ALTAMONT — William “Bill” F. Aylward taught his five children that, with perseverance, they could succeed in accomplishing whatever they set their minds to.

“He made us believe that we could do anything we wanted to do,” said his daughter, Sharon. “That’s basically how we’ve all lived our lives.”

Mr. Aylward applied the same principle to his own life.

A charismatic social studies teacher, he devoted himself to public service with a decade as Altamont’s mayor and another 17 years as a village trustee. He was the first Democratic supervisor in Guilderland at a time when the town was largely Republican and he also served as an Albany County legislator.

He died peacefully on Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025, surrounded by his family. He was 91.

Guilderland Supervisor Peter Barber opened Tuesday’s town board meeting by calling for a moment of silence to honor Mr. Aylward. In his 32 years as a social studies teacher, Mr. Barber said, “he touched thousands of students and families.”

He also said that Mr. Aylward was the first Democrat elected to the Guilderland Town Board “almost since the time of the Civil War.”

The son of the late William F. and Marion Aylward, Mr. Aylward was born on Nov. 11, 1934 in Boston.

He grew up in Roxbury, Massachusetts, a part of Boston that he called a “tough” neighborhood. “If you stayed close to your street, you were OK,” he told The Enterprise in a 2015 interview. “If you wandered off, you might be in trouble.”

Mr. Aylward earned a bachelor of science degree in education from Boston College in 1956, where he participated in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. He proudly served in the United States Army from 1956 to 1958 as a First Lieutenant at Fort Bliss, Texas, teaching at the U.S. Army Air Defense School in the Guided Missiles Department.

His students included brigadier generals and major generals. He felt some hesitation about the position at first, since he had hoped to teach history. He recalled telling his superior officer, “I think maybe the Army has made a mistake, sir. I’m a teacher.”

The officer replied, “The Army doesn’t make mistakes. Are you a teacher? If you are, then teach!”

Mr. Aylward came to the area soon afterward — to Guilderland Center in 1959 and then, in 1965, to Altamont, to the house where he and his wife, Sylvia, lived for more than half a century — and “got the spirit of Altamont into me.”

As he taught at Guilderland, he continued his education, earning a master of science degree in social studies in 1964 from the State University of New York at Albany and a master of science degree in sociology in 1968 from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

In addition to teaching, Mr. Aylward also chaired Guilderland’s social studies department. “He was passionate about education and helping students reach their full potential,” his family wrote in a tribune.

At the same time, he helped his own children reach their full potential.

“He was a wonderful dad,” said his daughter. “He was a family-first kind of person. We’re all in our 50s and 60s,” she said of her siblings “and we’re still connected and friends together.”

She went on, “He had a wonderful sense of humor. He could make you laugh any time. He loved family occasions; he loved traveling; he loved going to the beach — Cape Cod is his favorite place.”

She also said, “He’s a friend. He’s somebody you could call for anything. I would talk to him two or three times a week …. He was charismatic. He touched everybody.”

Mr. Aylward was a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan and loved the Boston College Eagles. “Most of all, he loved his family and friends,” his family wrote.

Mr. Aylward was married to Sylvia for 67 years, their union ending only with his death.

When Mr. Aylward retired in 2015, at the age of 80, from being a village trustee, he spoke at his last meeting “first and foremost” of his gratitude to his wife who “has been by my side throughout all of this.” He asked her to stand, and she did, to a round of applause.

Political career

Mr. Aylward’s propensity for perseverance was apparent from his first run for office.

He entered local politics in 1970 when he ran for village trustee with the Citizens Party. Party officials told him that “you don’t campaign,” so he didn’t, and he lost that race by 25 votes.

The next year, when the same people asked him to run for mayor, he agreed, but went door-to-door meeting people. He won that time, by 26 votes.

He said of Election Night in 1971, “The crowd just showed up at the house! Everybody was in the house, in my house! It was just great.”

Mr. Aylward recalled of that election, “It was one of the biggest turnouts in the village of Altamont.”

He spent five terms as mayor, from 1971 to 1981. He was on the Guilderland Town Board from 1993 to 1995 and was the Guilderland supervisor from 1995 to 1997, the first Democrat elected to the post since the town was founded.

He went on to be an Altamont trustee for 17 years, from 1998 to 2015. For many years, from 1999 through 2011, he served as both Altamont trustee and also Albany County legislator.

In each political position that he held, Mr. Aylward recalled with the most pride episodes where he wrangled with other officials, asking hard questions, stopping dangerous projects and transforming others to the benefit of the community.

Just a few days after he took office as Altamont’s mayor for the first time, he learned about a project that the previous board and mayor before him had approved. A landowner on Helderberg Avenue wanted to build a driveway that would connect to Helderberg Avenue.

To do this, the landowner wanted to completely fill in a ravine across from his house. The project, which was underway, called for a sluice at the bottom of the ravine, 180 feet long, made of welded oil drums. On top of this, unclean fill would be piled up to the level of Helderberg Avenue.

The building inspector had called Mr. Aylward to tell him they needed his signature on a change order. When they had begun putting in fill, the oil drums beneath that were meant to carry water from the creek had collapsed.

Rather than sign, Mr. Aylward started asking questions. What if we get, say, four inches of rain, he asked, and the sluice fails? The answer that came back was, “We never get four inches of rain.”

Mr. Aylward red-tagged the project, and “it never reared its ugly head again.” After that, the village did get deluged with rain several times, and Mr. Aylward thought, each time, about what could have happened. In his layman’s opinion, Mr. Aylward said, if the sluice had failed, there would have been a damming effect and all of that unclean fill — hot-water heaters, refrigerators — would have come flying into Altamont.

Mr. Aylward recalled that incident earlier this year in the last letter to the Enterprise editor he wrote, a tribute to Beryl Grant, whom he said “was not only a remarkable professional but also an outstanding teacher. As someone new to village government, I learned so much from her guidance and wisdom.”

Always willing to give others credit where due, Mr. Aylward also credited a Republican town board member for standing with him as he stood up to Crossgates Mall.

While Mr. Aylward served on the Guilderland Town Board, which he joined in 1993, there was a board item to dedicate and open Crossgates Mall Road. There was a stipulation, Mr. Aylward recalled, to have a fence between that road and Westmere Terrace. But the fence hadn’t been built.

So at the town board meeting, he asked, “Where’s the fence?” He pointed out that there were children who play on Westmere Terrace, who may not be aware of the level of traffic that Crossgates Mall Road was likely to bring.

Mr. Aylward asked the Crossgates Mall representatives if they were planning to open the road without the fence, despite dangers to the neighborhood children, and they said yes.

He said that he was not going to approve that. He was the only Democrat on the board; the other four were Republicans in a town that had long been dominated by Republicans.

There was a tense moment. Then Councilman Dick Murray said that he was not going to approve that either, Mr. Aylward recalled. “And then it went down the row.”

The Crossgates Mall team vowed then and there to set every construction worker at the mall on the job of putting up the fence before the road was to open the following week. And they did, he said; they finished the fence.

Once again, in his first term as county legislator, which began in 1993, Mr. Aylward stepped in to transform a process that, until then, no one else had questioned. This one involved the demolition of the French’s Mills Road Bridge in Guilderland Center, which had already been closed because it was not safe for vehicular traffic.

Mr. Aylward was on the Public Works Committee that reviewed this item. He knew that the town had a hike-and-bike trail and was astounded to see that the bridge was going to be demolished, at a cost of $250,000. He thought that it would make more sense to keep the bridge, for biking and hiking, than to tear it down.

Mr. Aylward immediately said to the other legislators, “I think I have a better plan than demolishing the bridge.” He suggested using that same $250,000 to reconstruct and restore it. 

“Today, there is a bike-and-hike trail there, and it’s a beautiful spot,” Mr. Aylward said.

Looking back over a long career of public service, Mr. Aylward said in 2015, “I’ve done my duty, and I hope that doesn’t make it sound like a drudgery. It’s not. I enjoyed it.”

He went on, “I recommend local politics highly to others, especially now that I’m retiring.” He laughed and said, “Think about it, because you can do so much for your community.”

His family’s tribute concluded, “Bill loved his community and worked tirelessly to make the world a better place …. Bill’s legacy of service, kindness, and love will live on in all who knew him.”

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William F. Aylward is survived by his devoted wife, Sylvia; his five children, Linda of Norton, Massachusetts, Donna (Dan) of Duanesburg, Bill of Delray Beach, Florida, Sharon (Matt) of Middletown, New York, and Kevin (Kelly) of Falls Church, Virginia, and by his seven grandchildren, Nicholas (Kelly), Emily (Chris), Mitchell (Daniella), Chris (Lauren), Caroline, Conner, and Kyle.

He is also survived by his four sisters, Sister Louise Aylward, ocd, of Marlborough, Massachusetts; Sister Mary Augustine, lsp, of Enfield, Connecticut; Karen (Frank) of Mansfield, Massachusetts; and Kathy (Bill) of Raynham, Massachusetts.

He is survived, too, by six nieces and nephews and seven great-nieces and great-nephews.

Calling hours will be held on Friday, Nov. 21, from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Cannon Funeral Home at 2020 Central Ave. in Colonie. A Mass will be celebrated on Saturday, Nov. 22, at 10 a.m. at St. Madeleine Sophie’s Roman Catholic Church at 3500 Carman Road in Guilderland. Following the funeral Mass, burial will take place at the Fairview Cemetery in Altamont in accordance with Catholic tradition.

Memorial contributions may be made to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.