William P.C. Held
April 7, 1988 ~ May 16, 2021
Resided in:
Portland, ME
Portland-William Paul Clarke Held, 33, of Portland, died Saturday, May 16, 2021.
He was born April 7, 1988, in Trenton, New Jersey. He was the loving son of Marc Keith Held and Kathryn Mary Clarke, loving brother to Emily Held of Brighton, MA, Becca Held of Santa Monica, CA, and Jonathan Held of Yarmouth, ME.
Will graduated from Yarmouth High School in the class of 2006, and was the quarterback of the Yarmouth High School Football team. He attended one year at the University of Maine Orono, and was also part of their football camp.
He was an accomplished musician and a member of Portland's own band Mouth Washington. A man of many artistic talents, he was a chef, a painter, and worked in pastels and sketch art, songwriting and poetry.
He was the manager of Otto's Pizza on Congress Street in Portland for numerous years, and currently worked at Micucci's Grocery on India Street.
Will was humble, adventurous, outgoing, with a whip-smart and goofy sense of humor. He loved kayaking the Cousins River out to the ocean with family and friends, Frisbee golf, tennis and especially entertaining and engaging everyone he met.
His silhouette could always be seen up at the prom - a tall man in a jean jacket, black beanie and headphones on. He sewed hearts together with the thread of love and kindness, and he will be missed forever.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at Sacred Heart Church, 326 Main Street, Yarmouth, ME on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 at 10:00am. The family respectfully requests that all attendees wear a mask. Burial will follow in Holy Cross Cemetery, Yarmouth. Arrangements are under the direction of the Conroy-Tully Walker Funeral Home, 172 State Street, Portland, ME. To view Will's memorial page or, to share an online condolence, please visit www.ConroyTullyWalker.com
Those who wish may make memorial contributions in Will's memory may be made to: Adoption Solutions of Maine, 253 Main Street, Yarmouth, ME 04096 or All Roads Music Festival at www.allroadsmusicfest.org
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There are no words to express to Will’s whole family how deeply sorry I am that you share this great loss. In peace and love, Cherie Piper
– Cherie Piper
I’m honored to have spent the last five years playing music with Will. Sharing the stage, studio and practice space with Will have been some of my happiest moments. His guitar playing encapsulated his personality; intelligent, complex but humble, both chaotic yet still thoughtfully structured. I’m very thankful to have Will as such a close friend. Love you buddy, -Ian Gierhan
– Ian Gierhan
I had the privilege of working with Will at Micucci’s the last few years. I’m deeply saddened by his passing. He was a true gentleman and I’m privileged to call him friend. He will be sorely missed. My deepest condolences to his family.
– Gina DiFazio
God has Blessed you all! What a beautiful, wonderful Man Will has been. We are so Blessed to know Will, and your amazing, lovely family!
– Love and Prayers, the other Clarkes
To Marc, Katie and family, your family is phenomenal and we wish that we had known your Will. He was an exceptional young man. Our hearts are with you all at this difficult time. Lew and Carole Graves
– Carole Graves
To Katie, Marc and family, It was with great sadness that I read about Will’s passing and I wanted to send my condolences. I met Will and Emily when I facilitated their 6th grade religion ed class. I had such fun with that class and I remember how kind your two were to each other–sweet, sweet kids. With prayers and hugs, Patti Bicknell
– Patti Bicknell
I am so very sorry to hear about Will’s passing. I I never had Will as a student in class but I remember him as always very friendly and talkative when he signed out of my study hall .My heart goes out to all the entire family. Claire Evrard ( YHS)
– Claire L Evrard
Dear Katie and Mark, We are so sorry you have had to experience the loss of your son, Will. Please know you are in our prayers.
– Lisa and Mats Agren
To The Held Family, Our thoughts and prayers are with you. Keep Will’s loving memory in your heart forever. Deepest sympathies – Emily & Teagan
– Tribute Store
With blessings, love and prayers.
– Love Despina & Sean
With overwhelming love for you always. We will care for and love Becca forever in a way which will make you proud.
– The Classens & Wards
Our thoughts and prayers are with you. May your hearts find peace. We love you all, Bob,Sandy ,Dennis and Joey
– The Ervings
Even though I haven’t seen Will for awhile this news has utterly devastated me. I used to work with him in 2010 at Otto with a very special group of coworkers that felt more like family than my broken, true family ever did or any other group of people anywhere. and in such a short time span there was just some natural connection going on between us. Will was a central figure in that- just spreading true honest love without even trying. Just by being. In a high turnover crappy job owned by two crappy soulless misogynist bigots whose deep pockets reaped the rewards of his personality Will shined a light in that place every day I worked there, and somehow through the years after. Whether I was passing by or coming in to eat which I stopped doing after he left-He was the last standing essence of any humanity left in that place. Back while Working there as a vegan I had to get creative. They didn’t have vegan cheese then so I would take a big bowl of Connelly beans and just mash them up in my hands with garlic and spices and oil in and almost every time I would look into the kitchen and Will would be staring at me with the goofiest smile like I was crazy. And I was. We all were. And it was awesome! Anyways, even just a few years ago going into Otto with my son now Will would offer to make us my mash-bean glop Concoction I called cheese alternative-Even if he was busy! Regardless they had vegan cheese now. He just wanted to honor that time we shared because that is the kind of special guy that is Will. He is basically one of the best guys I have ever known. And for the brief time I spent around him he really impacted me. Maybe more than I realized because of how awful I’m feeling. Around that time I really got to know him much more closely while he temporarily moved into a house I owned briefly that I casually smashed holes into. I dreaded going into that empty, cold house to paint after getting off of work and it took so much energy to just drag myself there that the work output was pathetic. Until Will moved in. IWould come by with my tools in my dusty sweatpants and Will would be there giving me a can of bud light and helping me rip out floor tiles or spackle or whatever. It became kind of awesome fun. A weird time where We had a lot of really deep talks that seemed to just flow so naturally when you hammer and bust stuff up. We talked about music, depression and how much he dug Jodi. I turned him on to my favorite band shellac and everything Steve albini related. Then I’d come in and he’d have a CD player set up in the room I was planning to work on with shellac’s terraform ready to blast out our cares. I’m sure everyone who crossed paths with him at one time or another would say he made some similar upgrade on their days. Because he was awesome. And I don’t throw words around. I don’t think anyone could ever say anything other than good things about who he is. Anyways, Later, id run into him and he’d tell me to check out his band but I’d forget what they were called every time cus I’m an old mom these days but id hear mouth Washington on the college radio simultaneously and think they were one of the best Portland bands Id ever heard. It only took me a few years to make the connection that it was Will’s band and they are awesome and that whole time I gave him shit for being at Otto he was just crushing it , musically on the side. I had no idea. Will, you rocked in so many ways, too big a soul to fit in this world and I’m sorry for the world now. and more so sorry for your family that I know you loved so much. you’re floating in the wind and I will thank you for the wind, Will.
– Sharon savakinas
Mark and Kate, Please accept our condolences from the Lindgren family. I remember Wil as a sharp, respectful and charming young man. We are thinking of you all during this hard time.
– Kathryn Lindgren
It’s rare to meet a person who is as kind as he is talented, as humble as he is intelligent, as interested in others as he is in developing himself. Will was one of those rare people. He made everyone he worked with know that they were contributing. He was always respectful, kind and gracious. My wife and I saw him play his music live and his new video that he and his friends had just created, and he had every reason to be proud. She and I both feel very privileged to have known him. I recently said to Will that I wish we could all pay more attention to the words written in red, the words of Christ, and his response to me was, “I always thought that was the whole point!” He will be greatly missed. We offer deep condolences to his family and friends. Tony and Lucie Morabito
– Tony Morabito
With enormous appreciation of Will, as he gave so much to our son. And with our deepest sympathy,
– the Woodburys
Our son worked for Will at Otto, and told us for years how much he admired Will. Will gave a lot of guidance and kindness to our son when he needed it most. I hope we can all pay that forward. A lot of the music we listen to was introduced to my son by Will. I hope we can continue to share that too. With our deepest sympathy, The Woodburys
– jeannettewoodbury@gmail.com