William (Bill) Tucci passed away peacefully in Raleigh, NC on July 23, 2025.

Bill was born in Brooklyn, NY on August 21, 1941 to Vincent F. Tucci and Caroline (Kalin) Tucci. He grew up in Brooklyn with his sister, Virginia, to be joined years later by their brother, Jim, and little sister, Carole. Bill spent many summers swimming in the D & R Canal in Griggstown, NJ, where his grandfather owned a plumbing business. He went to “grammar school” at St. Thérèse of Lisieux (Little Flower) in Brooklyn, where he was also an altar boy. During his childhood, Bill worked at his father’s butcher shop, Tucci’s Meat Market, making deliveries on his bike. As a young boy, he took interest in watching his grandfather and his Uncle Joe, who was a carpenter, do woodworking and make furniture and learned about mechanics from his Uncle Alban, who was a machinist. Bill was in the Boy Scouts and was elected to Order of the Arrow, the National Honor Society of Scouting America, recognizing scouts that exemplify the Scout Oath and Law.

As a teenager, Bill worked summers as a lifeguard at Farragut Pool and Riis Park. He attended Brooklyn Technical High School in the Mechanical Engineering Program, studying metallurgy and industrial processes. He graduated from Tech in 1959 and was the first person in his family to go to college at SUNY Oswego from 1959 to 1963. Bill wrestled for Oswego and was the President of Psi Phi fraternity. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Physics and went on to receive a National Science Foundation Grant and earn a Master’s degree in Physics from a combination of courses taken at Yale and Syracuse University.

Bill's early experiences would lay the foundation for doing all of the things that he loved throughout his life, such as teaching and learning, swimming and lifeguarding and becoming a master woodworker.

After graduating, Bill worked as a metallurgist at an aluminum company in upstate New York and later moved to Orange County, NY to take a job at Valley Central High School, where he taught Earth Science and Physics from 1965 to 1996. During his tenure at Valley Central, he coached football and wrestling. He earned his second Master’s degree at San Jose State in California in 1977. Outside of teaching high school, he also taught physics to nursing students at both Ladycliff College in Highland Falls, NY and Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, NY and coached wrestling at Orange County Community College in Middletown, NY.

Bill’s “on the side” lifeguarding career continued during summer vacations from school. Bill was a Head Lifeguard in Harriman State Park, working at Lakes Tiorati, Welch and Sebago in the 1980s and as a lifeguard and Director at Crestview Lake in the Town of New Windsor from the late 1980s well into the 1990s.

Bill and his wife, Rebecca, whom he married in 1992, moved to Henderson, NC permanently in 1996. While Bill “believed he had retired,” his career in science and education took off in a new direction. Having done consulting and curriculum work with NYSED while in New York, he then began working for the NC Department of Public Instruction as the high school science consultant, supervising curriculum writing and leading national workshops for science and math educators in K-12 and became a Curriculum Coordinator 1997. In 2000, he became the Section Chief for Math and Science and was the National President of the Council of State Science Supervisors in North Carolina. Bill left DPI 2002 and went NC State and was the Director of the Kenan Fellowship. One of his most prized memories and accomplishments was taking a group of qualified NC State students to the International Science Olympiad in Beijing, China. Bill also worked part time teaching math at Vance-Granville Community College in Henderson, NC and Butner Federal Correctional Facility in Butner, NC. Bill believed that a well-rounded education had the potential to be life changing and that learning was a life-long process, both in and outside of school.

Throughout his life, Bill loved working with wood and making furniture, toys, and musical instruments and enjoyed giving his projects as gifts to family and friends. Bill was an avid fisherman and reader. He had an extensive personal library, which consisted of classics, bestsellers, graphic novels, science books and manuals, books about Yankees’ baseball and woodworking, many with his own personal notes the margins. He often gave books as gifts, making sure to send a personal message on the inside cover and sent articles from newspapers and magazines to friends and family when he thought they would be of interest.  He loved dogs, photography, watching the Yankees and the Giants and traveling when he could find time in his busy schedule. His love of nature was evidenced by his interest in camping, birdwatching, stargazing and collecting rocks - he was rarely without “geological samples” in his pockets and never short on a story about how the rocks were formed.

Bill is survived by his loving wife, Rebecca, of Wake Forest, NC; his son, Kyle (Joy) Tucci of Alpharetta, GA, and his daughter, Jennifer Tucci of Latham, NY; his stepsons, Craig Druttman of Raleigh, NC and Christopher (Jeannie) Druttman of Wake Forest, NC and his grandchildren Quinn Tucci, Dieondre Druttman, Paige Tucci, Jessa Engelmann, Savannah Druttman and Cameron Druttman. He will also be dearly missed by his sisters, Virginia (Irving) Zwilling and Carole Tucci, his brother, Jim (Eileen) Tucci, along with several cousins, nieces and nephews. Bill was predeceased by his parents, Caroline (1915-2015) and Vincent “Jimmy” Tucci (1916-1997) and his godson and nephew, Christopher Tucci (1996-2023).

In lieu of flowers, the family respectfully requests that donations be made to:

Amedyisys Tenderloving Health Care Services Southeast (amedysis.com) https://www.amedisys.com/serv…

Tenderloving Care Health Care Services Southeast, LLC

d/b/a Amedisys Hospice

220 New Fidelity Court

Garner, NC 27529

(919) 773-4865

Or

The NC State University College of Sciences; specifically to the Physics Department and/ or the Woman In Science and Engineering program through this link: https://www.givecampus.com/ca…

or via check payable to “NC State College of Sciences Foundation, Inc.” with the specific program of your choice written:

NC State University

College of Sciences Foundation

Campus Box 8118

Raleigh, NC 27695-8118

(919) 515-2501

Or

Any charity of your choice in memory of Bill.

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