William J. "Bill" Quirk

William J. Quirk, 81, devoted husband, larger-than-life presence to siblings, nieces, nephews and friends, and a man who made people laugh all his life, died Saturday, Sept. 14, at Edgewood Center in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Bill is survived by his wife of 56 years, Anne. They met at Suffolk University and began a life together full of love, adventure and laughter. The two lived for 25 years in New York City before finding a home in Portsmouth. They sailed their boat up and down the coast, had box seats at Carnegie Hall, made annual pilgrimages to Cape Cod, spent many a morning gazing at the ocean and filled their Friday nights with pizza and champagne. Bill died 60 years to the day of the first time he met Anne.

Bill was preceded in death by his parents, Catherine and William Quirk, his brother Col. John "Jack" Quirk and his sister Kathleen Geoghegan. He leaves behind nieces and nephews for whom he was the ultimate fun uncle, and countless friends who may as well have been family.

Born in Boston, Bill grew up in Jamaica Plain. His parents were Irish immigrants, and he was proud of those roots, often using a bit of Irish brogue in his humor as he regaled family and friends with tales of childhood mischief. His family fell in love with Ridgevale Beach in Chatham, starting a tradition that lives on with a fourth generation today.

A stint working at a fish-packing plant convinced Bill to take academics seriously. At Suffolk, he discovered a passion for writing and literature and found the spark for a wide-ranging career. He worked at bookstores, ran his own publishing office in New York, authored books, started a motorsports marketing business in New Hampshire that earned him plaudits from NASCAR and used his natural charm in years of work as a salesman. It was a fitting career for a man who delighted in his contradictions. He was a rare book collector and a diehard sports fan, from the Boston teams to English soccer. He was a devoted Democrat who was obsessed with auto racing. He loved fluffy cats and fast cars. Bill didn't fit neatly into any one box, and he embraced the oddities and passions of others in return.

Bill could make conversation with anyone - and he did. When he landed a joke, he would poke his tongue out playfully. Even as dementia closed in, his quick wit remained. He had family and nursing home staff laughing in his final days.

ARRANGEMENTS: Memorial service will be private. Donations in Bill's honor can be made to the New Hampshire ASPCA www.NHSPCA.org . Arrangements in care of the J. Verne Wood Funeral Home, 84 Broad St., Portsmouth, NH 03801 For online condolences, please visit www.JVWoodFuneralHome.com