William Herbert Freitag

10/14/69-12/18/98

Bill grew up on the Freitag family farm in Skaneateles, New York, and lived there his entire life. He essentially started his career in farming and business before he started kindergarten. From the age of 3 or 4, he went out in the fields to work with his parents and siblings and charmed customers at the family's roadside vegetable stand. He loved nurturing his relationships with both people and nature. Billy was dedicated to caring for the farm, growing the family business, and being there for his parents into their old age. Billy had a strong sense of obligation and responsibility, and a lot of people's lives and futures were closely intertwined with his.

As a young adult, Bill expanded the family's road side vegetable stand to include greenhouses, and retailing flowers, fruit, vegetables, pumpkins, and Christmas trees, essentially turning a one season market into a three season market. He also had his own business, Freitag's Landscaping and Home Improvement, that included carpentry, landscaping, sea walls, patios, and home improvement.

From Christmas to Valentine's Day of each year, Billy would travel the country in his RV. He usually headed out with little money in his pocket, and made his daily bread picking up odd jobs. Along the way, he communed with outcasts and homeless people, often turning strangers into friends. Each year, he would return to the farm to work with new stories to share.

Bill lived his life to prove that everything that mattered to him was real. He couldn't stand values that weren't backed with actions to make them real. Billy poured his sweat, his creativity, his love, and his values into the way he lived his life. He played hard, worked hard, loved hard, dreamed big, and ventured further than most, beyond what was comfortable, beyond what was safe to bring life and meaning to concepts like compassion, generosity, honesty, loyalty, trust, faith, brotherhood, unconditional love, forgiveness, and freedom.

Unfortunately, he extended these gifts to one too many. A man he had been friends with for 20 years used Billy's identity to smuggle drugs into the country. This man was caught, arrested, and released on bail under Bill's name. While out on bail, he set Bill and the Freitags' home on fire. His motive was to deceive authorities into believing that the man they arrested for drug trafficking had died in an accidental house fire. Billy's murderer was convicted on September 1, 2000 of murder, arson, and criminal impersonation.

Although Billy's last moments here on Earth were horrific, it is important for us to hold on to the light of his life instead of the darkness of his murder.

More Information

• Carrie Freitag's Curriculum Vitae
• Margaret Kerouac's Curriculum Vitae
• William Freitag's Memorial
• Beverly (Mom) Freitag's Memorial
• Workshops / Presentations