Bill Greenwell our Group’s Newsletter Editor died on Monday 15th June 2026. His funeral is on Friday 10th July 12:30 at Sunderland Crematorium.
This is a tribute to Bill from his close friend and group member David Fenton.
Jim Mulholland has already eloquently written of Bill’s contributions to the Group. I would like to add my tribute to a remarkable man who was my dear friend by telling you of some of his achievements, which of course Bill was too modest to ever mention.
He left Rugby Public School in 1968 aged 16 with a fist full of A levels and having passed the Oxford entrance examination to study literature. Literature, writing and poetry were major passions in his life, and he managed to combine his love of them by teaching at Exeter college and university for many years, ending his career as the Arts staff tutor for the North with the Open University.
Bill was a nationally recognised poet, writing books, contributing to anthologies, Poet in Residence for The New Statesman for many years, and a winner of many competition prizes.
He wrote innumerable articles for national/local newspapers and magazines as parodist, satirist and literary critic. As a freelance journalist his acerbic wit managed to earn him quite a few bob.
He was a Cordon Bleu cook – I’ve been privileged to sample some remarkable delights.
He had a vast collection of vinyl and an encyclopaedic knowledge of popular music and artists to back it all up.
Probably the nation’s foremost expert on Emily Bronte and Wuthering Heights.
He was until recently, when illness forced him to stop, still teaching creative writing and poetry courses online.
Much has been omitted but, as you’ll see by this depiction, everything he set about was done with passion, enthusiasm and the enquiring mind of a detective. To balance the above, there were some comically embarrassing failures: ballroom dancing (think Ann Widdecombe on Strictly), ventriloquism (I had to talk to him through the bloody dummy!).
He was a gifted educator, endowed with that quixotic ability to enthuse students and give gentle encouragement and praise at exactly the right time. Many alumni are still in touch, and some became lifelong friends.
For Bill, to be entrusted with editing the Group Newsletter was the delight of his autumn years, he was so proud of it! And took his responsibilities very seriously. This gave ample scope for me to ham it up with the odd tall tale and occasional whopper etc, all of which had us in stitches.
Obituaries will soon be published nationally from the worlds of journalism, academia, literature and poetry (I’ve just seen a tribute from the USA), but to us he was just Bill, the modest, friendly, charming, witty lad with a fab sense of humour and whose fellowship will be so, so missed by us all.
David Fenton