Few people have lived a life so full, spirited, and impactful as William Biety, 68, who passed peacefully in the arms of his beloved in the early morning hours of Sunday, September 2, 2018 at his home in Trinidad, CO. William spent the final weeks of his life surrounded by friends who came from around the world to express their gratitude and endearment – an outpouring of love and support that was entirely merited.
William Joseph Biety was born on December 4, 1949 to Joseph and Nancy Bye Biety, in Glen Ellyn, IL. Shortly thereafter, the family moved to Janesville, WI where William spent his youth. The family moved a final time to Evanston, Il where William graduated from Evanston Township High School in the class of 1968 before continuing his formal education at both the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle and NYU.
While art was William’s lifelong work, his true artistry was seeing and nurturing the potential in people. To him, there was no such thing as a chance meeting; no one was ever a casual acquaintance, a distant relative, or a stranger on a train. When you met William and he looked directly at you with his soulful eyes, he left an indelible mark on your life. Suddenly, you had a new best friend, and one that would last a lifetime. To know William’s joie de vivre and booming laugh was a gift to relish. To be swept up in the orbit of his universe was a privilege that all who knew him joyfully and gratefully cherished.
One who was swept into William’s orbit was husband, John Pocernich. If William’s gift was nurturing potential in others, John’s gift to William was helping him to realize it in himself. John’s love was transformative, and through it, William found encouragement to reinvent his life’s work and, in effect, his life. Life imitated art when William and John were married on October 28, 2013. Together, these two adventurers started life anew last November when they made the move from Denver to Trinidad, CO, whose citizenry embraced them as wholeheartedly as they embraced their new hometown.
Throughout his life, William’s quest for knowledge and understanding was not satisfied from classrooms and textbooks, but rather from being a careful and observant student of life and people. His hunger for insight and discovery led him to New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, and finally to Colorado in 2002. In each of the places he touched down, he gained expertise and knowledge in the world of art, but more importantly, he gathered a bouquet of lifelong friendships. His 33 years with AA gained him the opportunity to increase his family tenfold through the brotherhood and sisterhood of sobriety. He left this world with a high understanding of the energy in all of us and our role in the universe.
William is survived by his husband John Pocernich; brothers Dennis and Tim (Michelle) Biety; sister Katherine (Jim) Schorgl; nieces and nephews Denton, Shawn, and Kristen Biety, and Christopher, Kiersten, and Elizabeth Schorgl, along with countless friends, near and far.
In lieu of flowers, please consider contributing to either socohospice.org or artocade.com in William’s memory.
Celebration of Life, date and time to be announced at a later date.
Arrangements made under direction of the Comi Funeral Home.
What a wonderful, thoughtful, warming tribute.