Bill Brine, a resident of Hanover, N.H., died Feb. 24 at the family’s longtime seasonal home on Chappaquiddick. He was 93.
He was born in Boston on Feb. 11, 1931 to William Brine and Marianne Healy. He grew up in Newton. After graduating from St. Sebastian’s School and Holy Cross College, the U,S. Navy sent him to New Orleans.
He then returned to Boston and the W.H. Brine Co., “outfitters to the athlete,” the business that his grandfather Will had started in 1922 and that his father then ran and his brother Peter later joined. In the early 1960s, before larger companies turned their attention to what were considered minor sports, Bill decided to make equipment for soccer and lacrosse players of all ages and skills.
At first Brine lacrosse sticks were made on the St. Regis Mohawk reservation on the border of New York and Canada. When wooden lacrosse production could not keep up with demand he began experimenting with plastic.
Bill became an eager and inquiring traveler for both business and learning, visiting every continent and scores of countries. He wanted to see how places were changing at climactic periods, visiting Japan in 1960, Saigon during the war, South Africa as apartheid fell away, China in the late 1970s. He returned home to tell friends about the people he had met, the challenges they faced and the dramas they were living through.
In 1957 he met Ann Coughlin, a friend of his sisters, in Boston. They married in Fall River in 1958. In 1967 his doctor said that he should get away to a quiet place and slow down. That July he and Ann rented a house in Edgartown.
In 1968 he saw a land auction sign at the Edgartown town hall. He bought two pieces there: one off South Beach, far out to sea, and a second that was never found. While searching he came upon land on Chappaquiddick owned by Camille Chouinard, whose late wife was a descendant of Joseph Huxford who had fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill.
The Huxford farm was where Brine’s Pond and the Chappaquiddick Community Center are today. The old farmhouse was long gone and the fields overgrown. A large marshy area was close to the road. Bill decided to dig it out and create a pond. For some time, until the pond cleared and nature began to grow, some people called it Brine’s Mud Hole. In 1986 the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank bought the pond and the surrounding land, except for three acres set aside for the community center.
While searching for the owners of this first purchase, Bill learned that many titles were inaccurate and some owners unknown. For many years afterwards he enjoyed the detective work of finding lost heirs and clearing titles. When the community center wanted land for tennis courts, he spent five years finding the many heirs of Charles Simpson. Today on this land there stands a tennis court, a half basketball court, the new Chappaquiddick cemetery and a sheep pasture.
Bill was a born storyteller and a creative man — enthusiastic, persistent, full of energy and ideas. He built and renovated several houses and seldom went anywhere without his camera.
He had sailed since childhood, was a summertime lobsterman during World War II and raced small boats for many years. His last boat, the Thomas Edison, was electric, with a canopy and seating for eight. It didn’t go far or fast but was well suited to an octogenarian skipper. He was a longtime member of the Chappaquiddick Beach Club and Edgartown Yacht Club.
Bill is survived by his wife Ann; their children Heather and her husband Roy Martin, Bill and his wife Joanne, Libby and her husband Bill Allard, and Christina Brine; his brother Peter and sister in law Karen; his sister Christina Largay and her husband Jack; his grandchildren Katharine Brine and her husband Josh Nason and great-granddaughter Adeline, Liam Brine, Lindsey Allard and wife Kristen Giovanniello, Christian Allard and his wife Valerie, and Charlotte Allard.
He was predeceased by two sisters, Mary Fahey and Barbara Brine, and brothers Christopher and Benedict, who died in childhood.
He will be interred at the New Chappaquiddick Cemetery. A celebration of life will be held at a later date.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Chappaquiddick Community Center endowment fund via the Martha’s Vineyard Community Foundation, P.O. Box, 243, West Tisbury, MA, 02575. In the memo line specify that the donation is to the Chappaquiddick Community Center (CCC) Fund in memory of Bill Brine. Contributions may also be made online at: chappycommunitycenter.org.
