After a two-year struggle with cancer, William A. Sabin, 77, of Bristol, died peacefully, with his wife beside him, at Cove’s Edge Nursing Home, in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
Bill was born in Paterson, N.J., on May 29, 1931, the son of David Sabin and Esther Goodman, who migrated to the United States in the 1920s from Bialystok, a town on the border of Russia and Poland. Bill’s uncle was Dr. Albert Sabin, who invented the oral polio vaccine.
He grew up in Passaic, N.J., and then went to Yale, where he earned a B.A. in 1952. In 1954, after a two-year service in the army, during which he was stationed in Munich, Germany, he returned to Yale as a graduate student in English.
While at Yale he met his future wife, Marie Noonan, also a graduate student in English, and they were married in 1958. They began their life together in New York City but soon settled in Montclair, N.J., where they raised five children and lived for 32 years. Since1997 they have lived happily in Maine.
Bill received an M.A. from Yale in 1956 and went to work as an editor, first for Pitman Publishing, and then for McGraw-Hill, both in New York. While at McGraw-Hill he held the title of Editor in chief, and subsequently of Publisher, of professional and reference books. He also became the author of The Gregg Reference Manual, a comprehensive guide to grammar and style and a project to which he devoted his life after taking an early retirement in 1991. The book is widely used in business and professional circles. Bill was master of the rules but also a proponent of flexibility. If anyone presented him with a complex grammatical dilemma, he would quietly suggest that the same idea could be expressed a simpler way. Bill worked tirelessly at refining and updating the content of his book; he was finishing the eleventh edition two days before he died.
In addition to his love for words, Bill was also a passionate lover of music. In the metropolitan area he subscribed to the New York Symphony and the Metropolitan Opera; in Maine he has been an enthusiastic supporter of the Bay Chamber Concerts in Rockport, the Salt Bay Chamber Fest that comes every August to Damariscotta, and above all, of the locally based Daponte String Quartet. An accomplished pianist himself, he particularly enjoyed playing the romantic ballads of the 50s, the compositions of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Rogers and Hart. In 2001 a friend recorded his playing, dubbing the CD, “Martini Time”.
Friendship was in itself another passionate pursuit. He was interested in the lives of all whom he met; he was generous in helping anyone in need.
Bill was predeceased by his sister, Florence Sabin Stern.
He is survived by his wife Marie, his spouse of more than 50 years; daughters, Margaret of Montclair, N.J., and Kate, of Rohnert Park, Cal.; sons, Chris and Jim of Rohnert Park, Cal., John and daughter-in-law, Kathy, and two granddaughters, Dyani and Brook, all of Oberlin, Ohio; niece, Jamie Stern Connolly and husband Michael, and their sons, Jon and Alex of New York City; nephew, Mitchell Stern, together with his wife Christine, of Long Island, N.Y.; and brother-in-law, Lou Stern, of Passaic, N.J.
The family plans a memorial in the spring, open to the public, which will celebrate his life.
Donations in his honor may be made to the Genesis Community Loan Fund, P.O. Box 609, Damariscotta, ME 04543; the Daponte String Quartet, P.O. Box 401, Damariscotta, ME 04543; the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Attn: Contribution Services, 10 Brookline Place West, 6th Floor, Brookline, MA 02445-7226; or Cove’s Edge Nursing Home, 26 Schooner St., Damariscotta, ME 04543.
Arrangements are entrusted to the Strong Funeral Home and Cremation Center, 612 Main St., Damariscotta.
