William Cruikshank Jr.

William Cruikshank Jr (Bill, Shank) died on April 24th. He was the son of Esther Gurney Cruikshank and William Cruikshank. He grew up in Garden City, NY and graduated from Phillips Academy and Brown University. After Brown he joined the Marine Corps OCS. He served in Vietnam from 1965-1966. After being honorably discharged he moved to Killington, VT and worked at various jobs. He then moved to northern VT, eventually settling in Burlington where he owned numerous rental properties. Over the past 20 years he resided in Poultney VT and owned rental properties in West Pawlet, Poultney, Stratton, and Whitehall, NY. All of these properties he upgraded, remodeled, eventually sold, sometimes even at a profit. Bill was a true Renaissance man. He taught himself to build houses, including plumbing, electric, and all other aspects of construction. He loved acting with numerous local theater groups. He could recite by heart Shakespeare’s soliloquies, Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ and of course the Carnation Milk jingle that our mom taught us all. He grew a huge vegetable garden and baked his signature no knead rolls which came to every family and community event. He was a fabulous guitar player. He played everything from 1950s rock and roll to classical Spanish pieces. His rendition of ‘I’m a Hog For You Baby’ always brought the house down. He loved sunset sails on Lake Bomoseen, perhaps with a Double Bag on board. His jokes were legendary and he had a knock-knock joke for every occasion. Bill lived life to its fullest, daily and joyously, even over the last 22 years while dealing with Agent Orange induced lymphoma, a gift from his tour in Vietnam. He loved our weekly lunches with our mom until she ‘went up’ at the age of 106. We, the 4 siblings, continued the tradition of weekly lunches until 3 weeks ago when Bill did not join us. Bill was predeceased by our parents Essie and Bill Cruikshank. He is survived by his 3 sisters, Essie Cantus, Nancy Rowe, and Robin Chandler, his 3 children Rachel Garnett, Darshon Wolters and George Wolters, and 5 grandchildren, Mesa, Bodie, Lila, Cybelle, and Finn. Many nieces and nephews: Bill, Laurie, Wendy, Jenn, Dan, Willy and Alice. Great nieces and nephews: Clare, Emma, Elizabeth, Ben, Matthew, Lillian, Cooper, Essie, Annie, and Ruby. Cousins: Susie, Tim, Bob and Al. He loved walking this earth with his dear friends from various places and all walks of life. He will be sorely missed by all but he was ready to go and went peacefully. Fly high and free dear Bill… There will be no services. A gathering will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers please donate to a favorite charity of your choice. We would like to thank Rutland Regional Medical Center and all Bill’s nurses, doctors and staff for the kind and wonderful care he was given. A special thanks goes to Dr Eisemann and the Foley Cancer Center.