Bill was a husband, dad, bonus dad, Grampa Bill, brother, uncle, professor, author, advocate for education, justice and democracy, church elder, singer and strummer and tambourine man, basketball fan (go Terps!), Saratoga Vichy water connoisseur, possessor of a highly identifiable and infectious laugh, and the last one to leave the dinner table, especially if there were still more Maryland crabs or ears of corn on offer. He grew up in Saratoga Springs and Tonawanda, New York with beloved family, parents, Al and Joan Kaplin and sister Terry (Grundy) and graduated from the University of Rochester and Cornell University Law School.
Among the possessions he left behind is a stack of index cards with a quote handwritten on each, Bill’s “spitballs of wisdom” as the label reads. Among them, words from novelist George Sand: “There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved.”
Bill was a very happy man. He loved and was loved by Barbara Ann, with whom he shared 45 years of marriage, chapter revisions, travels, family blending, and cinnamon bun dough punching; and by children Colleen (Matt), Keith (Alyssa), Lynn (Tyrone) and Carole; and by the grandchildren and great-grandchildren in whom he took great delight: Angelina, Jennifer, Rachael, Delilah, Alexander, Casey, Jalen, Jason, Jamie, Amara, and Mason, and Dominic, Caiden, Kaelyn, Ari’ella, and Neptune.
He is survived by a folder of biographical information for whoever might be drafting an obituary or eulogy, because of course. A former Boy Scout, Bill took “Be Prepared” very seriously. This folder includes details of his career as a constitutional and higher education law scholar, US Court of Appeals judicial clerk, attorney in the general counsel’s office of the US Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW), and Cornell Law Review editor-in-chief, as well as a 13-page bibliography. He also worked as a Saratoga Racetrack White Cap (usher) but that didn’t make the c.v.
In other words, according to the Post-it on the folder’s cover, “lots of boring stuff.” That note gives directions to go easy on this sort of thing in favor of lighter and more humorous material. So; Bill won a national award for “bringing distinction to higher education and law practice,” inspired the annual William A. Kaplin Award for Excellence in Higher Education Law and was a prize-winning maker of letter pancakes and grower of sunflowers. His chosen epitaph reads, “He put his socks on standing up.”
Memorial Service will be held Saturday, November 23, 2024, at 1 pm, at the Chapel at The Village at Orchard Ridge, 400 Clocktower Ridge Drive, Winchester, Virginia
In lieu of flowers the family requests donations in Bill’s honor to
Blue Ridge Hospice at https://brhospice.org/donate/
or mailed to 333 W. Cork St. #405, Winchester, VA 22601, or to
Highland Food Pantry, where Bill volunteered for several years, at https://www.highlandpantrywinc.org/donate
or mailed to P.O. Box 1762, Winchester, VA 22604.