William Nathan Cassella Jr.
July 14, 1920 – September 6, 2015
After a superb run, William Nathan Cassella Jr. passed from this world to the next on Sunday, September 6, 2015 at the age of ninety-five. Bill was born on Bastille Day, July 14, 1920 in Alton Illinois. Bill began his life at “Hardscrabble,” a large family farmhouse without electricity or indoor plumbing. He started first grade in a one room school house but soon the family moved into town, where Bill took the next steps in his long and illustrious education. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Illinois before earning his first masters degree from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Public Administration. Despite his avid thirst for knowledge, Bill fell asleep in the library one day and woke up to a hotfoot—a lit match wedged into the sole of one shoe by his classmates. The young woman laughing hardest at this prank, Margaret Powers Crowley, would eventually become his wife.
During World War II Bill served in the U.S. Navy supply corps stationed at Roi Namur Airfield on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. He continued in the Naval Reserves for twenty years when he retired as a Captain. “Peg” and Bill were married in 1946 and moved to Boston where Bill earned his second masters degree, plus a PhD in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University in 1953. His early career was in academics, teaching Public Administration at the University of Missouri and later at Columbia University.
His expertise in politics and local and city government led to an ‘interim’ job at the prestigious National Municipal League/Citizen’s Forum on Self-Government, a non-profit headquartered in New York City. This short term contract ultimately lasted thirty-one years until Bill retired after fifteen years as Executive Director.
Bill and Peg settled in Westchester County, New York and raised four sons, John, Stephen, Mark and Kent. While the boys grew, up Bill served on the Greenburgh school board, was a Chairman of the Westchester Planning Board for many years, was on the vestry of Zion Episcopal Church, and led his sons as a scout leader. All of his sons remember many family vacations spent driving to various state capitols—a fascination Bill discovered when he was eight years old and which lasted all his long life, eventually taking him to capitol buildings, parliaments and halls of government around the world. His beloved wife Peg died in 1987 after forty-one years of marriage. Bill continued his civic work long after retirement consulting for city government associations in China, Poland and Japan. He was a key leader in the Westchester Croton Aqueduct project, preserving an historic greenbelt for his community. In his later years he moved to Bainbridge Island, Washington to be near his son Steve, settling into the Madison House Senior Living Apartments where Bill was famous for participating in every event up to the final days of his life. He became an active member of the St. Barnabas Episcopal Church community.
Bill truly lived his motto: “Say yes!” He died in his home in the arms of his loving family. He is survived by John and Claire Cassella, Mark and Lisa Cassella, Stephen and Carol Cassella, William Kent Cassella, plus nine grandchildren and three great grandchildren. He is predeceased by his brother John and his wife Peg. Bill will be much missed, but he left the world better governed, and gave his family a lifetime of love and memories. Memorial services will be held at a later date in Dobbs Ferry, New York and on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Donations in his memory may be made to your local Public Broadcasting System network.
