substitute teacher for him for one year.
Time passes for everyone. Sometimes too quickly. I guess that’s what happened with Mr. Hildebrandt. Rest in peace William “Bill” Hildebrandt.