William ‘Bill’ Charles Desmarais

The sky went dark on April 8, 2024 for a few minutes when the moon passed between the sun and the earth. Two hours later the whole world darkened when Bill Desmarais passed from this
plane to the next.

William Charles Desmarais (“Bill”) was born to Charles and Barbara Desmarais on July 19, 1976. The first of 3 children, Bill was also the loudest and the most competitive. For every story detailing his quick wit and gregarious humor, there’s at least one more of his quiet kindness and generosity, from offering his home and hospitality to quietly sneaking off and paying the tab while your attention is elsewhere.

Bill has left a hole in the hearts of many, most notably Carolyn, his beloved wife of 20 years, his 15 year old twin sons William and Joseph, his parents Charles and Barbara, his brother Scott, and his sister Sara Hannan (nee Desmarais), as well as 2 nieces and 5 nephews.

Bill was passionate about many things in his life - he enjoyed cooking, playing tennis, noodling on the ukulele, baseball (go Sox!), and board games. He played on a competitive tennis team, played recreational tennis, hosted board game days and traveled to GenCon to level up his board game collection.

Bill graduated from Hopkinton High School in Contoocook, NH, then earned his Bachelor’s degree in software engineering from Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY. While at Hartwick, Bill spent a lot of his time on stage, and joined the theatre fraternity Alpha Psi Omega, and played Rugby for some reason.

After college, Bill moved to Chicago and wrote code for different companies, including Motorola, The Chicago Tribune, and PayPal in Boston, but he really found his passion working for smaller startups that helped people, such as Wellist and Outcomes4Me. Bill and his family returned to New England when the children were small, though he missed Chicago greatly. He often traveled back for visits with his friends and his Wrigleyfest crew.

While in their mid-twenties in Chicago, Bill and Carolyn trained for a marathon, which they ran in Alaska. Perhaps his favorite story from that time was when he was running in the park and shared a high-five with Oprah.

Bill loved his family fiercely. He was the first to tell you he married out of his league, and his boys were one of his favorite topics of conversation. He shared his enjoyment of board games with Will and Joe, and could often be found on the weekend with an increasingly complicated board game spread out on the kitchen table as he worked through it in a multitude of moods and volumes, but always after which he would exclaim what a good time he had.

Bill was certainly one of the best of us. His loss will be felt for a long time by all who knew him, and the room will always feel too quiet without him.

Celebration of Bill’s Life will be held on Saturday, April 27, in Cochran Chapel, Phillips Academy Campus, 2 Chapel Avenue, Andover, MA at 1:00 PM. In lieu of flowers, the family recommends donating blood, registering as an organ donor, and/or registering for or donating money to a bone marrow registry, such as bethematch.org. Arrangements by Driscoll Funeral Home, Haverhill. For guestbook, visit www.driscollcares.com

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