William Cotton
William (Bill) Cotton was born in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1916 to Polish immigrant parents. He was a graduate of Newark State Teachers College and Columbia University Teachers College in New York City. He was a veteran of World War II serving with the Army Air Corp. Bill taught for 39 years at the Walden School in NYC in the wood shop, teaching children from 1st through 12th grades. He frequently served on the Board of Directors and various committees that were responsible for the running of the school, which was one of the oldest progressive education schools in the country.
As a young man, Bill became involved in photography, working as a cameraman on a film for the W.P.A. and as a photographer for Sickles Photo Reporting Service in Newark, NJ. He won recognition as a photographer as a member of the Photo League. His work was exhibited at the International Center for Photography in New York in the exhibit "Photographic Crossroads: The Photo League," and is in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa and the Brooklyn Museum.
During summers, Bill worked for 7 years at Bucks Rock Work Camp in New Milford, CT, and later for 12 years at Shaker Village Work Group in New Lebanon, NY, where he became a co-director and taught photography, woodworking and construction; he rebuilt with his teenage students an original Shaker building (Apple Drying House) on its old foundation.
In the mid-1950s, Bill designed and built a house on top of a rock in the organic architecture style. It was a living work that he continued crafting until the time of his death in 1992.
Music was his great love. He sang with choral groups and took up the violin as an adult. A devoted amateur string quartet player, Bill was returning from a week of chamber music playing in Vermont when he died in the arms of his loving wife. He leaves behind three daughters.
