This Website is dedicated to William "Bill" P. Kincaid, without
whom, there would be no Indian Hill High School Alumni Association.
This Website is dedicated to William "Bill" P. Kincaid, without
whom, there would be no Indian Hill High School Alumni Association.
He mentored us and guided us through our first decade.
We, in turn, used him as a "draw" to the annual All-Member
Reunions we hold, and we even made a "bobblehead" doll of
him, so those who were fortunate enough to know him and be
taught by him could remember him, always.
In 1995, Bill picked up the telephone and called some alumni to
ask, "Shouldn't Indian Hill have it's own Alumni Association?"
The next spring, on May 19, 1996, at the dedication of the Richard Weaver Memorial at
the school, he met with Dana and Joan Ewell (both from the class of 1958), and
again made his plea to get an Alumni Association started. Several meetings were
held, and the organization was given life.
William "Bill" P. Kincaid, Jr was born to Gladys Scott Kincaid and William P. Kincaid Sr.
on March 11, 1923 in Wisemantown, Kentucky, at home. Bill: "...if you were born in Kentucky then,
it had to be in the home, or the barn". Wisemantown, not much more than a wide spot on a dirt
road, was named for his great-grandfather on his mother's side and his brother. Wisemantown
now exists in name only and the road now is a state road with fast cars.
Bill started school a couple hundred yards down the road in a one-room school house. Bill: "In
conversation with students at IHHS in my early days there, I thought I would startle my 'kids' by telling
them I started to school in a one-room schoolhouse. Two or three kids in the group replied, 'Big
deal, so did I.' I didn't know about the peculiar Indian Hill school system before the high school was
built."
Bill graduated from high school in Ripley in late May 1940. Bill: "I realize now that I had some
very good teachers there. Several went on to teach at some of the better schools in Cincinnati and
other schools one would know. We didn't have many activities in those years when there was little
financial help for small schools. I had a friend who went to Withrow and spent a day with him there.
I couldn't believe what great opportunities they had. I guess band and chorus were as close to
activities that we had. They were also classes for which one got a grade. I had sensational teachers
in both. The seniors in our school worked our entire four years to raise money for a senior trip to
Washington. I won't even try to remember all of our fund-raising activities. I was senior class
president and often felt the pressure involved. We even sponsored Ripley's part of the (riverboat)
Island Queen's annual cruise between Augusta and Maysville."
Since neither of his parents had graduated from high school neither of them had a suggestion when
it came time to consider college. His mother's family had been Methodists since that group came
along and had been Kentuckians before Ole Dan Boone came along, and one of his favorite cousins
was going to Kentucky Wesleyan at Winchester, Kentucky.
Bill had been working at the shoe factory in Ripley, and college sounded like a better idea, so he
decided on KWC. He earned a Master's in English literature from the University of Kentucky as well
as credits from the University of Pittsburgh, UC, Michigan State, Missouri, and Shrivenham American
University in England. Bill: "If I pick 10 of what I now consider the best professors, three of them
were at KWC."
It was at Kentucky Wesleyan College that he met his life-long partner and bride, Mildred. But World
War II interrupted his plans.
As Bill explained his war experiences, "Uncle Sam did me the great favor of letting me spend
some time in some interesting places in the U.S. that could show you that Cincinnati was not the
biggest most interesting city in the world, although it was for a time. After some not so tough training
in places in Texas and the University of Pittsburgh, he also let me train at Fort Dix, New Jersey -
where I could leave Dix after Saturday inspection and be in New York City in time to find a theatre
ticket for the evening. I learned that one could stay there until 3:15 Sunday morning and still make
Reveille at Dix - of course Monday was not much fun. I went overseas as a radio operator with the
94th Signal to join Gen. Patton's Third Army and what was soon-to-be called 'The Budge'. After
getting Gen. George Patton out of trouble, the 94th was sent north to do the same for the 1st Army
at the Remagon bridge. We came back to Patton to finish the war. For weeks after VE Day we hid
out as a platoon until we were found and put in Patton's 15th Army, the occupation army, a slap in
the face for George because of his Russia speech. I have some great stories about occupation
army soldiering. I'll exchange for yours. But, what to do with all these 'nothing to do' troops became
a problem, I guess, and the Army set up schools in France, Switzerland, and Britain to find a place
for the worst of these troublemakers. I lucked out and was sent to Britain and spent the rest of my
overseas time in an American school about two hours out of London, where we were free from
noon Friday and we learned one could be absent at Reveille and nobody cared much. Such a tuff
duty was to go on and on until the Army said that the next time my number came up I had to go
home. Came home on a battleship that was supposed to cross in 5 days but ran into, according
to the New York papers, the worst storms in the North Atlantic in a 100 years. Took us 12 days.
I truly believed we were going to sink. We landed in New York harbor Dec. 24, 1945. We demobbed
somewhere in Indiana and in three days was enrolled at Kentucky Wesleyan College and meeting
regularly with a co-ed (Mildred) I'd had been writing to for some time."
As a depression kid, Bill never knew the word "allowance". His Ripley street friends taught him how
to make your own jobs. Bill: "Out in the country in Kentucky we didn't know about scrap iron and
that there were people who actually paid money (very small) for junk. In Kentucky I was too young to
know bootleggers; in Ripley I learned about them and that they bought clean half pint bottles. I also
on occasion sold magazines, and had an Enquirer route for a couple of years."
In his first year after graduation he worked for Ripley Dairy and at the age of 17 he was running the
company (The boss collected the money, however). When the new shoe factory opened in Ripley,
he applied for a job there. He said, "It had to be better than Ripley Dairy! I had broken in my
replacement at RD. I did get to my appointment with the personnel manager who hired me as an
'odd shoe boy.' When I got home and my brothers (both younger than I and interested in what job,
if any, I'd get) learned that I was going to be an 'odd shoe boy,' they fell down laughing. Yet much,
much later when my younger brother was looking for a name for a newly dropped colt (I was a
co-owner) at his farm, he submitted 'Odd Shoe Boy.' The Jockey Club accepted it more quickly than
they had for his other horses. I've had many jobs since."
Bill began teaching at Ludlow High Schools in Ludlow, Kentucky, teaching English and Algebra.
Bill: "We were paid during the nine months of school so I had to have a summer job. I learned a
great deal in all those jobs. When I applied for a GI loan for our first house in 1954 in
Madeira, I had to list all my jobs to qualify for the loan at 41/2 percent - my teaching job, my summer
job at the Sohio refinery in Latonia, my Christmas job with the U.S. Mail, my weekends for a friend
who did all kinds of floor covering. (I really learned from that job and my summers at the refinery.)"
Bill's teaching career involved just three schools: Ludlow High School for five years, one at Covington
High, and thirty three at Indian Hill, where in addition to teaching English, he sponsored the
publication of the "Chieftain", helped classes with their class plays, coached some
great golf teams, did the public address play-by-play at football games, and just about anything else
you can imagine.
When asked, "What was your biggest kick in teaching?" Bill replied, "I don't remember
anyone's asking me that. Of course, I've always considered extra curricular activities as learning
experiences, and I will always remember what we had to do to put on a play or do an issue of
Chieftain in those early days. We had to learn to do manually what is done for
today's kids. I have pleasant memories of the results of the Developmental Reading course we
started in the 60's and which was dropped immediately when I resigned. The guidance department
never seemed to understand the course and eventually made it as much remedial as developmental.
I have had people tell me they actually learned to read in that course. I had never really believed in
having journalism classes in high school. I found, however, that I liked doing the course very much
and that it had a great deal to offer whether or not he/she was considering continuing journalism
after school I was asked to do a class in typing after IHHS started having summer school. I liked it
enough to go back to Ray's place to get accredited in typing."
The family moved to Ripley, Ohio, about 50 miles up river from here in the early days of the
depression because his dad, like so many people, had been laid off. He started in the fourth grade
at Ripley. Everyone in the room was in the fourth grade - there were eight grades in his one-roomer
in Wisemantown. Bill declares that it was his good fortune to have the world's greatest teacher in
that class.
When asked why he decided to go into teaching, Bill said, "In the 7th grade at Ripley. I wanted to
grow up to be like Gordon Grooms whom I was fortunate to have as a teacher in all my high school
years. I soon realized I'd never be as handsome, but that if I were lucky, I might make it as a
teacher."
On spring break in 1947, they got married. Three sons followed; Geoffrey in 1948, Stephen in 1950,
and Scott in 1954. (They celebrated their 60th Anniversary at home - surrounded by their family.
(Their son Steve, who is becoming one of the country's best amateur chefs, did the dinner.)
[Bill told his English class in 1957 that he learned the definition of "Fragile" while working at the Post
Office. It meant that the package was not to be thrown over twenty feet if it would be landing on
concrete!]
Bill declared that his favorite extra curricular activity at IHHS was Chieftain, hands down.
In retirement, Bill's favorite hobbies included: "Of course if reading is an activity, I'll take it. I like
gardening although I'm not very good it. The deer have cut me back, but I did do over 300 pounds
of tomatoes last summer. I have 49 dahlias in the ground at the moment, but I never let fellow
members of the Greater Cincinnati Dahlia Society see them."
Often, when teachers retire, they immediately populate cruise ships and foreign tours. When asked
about travel, Bill responded, "Probably most of those who live in the Indian Hill School District
have done more. We traveled quite a bit when the kids got old enough to appreciate it and Mildred
got promotions at McAlpin's to finance them. We love motoring, have driven in all the contiguous
states, have let others drive us through Hawaii and parts of Alaska. We love to drive when there are
no time restraints. We have driven three times to California for weddings, two of the IHHS variety.
We flew to San Francisco for the IHHS reunion. We have also driven from Tijuana to Seattle through
all those sensational Pacific sites. We have been to Britain I think, eight times. We always drive
starting from where we land with a tentative agenda that has included homes and hangouts of my
literary heroes along with all the historical and cultural sites one is supposed to visit. We have
B & B'd it all the way. We love the theatre, and while we are in the golden city, we will see a matinee
and an evening performance every day. Mildred knows London better than Cincinnati. She is great
at getting tickets. While I am piddling around the old city, she is in Westminster shopping, Queen
watching, ticket finding. We will meet at the matinee or our dwelling. In our later visits, we rented a
house just three stops out of Victoria Station. This is what we used to do. We haven't been there for
some time for several reasons among them, (1) we can't walk very much at all. I have walked from
St. Paul's to Trafalgar Square.
We once walked from the zoo to our little hotel on Half Moon Street. In those days we would split at
Victoria Station in the morning and meet at the theatre, not walking all the way of course, but by using
the underground, which is so easy to learn and on the buses that Mildred knows better than I.
(2) We don't feel the underground is as safe as it was when we were much younger. (3) Prices
everywhere are out of sight. We always rented the smallest cars keeping aware that the price on the
gas pump is per liter, not per gallon. (4) They won't give me a driver's license. That rips it. But even
if they would, I feel that I have been lucky driving on the wrong side of the road for hundreds of miles
w/o an accident. When we go, we will stay at the Savoy. We remember it not as the most elegant or
most expensive, but in the best location, close to so much that we like. We will taxi everywhere and
eat at the restaurants we remember or are recommended by friends." Mildred added that they had
the opportunity to go on nine cruises over the years.
When asked, "As you look back on your years at IH, what is your fondest memory?", Bill responded, "I'll be in trouble whatever I say. It will be nothing I did. I will always remember the dedication and hard work of the Chieftain people. It will be being made an honorary member of the Class of '59 and a subsequent member of IHHSAA. My best times come often when an alum visits and brings his/her child, sends a letter, e-mail, phone call. When I get an invitation to lunch or to visit on one of our trips to wherever. When I get an invitation to a class reunion, When a former student tells me he is going to bring me his/her new book."
How would you like to be remembered? "Just as a little old guy who tried hard and was appreciative of the time we had together."
On May 15, 2008, The Board of Trustees of Sycamore Township passed a resolution to declare Sunday, May 18, 2008, "William Porter Kincaid Jr. Day" in Sycamore Township.
See a report and pictures of the Memorial Service
Read about Bill's "Reading Lab."
Read a former student's article about Bill
Read The Cincinnati Enquirer's Death Notice for Bill
Read about Bill being tapped as Coach of the Yearl
Read about "Boss" Bill at the Chieftain
