Willian Noel Seifert was born on the auspicious day of April 19, 1938 in the New York City borough of the Bronx. Young Billy arrived into the arms of his mom, Madeline and dad, Irving, as well as his two much older sisters, Sydell and Phoebe. Billy was not only the ‘fair-haired boy’ whom Irving and the family regarded as a gift, but Billy was in fact, ‘fair-haired’ with shocking red hair, freckles, and fair complexion. Early on, Billy showed a great aptitude for sports where he came to excel in baseball, soccer and most impressively, basketball. Seizing on the new found opportunity to leave the urban streets of the Bronx, Irving moved his family to the green environs of Valley Stream New York on Long Island.

As with most of the friends he was to make in Long Island, Billy brought with him his cherished urban sensibilities which he had acquired while traversing the Bronx neighborhoods and streets. With his elder sisters now poised to marry and move on to start their own families, Billy was ‘king of the castle’ and thrived in that role. His elder sister Phoebe married Artie Harris and his middle sister married Danny Zindler. Phoebe subsequently birthed Billy’s first and favorite nieces, Andrea and Laura, while Sydell ushered in Billy’s three nephews, Alan, Jeffrey and Ira. As Valley stream’s star basketball player and ‘cool cat,’ Billy’s world came tumbling down with the heart rendering reality that his deeply loving and nurturing sister Phoebe had taken seriously ill and was given the death knell diagnosis of leukemia. How could it be that someone so dearly beloved and emotionally bedrock for Billy could be taken so prematurely from him, his parents, his sister and so tragically from his nieces.

Upon graduating from high school and accepting a basketball scholarship to the Citadel Military College in South Carolina, Billy ventured southward to begin his heroic journey. However, as if his sister Phoebe’s passing was not a sufficient enough dose of life’s bitter medicine, Billy was informed that his dad, Irving, had passed away of a heart attack only six months after his beloved sister’s death. Having recently enlisted in the US Marine Corp and successfully completing its boot camp training, Billy was once again ambushed by the cruel reality of a loved one’s premature passing when there was so much more life and love to share. Heeding the call to return to NY to assist his mom, Bill sought and received an honorable discharge and returned home to Valley Stream. Now equipped with a sense of discipline and confidence that he garnered by enduring the extremely physical and emotional challenge of Marine Corp boot camp, Bill determined to complete his education, marry his high school sweetheart, Carol Rubin and to unquestionably succeed both professionally and financially. However, around this time, the relentless arrow of grief and loss struck Bill a third time with the death of his favorite brother in law Danny Zindler, who, upon his passing at a tender age, tragically left his sister Sydell and his three boys to hold his dear memory and unrequited love without his presence into their futures.

Having married Carol and working during the day and attending Adelphi in the evening, Bill and Carol moved to Rosedale, NY with Bill working for Grumman Aerospace and Carol for the garment center enterprises in Manhattan. Upon completing his bachelor’s in Physics and Engineering, Bill quickly went on to obtain his master’s from Adelphi in Business Administration. Having birthed his first son, Eric Roy, Bill found his way into the budding world of semiconductors, microchips and computers. Landing a job with Fairchild Electronics and thereafter Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Bill was given the opportunity to utilize both his engineering and business backgrounds by focusing on client based sales to the myriad of industries seeking to employ the newly accessible powers of computing. As Bill’s perpetual drive and excellence was readily apparent, Bill was offered the opportunity to transfer to the fast evolving, but still fledgling Silicon Valley in Northern California with the charge of expanding Fairchild’s  semiconductor sales team. Although the entirety of their world was in New York, Bill, Carol and his one-and a-half year-old Eric, (a.k.a. Ricky) pushed off from the east coast for the Mediterranean climes of the predominantly agricultural Santa Clara county. While Bill rose to the occasion by embracing his advancing career, Carol, now pregnant with her second child, Robert Adam, felt isolated and a fish out of water in the sparsely populated suburb of Sunnyvale, California. In acknowledging her needs, Carol made her case for returning to New York in order to raise her sons in the company of her and Bill’s extended family. Despite that such a future prospect would abruptly place the brakes on Bill’s accelerating career, Bill readily recognized Carol’s needs and moved the family to New York. Having sold his Sunnyvale home, Bill and Carol decided upon the town of Merrick, New York located on the south shore of Long Island to plant roots and grow and nurture their family.

Fiercely independent by disposition, Bill felt confident in starting his own semiconductor sales business and so, without hesitation, Lorac Sales, Inc. was born. Bill and Lorac thrived with Bill and Lorac garnering a glowing reputation. As such, Lorac’s business grew exponentially such that Bill’s drive and hard work were reaping him otherwise inconceivable material success. As it was the 1970’s with the ethos of self- actualization and empowerment for woman that otherwise catalyzed society’s acceptance of the once frowned upon divorce of marriage, the stressors of both the changes occurring in their family life and society at large took hold such that Bill and Carol determined that a marital separation would be the best course. Bill moved to the Upper East side of Manhattan as a single, well-heeled 40 year-old man in NYC during the swinging 1980s.

Having committed to remaining present in the lives of his two boys, Bill would make excursions to support his sons’ in their school sporting events, pick them up for weekly dinners, host them on weekends in Manhattan and take them skiing in  upstate New York and Vermont. In further expanding Lorac Sales, as well as partaking in collateral ventures related to the budding personal computer market, Bill traveled throughout Asia fostering relationships with his manufacturers and assemblers. Bill’s love for skiing and the beauty of Vermont manifested in his purchase of an idyllic country house in East Dover, Vermont. Having achieved financial stability and marrying his second wife, Lynne, Bill returned to his voracious love for learning by setting out to master languages, read the great books, perfect his piano playing, and overall partake in ventures outside of the world of semiconductors and computers. One such venture that spoke to Bill’s eternal quizzitiveness was to ‘know thyself’ which manifested in Bill’s enrolling in the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis in order to study Freudian psychoanalysis. As part of his training, Bill had to undergo analysis where he was able to catch a glimpse of his inner life and the impact of the events that had befallen him.

Upon graduation, Bill undertook the required clinical supervision by working in hospitals and clinics in the New York area where he had the opportunity of interacting with severely mentally ill patients as well as working class immigrants who were facing the stressors of having to adapt to making a living and raising families in a foreign land. Upon completing his supervised hours and becoming licensed as a therapist, Bill set up a private counseling practice in Long Beach N.Y. After some time, Bill’s irrepressible nature brought him to the decision of changing his landscape and moving to San Diego, California to be close to his two nieces, Andrea and Laura, as well as to be somewhat in the vicinity of his two sons in Northern California.

Landing in Coronado across the bay from San Diego, Bill quickly took advantage of San Diego’s fine weather and waterfront activities by learning how to sail and surf. Bill also felt called to engage in civic duties by volunteering his time and efforts with the American Red Cross by opening shelters for displaced residents upon house and wildfires. Clearly taken by disaster relief work, Bill sought employment with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) where, upon hire, he was deployed to locations of natural disasters throughout the United States. Bill’s proficiency earned him the opportunity to serve as a trainer where he provided the FEMA personnel on the ground with the necessary skills to quickly and efficiently process claims for damaged properties. No matter where Bill was deployed, he was unwavering in his 58-year commitment to starting his day with a jog as such was integral in setting up his mind and body for the forthcoming day’s activities.

Upon the upturn in the housing market, Bill seized the opportunity to sell his condominium in Bonita, California and venture back to his beloved Vermont with an aim of reclaiming his love for the mountains, skiing, and the palpable solace that rural Vermont had previously offered him. As prospects in Vermont had changed since the 1980’s, Bill returned to Southern California, this time taking up residence near Palm Springs in the towns of Banning and Hemet. While the extreme dryness and scorching heat of the high desert was the very opposite of conditions that he sought for in Vermont, Bill came to enjoy the desert’s clear skies and cool evenings that, like Georgia O’Keefe in New Mexico, struck a profoundly creative chord such that Bill began writing the first of his two novels.

Diligently handwriting on yellow legal pads, Bill exuberantly crafted his protagonist, an elderly New York psychoanalyst who devoted his practice to alleviating his patient’s grief and channeling the spirits of their dearly departed. In exploring this world ‘between worlds,’ Bill’s characters navigated a desire that their author had expressly shared in wanting to continue conversations with those loved ones whose voices had prematurely been silenced during his youth. Each night, Bill would compile the handwritten drafts of the day and type them into his computer to enable his many edits and rewrites. Although poised to self-publish his novel, Bill came to the understanding that it was the day to day endeavor of writing and re-writing that captured his interest rather than publishing. As such, rather than exert energies in that direction, Bill set forth drafting a sequel that explored the further exploits of his psychoanalyst protagonist in his personal and professional quest to deeply understand the human condition.

Well into his eighties, Bill religiously awoke early at dawn to perform his daily ritual of jogging through the calm and cool morning, reflecting on his life and getting ready for a new and engaging day. On June 10, 2025, Bill laid down under a tree and called it a life; a fully engaged and expansive life indeed. Bill is survived by his sons, Eric and Robert; his grandson, Jaxon; his sister, Sydell; his nieces, Andrea and Laura; his nephews and niece, Alan, Jeff, Ira, and Debra, as well as his friends and acquaintances along the way.

Graveside life celebration services officiated by Rabbi Aaron Benson will take place on Thursday, June 26, 2025, at 1:00 p.m., at Beth Moses Cemetery, Farmingdale, NY, under the care and direction of Wright & Ford Family Funeral Home and Cremation Services, 38 State Highway 31, Flemington, NJ 08822.

Everyone is kindly asked to meet at the main office of Beth Moses/Wellwood Cemetery on Thursday beginning at 12:45 p.m., and to follow the instructions of the Wright & Ford Care Team Family Ambassadors upon arrival.

If you are unable to attend, the service will be live-streamed on Thursday beginning at 1:00 p.m.; please click HERE to watch and ensure you do not have a pop-up blocker enabled. Alternatively you may copy and paste this link into your browser: https://vimeo.com/event/5213084.

Please visit Billy’s permanent memorial site at www.wrightfamily.com to leave messages of condolence, share words of comfort and recollection, and post photographs of his life.

In lieu of flowers, the location for memorial contributions in his memory and honor will be announced.

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Wright & Ford, your local, family owned & operated “Life Celebration Home”

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