Remembering Bill Tapply

posted by Jeanne Munn Bracken

Anyone lucky enough to meet Bill Tapply (William G. Tapply to library catalogers) knew he was a gentleman and a scholar. To that I would add Fine Human Being. I met Bill quite a few years ago, before I became the Mystery Maven of the Minuteman Library Network, before I started spending vacations at Bouchercons and Left Coast Crimes and Malice Domestics (Malices Domestic?) I put together a program of speakers for the library where I was working at that time and knew that Bill Tapply, author of the Brady Coyne mystery series among other books, lived in our area.

Bill came to the library and spoke about writing mysteries but also about fishing, because he was a Fisherman Extraordinaire. He got it from his father, who was a renowned outdoor writer, and Bill became a columnist in Field and Stream. Heck, I knew Bill when he co-authored a romantic novel with Linda Barlow, who was in my first writers' group. Yeah, that long ago. Bill published a lot of writing about fishing and other outdoor topics, about writing mysteries, and of course all those mystery novels as well. He was still teaching and House Master at a suburban high school at that time.

Not long afterward I chanced to be driving on a back road one sunny afternoon and spotted Bill standing on the shore of Ice House Pond, scoping out the fishing possibilities. Stopping to chat, I learned that he was quitting teaching to write full time. Bill is one of the few writers I know who have managed to make a full-time career of it, and he was amazingly generous in teaching others with similar aspirations.

Over the years I bumped into him at conferences, library talks, and at an inn tavern in Hancock, New Hampshire, near his beloved Chickadee Farm, where he ran writers' workshops with his wife Vicki Stiefel and rotating guest presenters. Sometimes my friend Katherine Hall Page was there, but on that occasion he was with his writing buddy Phil Craig (Philip R. Craig to library catalogers).

Bill's Brady Coyne lives and works in the Boston area and Phil's J. W. Jackson on Martha's Vineyard, but it was a sure bet that any of their books included a fishing expedition. Nor was it a big surprise when Brady and J. W. got together for a few adventures in books co-authored by the pair of writers. And of course, Brady and J. W. went fishing.

So we all knew what a blow it was to Bill when Phil died two years ago. There would be no more jointly authored adventures, no more fishing trips to the Vineyard or wherever. Bill grieved as any really close friend would.

We were all worried when Bill was diagnosed with leukemia. He was teaching at Clark University in Worcester at the time, running workshops with Vicki at Chickadee Farm, posting on DorothyL and other web venues. That all had to stop, of course, as Bill and his family struggled with the diagnosis and the often devastating therapies for cancer.

Cancer is a bitch, but I thought Bill had beaten it. After the requisite period of hospitalization, weakness, and baldness, he rallied and picked up his old life. It was with real relief that the mystery community learned Bill would be teaching again at Clark this fall semester, would be attending and speaking at Crime Bake in November. Bill was back.

Death came in on Sandburg's little cat feet, stealing Bill's health and his life from an infection that just overwhelmed his body. He was with Vicki and their children at the farm while close friends waited for the bad and final news. A week ago, it came.

The last time I saw Bill, a year and a half ago,  he would be speaking at the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA, on writing mysteries, with Katherine Hall Page and Katherine Lasky. I arrived early and was sitting on the steps in the lovely spring evening when Bill came, sat down next to me, and we chatted for a few minutes. 

His death has been devastating for the mystery community and especially for his family and close friends. My deepest condolences to all of them, and I leave you with one final, perhaps comforting thought. I happen to believe in an Afterlife, and I know Bill and Phil have gone fishin'.

Comments

[Liz Eng]

I'm truly sorry to learn of Mr. Tapply's death. First Philip Craig, now Bill. They have been two of my favorite writers over the years, and I always looked forward to ther new offerings. Condolences to Mr. Tapply's family.