William Herring Chrisman, 74, of Paradise Valley, Ariz., and Christmas Cove, died peacefully on Jan. 29.
He was born June 28, 1932, in Evanston, Ill., to Roswell Herring Chrisman and Virginia Haynes Chrisman. He grew up in Winnetka, Ill. and attended the New Trier High School and Choate School in Wallingford, Conn. In 1955, he graduated from Harvard College in Cambridge, Mass. 1955. While at Choate, he made history in 1951 as captain of the cross-country team whose faster members joined hands with its slower members so that they could cross the finish line together in victory, winning the New England Championship. A Hollywood movie was made about that historic finish.
He entered the U.S. Army at Fort Sill in Oklahoma, followed by shipment to West Germany where he served as an artillery officer with the Second Armored Division.
Bill began his career in advertising agencies at Leo Burnett in Chicago, and Lennan & Newell in New York. He moved to the Clairol Division of Bristol-Myers, where he developed and marketed twelve hair products, among them the Frost and Tip Kit, which became the Cosmetics Fair magazine product of the year for 1968. Also for Clairol, he planned, designed, built, and operated Big Surf, the world’s first authentic water surfing facility located in Tempe, Ariz., for which he won the Builders of Greater Arizona award in 1971. Bill took the first wave himself.
He later developed a line of “Famous Iowa Foods,” which won acclaim from the likes of Bon Appetite magazine. In 1987, Bill started Real Estate Valuation Consultants from which he recently retired.
Bill was an endurance athlete. He climbed the highest mountain on three continents. He ran the Boston Marathon in 1953, 1954 and 1955 while in college and continued running marathons afterwards. Knee problems caused Bill to switch to Masters Open Water long distance swim races throughout the United States. His favorite swim was from Point Bonita California to under the Golden Gate Bridge, around Alcatraz and into Aquatic Park in San Francisco. He swam around Key West, Fla., and was contracted to be the oldest English Channel swimmer at age 70. His dream was aborted by a torn shoulder rotator cuff three months before the attempt.
Bill’s love of Harvard was demonstrated not only by his annual attendance at The Game against Yale, but also by continuing involvement in the affairs of the college. Recently he sponsored the student-driven Living Wage Campaign at Harvard to raise salaries of service workers there. Bill felt that he had been born into fortunate circumstances and that he had advantages other youths, smarter than he, did not have.
Not long after he graduated from college, Bill sought out high school students of excellent character and leadership ability in low-income neighborhoods in Chicago and New York and mentored them to achieve full scholarships from Harvard.
Bill was a fourth-generation western Iowa Hill country farm operator. In recent years, he honored farm families through his Iowa Girls Scholarship Program for outstanding farmers’ daughters. He found talented girls from small Iowa towns and mentored them to obtain full scholarships from the college of their choice. He was proud of their admittance to such places as Vanderbilt, Harvard, and Notre Dame.
He taught Sunday school for 18 years at the Paradise Valley United Methodist Church and volunteered at the André House Hospitality Center for the Homeless in Phoenix, Ariz., and the Bath Area Soup Kitchen in Maine.
Though he traveled much of the world, Bill loved America and made sure he saw most of it.
Bill enjoyed boating in Maine on his beloved Midwester II, a modified wooden lobster boat.
Bill is survived by his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Chrisman; daughters, Katherine Chrisman, and Emily Stocking; sons-in-law, William Tucker, and Randal Stocking; step-children, Amelia Cramer, Janet Grossman, and Peter Craig, and their spouses, Amy Cramer and Douglas Grossman; and nine grandchildren.
Bill was a kind and gentle man with grace, style, and good humor. He will be deeply missed by his family and friends. Bill said, “Upon my stone I have asked for this, in addition to my name and dates: ‘He had a great time.'”
Memorial service 11 a.m., Sat., Feb. 17 at the Paradise Valley United Methodist Church, 4455 E. Lincoln Dr., Paradise Valley, Ariz.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Core Knowledge Foundation, 801 E. High St., Charlottesville, VA 22902 or The Damariscotta River Association, P.O. Box 333, Damariscotta, ME 04543.
Arrangements are entrusted to Messinger Indian School Mortuary, Scottsdale, Ariz.
