William Prescott Childs

When Bill Childs stood to leave a restaurant after a laughter-filled meal with his family or friends, he would turn to the nearest table and say, “I’m leaving you in charge now.” William Prescott Childs, 90, of Dorset, Vermont left the rest of us in charge on March 10, 2026.

Bill was born in Berlin, Germany in 1935 to Roberta Lewis Childs and Prescott Childs while Prescott was stationed at the U.S. Consulate there. Bill’s early years, side-by-side with his older brother David, included posts in Barbados, Rio de Janeiro, Wellington, Havana, and Washington, D.C., which provided Bill with a great collection of stories to share with his children and grandchildren. In school and during summers, he was introduced to a variety of sports, including football, field hockey, cricket, tennis, skiing, swimming, and diving. Sports and games would factor prominently in Bill’s life, as would a taste for interesting excursions and global cuisine.

Following his high school years at The Westminster School and Williston Academy, Bill attended Washington and Lee University for a year, which included R.O.T.C, then signed on for a four-year stint in the Navy. He joined Aerography training, where he learned “everything about the weather except how to control it.” Following his enlistment as an Aerographer’s Mate, he attended and graduated from Yale in 1963.

In that same year, Bill married Sheila Hoyt Scranton, and they embarked on 63 years of adventures together. Some included working at the Eaglebrook School, owning and operating the 1811 House inn in Manchester, Vermont, and refurbishing a mid-conversion carriage house when they settled outside Baltimore in 1980. They eagerly supported the cultural offerings wherever they lived, and they traveled extensively with family and friends. Their most significant collaborative project was raising three daughters, Tina, Elizabeth, and Jennifer, cheering them on at their various artistic, sporting, and life events, then doing the same for their seven grandchildren.

Bill had many hobbies, but number one was racquet sports, with an eventual focus on platform (paddle) tennis. He and his brother David, in their 50s and 60s, won the National Championships in their age group eleven times in fourteen years. In 2005, they were both inducted into the Platform Tennis Hall of Fame, where they were celebrated for being “gentlemen,” who possessed “competitiveness…combined with unquestionable sportsmanship, and unwavering friendliness, both on and off the court.”

Having lived and traveled all over the world, it was small town life that might have suited Bill most. When he retired from his job as an executive recruiter in 2000, he and Sheila returned to Dorset, Vermont, where he lived out the rest of his 26 years in their ideal spot overlooking the village green. Friends and neighbors have referred to him as “a wonderful, kind man,” “a true gentleman,” and “a great friend for many, many years.” We will miss Bill every day and always remember his wit, kindness, humility, and appreciation of life’s small pleasures.

Bill was preceded in death by his brother David Childs and great-granddaughter Charlotte Gunning, and is survived by his wife Sheila, daughters Christina Cutler (Greg), Elizabeth Childs, and Jennifer Pelletier (Steve), his grandchildren Paige (Kaitlyn Litten) and Alexander Gunning (Katie), Carson Cutler, Mollie and Eli Caguin, and Madeleine and Henry Pelletier, and his great-grandchildren Erin and Hazel Gunning.

A celebration of Bill’s life will be held in Dorset, Vermont in late spring.