William “Bill” Martiner

William “Bill” Martiner, father of three, entrepreneur, technologist, author, and essayist whose reflections on living with ALS touched readers around the world, died peacefully on June 24, 2026. He was 58.

October 25, 1967 – June 24, 2026

Born in Connecticut, Bill spent his school years in Pittsford, New York, but the place that always felt most like home was Brewster, Massachusetts, where his family spent their summers. He earned a degree in English Literature from Loyola University Maryland before completing a Masters of Technology Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Bill was not easily summarized. He was driven, impatient with pretense, and relentlessly curious about how things worked—systems, markets, people, and, increasingly, life itself. He built a career in financial technology over more than two decades, working with global banks, hedge funds, and real estate ventures. He wrote two technical books before co-founding Avenue One, helping grow it into a billion-dollar enterprise. He was drawn to complexity and had a gift for cutting through it.

Outside of work, Bill pursued interests with his characteristic enthusiasm. He brewed beer, hiked, rode mountain bikes and motorcycles, surfed when he could, swam, lifted weights, ran, fished, and read constantly.

More than any professional accomplishment, Bill was proudest of being a father. He loved traveling with his oldest daughter, Abigail; finding new adventures with his son, Lucas; and dancing, laughing, and watching endlessly silly videos with his youngest daughter, Grace, who is profoundly autistic. His children were the center of his life.

Friends, family, and colleagues knew Bill for his razor-sharp wit, elaborate practical jokes, and instinct for finding the absurd in almost any situation. He had little patience for pomposity, including his own, and an uncanny ability to puncture even the darkest moments with humor. ALS gradually took his ability to walk, use his hands, and eventually breathe independently. It never took away his sense of humor—or his comedic timing.

Diagnosed with ALS in 2020, Bill met the disease the same way he met everything else: with stubbornness and purpose. After losing the use of his hands, he taught himself to write using eye-gaze technology, producing The Twilight Journal, a series of essays on nature, mortality, gratitude, and the changing seasons outside his Bucks County, Pennsylvania home. A collection of those writings, What Remains Is Radiant, will be published posthumously next year by Godine. He also wrote and illustrated the children’s book Ahtu; co-authored the forthcoming Morning…; and co-founded Radiant Book Giving, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing new books to people facing illness, aging, incarceration, and other forms of isolation.

Bill is survived by his daughter, Abigail Martiner and her husband, Marcus Boden; his daughter, Grace Martiner; his son, Lucas Martiner; his parents, Betty and John Martiner; his brother, Tom Martiner, and his wife, Vicky; his longtime friend, Amy Martiner; and a wide community of family, friends, colleagues, and readers who will remember his curiosity, generosity, humor, and friendship.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Radiant Book Giving, continuing Bill’s mission of sharing “the medicine of good books” with people who need them most. 

As Bill often said, “Carpe f-king diem and be kind.”