About Billy
According to his mother, Billy Burchard was born with a smile on his face on ‘Friday the thirteenth’, September 1957. He grew up in Brockton, with his brother Bobby. They were always proud to live in ‘the City of Champions’, where most kids rode around on a bike with their baseball glove hanging from the handlebars, pick-up games of any ball sport were the favorite pastime, and playgrounds were within hollering distance from home. Billy was energetic, athletic, with an enthusiastic attitude and an ability to make lifelong friends with people from both sides of the track.
Billy enjoyed life with his loving family, his great friends, his love for all sports and any assortment of food, music, and abundance of laughter. During his youth, he volunteered as an altar boy and a coach, and worked as a caddy, in a plumbing warehouse, with the Town Water Department. "Never Let the Truth Get in the Way of a Good Story" Even at 17 he was a natural leader, working as the summer Athletic Director for the City of Brockton. He attended Brockton High School, earning varsity baseball and football letters. He was a tight end for the first two Division 1 Superbowl games in 1972 and 1973, and his senior year he was elected Class President. ‘Birdie’ was his nickname, and he was honored with a ‘Hank the Bird Fan Club,’ a tribute to a boy who would give anyone ‘the shirt off his back’. He was a loyal, compassionate friend, with an infectious laugh and unmatched ability to tell a great and colorful story.
While attending Bowdoin College, Billy worked for four years at the Information Desk, the perfect job for an outgoing, loquacious student. As a senior, he wrote an Economics Independent Study paper addressing the impending deregulation of the trucking industry in the U.S., which sparked his interest in the field, eventually founding and owning Fast Forwarding, Inc, a nationwide freight forwarding, transportation and logistics company.
The Famous Burchard Swing
Billy met his wife on a ‘blind date’, and they married on his 29th birthday. They have two children, Joe and Molly, who Billy called “my two greatest blessings.”
Cancer has hit the Burchard family hard. Billy wrote, “things came crashing down during my freshman year in college…my best friend, my coach and my hero- my Dad, was diagnosed with lung cancer and he was gone two months later.” Billy’s mom had surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in 1994, and Billy was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2000, when 43 years old. He passed away five and a half years later. Never giving up hope while living with pancreatic cancer, Billy dedicated his remaining years to helping with research for a cure the only way he thought was possible, by offering himself to science, by participating in experimental treatments, as well as traditional, wishing his progress and results would be useful to future patients. He also decided to put his energy into traveling with his family, spending time with close friends, and volunteering his time, especially with coaching Little League baseball and football teams, and mentoring young kids.
His unending optimistic outlook, even with the challenges he faced as cancer patient, was inspirational to all who were fortunate to meet him, and he made everyone feel as if they were his best friend.