Remembering Bill Strong

Bill Strong

Bill Strong, a member of Newtown Friends Meeting, a life-long peace activist and a volunteer book repairer, passed away on Sunday, December 28, 2025. He joins his beloved wife Nancy, who died two years ago on January 10.

Bill worked in 38 countries and lived in five Latin American countries working for The Pathfinder Fund, Church World Service, the Mexican Friends Service Committee, and World Education in support of family planning, food distribution, and economic development. Bill and Nancy helped to found B.A.N.D. of The Peace Center in 1982, to address nuclear disarmament issues and military spending vs human needs. Bill worked to get the Quaker-sponsored Peace Tax Fund bill through Congress.

Bill was part of Witness for Peace, a program to generate good will between the people of the United States and Cuba. He made several trips to Cuba, with the first one in 1958 when Batista was in power and a young lawyer named Fidel Castro was leading a revolution. In 1969, Bill left his position as Executive Director of Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts to join the first Venceremos Brigade to Cuba, cutting sugar cane alongside Cubans and Vietnamese.

Bill lived in Pennswood Village, and is survived by his loving family: Laura Strong, Tom Strong, their spouses, and four grandchildren. A memorial will be held on Saturday, April 25 at 2pm at Newtown Friends Meeting.