William Austin Pinney, a seventh-generation summer resident of Chappaquiddick died on March 27, 2022, in Miami after a short illness. He was 75.
Bill was the beloved husband of Raquel Pinney and the son of William Whitney Pinney Jr. and Louise Slocum Pinney.
He was born May 28, 1946, in New York City and spent the first five years of his life (while his father managed the Martha’s Vineyard Cooperative Dairy) in Edgartown in the winter and Chappaquiddick in the summer.
His Chappaquiddick roots run deep. Through his father’s side, Bill was part of both the Child (Bass, Pinney, Tilghman) and Gostenhoffer (Jones, Knights, Phinney, Pinney and Tilghman) families on Chappy that go back to the late 1800’s and 1920’s, respectively.
His maternal grandmother, Margaret Slocum Stevenson, also lived in Edgartown.
When he was six years old, Bill and his immediate family moved to Litchfield, Conn. but he continued to spend his summers on Chappy in the family house (purchased in the 1920’s by Bill’s grandfather) on North Neck Road.
In June and August, Bill and his sister Peggy would stay at Sweeten Water Farm owned by their grandparents, Margaret and Peter Pinney.Initially, Margaret and Peter invited their grandchildren to the farm to give their parents a break.But staying at the farm eventually provided Margaret and Peter’s grandchildren and assorted nephews the opportunity to work summer jobs.
Bill attended grade school at the Litchfield public school system and high school at the Pomfret School in Pomfret, Conn, where he wrestled and rowed crew, graduating in 1964.
In 1969, he graduated from Columbia University where he studied engineering before switching majorsto philosophy.He married his first wife Sarah Hart shortly after graduating from Columbia.
He and Sarah then started on a grand adventure driving a jeep down to South America. They got as far as Colombia where Bill and Sarah started an English-speaking newspaper.Eventually, they sold the Columbia newspaper and relocated to Toronto where they began a publishing business.
After his divorce from Sarah, Bill relocated to Miami where he started a similar Miami publication. Miami became his mainland residence and remained so for the rest of his life.
Bill was intrigued by the adventures of Joshua Slocum, a distant cousin who was the first person to sail around the world.In the beginning, Bill’s interest in ocean cruising involved sailing a 35-foot ketch up and down the eastern seaboard out of Miami.But eventually he sold the Miami business and designed a 50-foot schooner, Rachael Slocum, which he had built In Hong Kong. He sailed around the world two and half times over 32 years. He navigated with a sextant (before GPS became available).
One of the key places he sailed to was the Island of Florianopolis in the south of Brazil where he met the love of his life, Raquel De Souza. They were married in 2008. The wedding took place at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Edgartown with the reception at the Pinney family home on Chappy. They circumnavigated the world together, completing the journey when the boat fetched Nevis in 2018.
Bill was very interested in his family genealogy, particularly the Pinney branch and Slocum branches. As part of his genealogy research, he discovered a branch of Pinneys that built a sugar plantation in Nevis. He bought the ruins of the old Pinney sugar plantations and worked on restoring them. At the time of his death, he and Raquel had finished restoring part of the estate to the point where it could be lived in.
In addition to six volumes of Pinney genealogy, Bill was the author of two editions of Chappaquiddick Speakswhich explored what really happened when Ted Kennedy drove off Chappaquiddick’s Dyke Bridge. The book includes scientific analysis by a renowned physicist and police consultant to determine whether the extraordinary premise implied by the witness’ sighting is true or false.
He is survived by his wife Raquel DeSouza Pinney of Miami; sister Margaret Pinney of Somerville; nephews Andrew Pinney of Somerville, and Alex Weathers and his wife Lori and their two daughters, Gabriella and Cameron of Santa Barbara, Calif.; his stepmother, Sarah Pinney of Sugar Hill, N.H. and South Dartmouth; and three step brothers, Breck Marshall and his wife Martha, their two children, Breck and Iliana, Geoffrey Marshall and his wife Kristen, their two children, Megan and Dylan, and David Marshall and his partner Christina Sewall, all of Dartmouth; and and many Chappy cousins.
A remembrance will be held later in the summer.
