Bill "Chet" Kincaid

 Bill “Chet” Kincaid, loving family man and longtime Wilmington College professor, passed away at home Sunday, December 14th, surrounded by the love of his large family. By his side, as she had been since they met in 1958, was his wife Penny.

Bill grew up in Warren, Ohio working at his father’s service station and later at a butcher shop. He graduated from Champion High School, where he met Penny, and then graduated from Youngstown State University a few months after they were married. While he was teaching high school at Lakeview High School in Cortland, Ohio, the National Science Foundation offered him a fellowship to study mathematics at the University of Oklahoma. He came to teach at Wilmington College and earned his doctorate from the University of Cincinnati during his early years on the faculty.

Bill taught math full time at Wilmington College from 1969 to 2019. Hundreds of math teachers in southwestern Ohio and elsewhere learned their craft in Bill's mathematics education course. During those years he also coached the track team, founded and coached the cross country team, served as faculty convener, and taught many semesters for the College’s prison education program. When the prison education program was recently reinvigorated, he resumed teaching one class per term. A dedicated teacher to the end, he taught his last math class three weeks ago.

In 1991 he received a Fulbright Scholarship which took the family to Iceland and Crete for several months. He was awarded the 2017 Faculty Excellence Award from the Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education, and numerous other teaching honors. He also served several terms as a member of the Clinton County Board of Education, including a stint as president.

He was an avid fisherman who made annual fishing trips to Ontario since the early 1950s and kept meticulous records of all the family’s catches since 1968. His first fishing trips were with his father and uncle, and in later decades he took his nephews, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and some close friends.

He was also an enthusiastic card player, particularly enjoying pinochle, poker, and cribbage. He was a fountain of knowledge about 1950s rock and roll, and an accordion player on special family occasions. He could play the piano by ear, and did so nearly every day for decades.

He was a dedicated fan of many different sports. For a few years he covered local high school sports as a stringer for the Wilmington News-Journal, and in the 1970s and 1980s Bill and Penny ran New Vienna's summer recreation league, a baseball and softball opportunity for local youth. He was an athlete himself, running the Boston Marathon in 1970 and finishing in under four hours.

Together, Bill and Penny Kincaid were foster parents for many children over a span of 18 years, from 1984 to 2002, and were named Foster Parents of the Year by Clinton County Children's Services in 2001. Together they did volunteer work for the Navajo Nation, traveling to New Mexico during summers for eight years to work on construction and education projects. Bill used his 2003-2004 sabbatical to teach at the Navajo Nation’s Diné College in Arizona.

After his retirement from full time teaching at the College, he and Penny established several financial awards for students there. In 2024 Wilmington College’s Office of Diversity & Inclusion presented the two of them with the Diversity Impact Award, “in recognition of your years of ongoing service and commitment to underrepresented students of Wilmington College.”

Most of all, Bill was a devoted husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and uncle. He loved to spend time with children of all ages, playing games and telling jokes, and they adored him in return. He attended hundreds of their football games, choir concerts, basketball games, baseball games, plays, track meets, lacrosse matches, musicals, soccer games, cross country meets, and band concerts.

Many people will miss him and remember him fondly. His memory will be especially cherished by his immediate family: his wife of 62 years Penny; his children Bill Kincaid and Derick Logan of New Vienna, Russ and Rhonda Kincaid of Midland, Jeanne and Ryan Chaney of Pleasant Plain, Nathan Kincaid of Philadelphia PA, Jesse Kincaid and Quynh Ngo of Westminster MD, Sonja and Barry Koch of Springboro; his grandchildren and great-grandchildren Jane and Brandon Lach and Chase, Lucas, and Avery Lach of West Chester; Lila and Justin and Isabella Myers of Washington Courthouse; Amber Chaney of Pleasant Plain, Alyssa Chaney of Blanchester; Jordan Kincaid, Harper Kincaid, and Erik Hogan of Westminster, Maryland; Javin Cayaditto of Springboro, and Sage Koch of Springboro. Another great-grandchild, Cooper Myers, will join the family next week.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Bill “Chet” Kincaid Cross Country Memorial Trails. https://www.givecampus.com/campaigns/31758/donations/new?designation=billchetkincaidcrosscountrymemorialtrails&

In addition, the family is asking that Bill’s memory be honored with acts of kindness, gestures of peace, and laughter.

A Celebration of Bill’s Life will be held 4:30 p.m., Saturday, December 20, 2025, at the Wilmington Friends Meeting, 66 N. Mulberry Street, Wilmington, Ohio 45177.  Pastor Hannah Lutz will lead the Celebration.  The family will receive friends at the church, Saturday from 2:00 p.m. until the time of service at 4:30 p.m. 

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Bill "Chet" Kincaid, please visit our floral store.