William H. Fraker

William H. Fraker 1941 - 2011 SPRINGFIELD - William Holliday Fraker, 70, of 112 Welland Road, Indian Orchard, died Monday, Oct. 31, at Bay State Medical Center in Springfield. He was the loving husband of Vera Magee Fraker, his dear companion of twenty-five years, whom he married in 1995. Born on May 23, 1941 in Peoria, Illinois, the son of Guy and Evelyn Fraker, Bill grew up in North White Plains, NY and attended Valhalla and White Plains schools. He graduated from White Plains High School in 1959, and attended Gettysburg College, where he was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity, and graduated a Classics major in 1963. In 1965, he began 37 years of employment with the Dow Jones Company in Chicopee, working first as a copy editor on the Wall Street Journal, and ending up as production editor for Barron's. Bill had a great love of Springfield, knew its history well, and was an astute collector of its memorabilia. His love of the English language, his wide reading in modern literature, his mordant wit and prodigious memory inspired the love and admiration of friends and family alike. Bill was an expert and generous gardener, a lifelong lover of music and the arts, a faithful friend and correspondent, a kind and attendant family member, and he will be greatly missed by those whose lives he touched. Besides his loving wife, Bill is survived by his son Spencer Fraker and daughter Emily Lebeau, both of Savoy, Mass; a step-daughter Siobhan Magee of Wolfeboro, N. H., and her daughter Molly; step-son Patrick Magee of Dallas, Tx.; and two brothers, Guy Fraker of Bloomington, Illinois and Robert Fraker of Lanesborough, Mass. Memorial observances will be held in a private gathering of friends and family. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Bill's memory to: Gettysburg College 300 North Washington St. Gettysburg, PA 17325. New England Funeral & Cremation Center, LLC 25 Mill Street Springfield, Massachusetts 01108 has been entrusted with the arrangements.