William Joseph McKenzie

William Joseph McKenzie, Bill to most, passed away on January 31, 2026 at the age of 75. Bill is survived by his wife, Kathy Burke, children Kait McKenzie and Megan Ricketts, brother Dave McKenzie, nine grandchildren, and much extended family. While Bill’s patience for his grandkids’ shenanigans wasn’t always extensive, he loved them fiercely and took any opportunity to utter his flip-flopped nickname for his namesake, Willy Zack.

Bill was larger than life. He was all in on the Wallstreet and golf club lifestyle for most of his adult life. That kept him busy while he provided generously for his children, and from time to time showed up to pick them up in a limo from an orthodontist appointment or some other similar larger than life antic. But if it was Wednesday night in July or August you would find Bill running a well-oiled scoring table at the Smoke Rise swim team meets.

He may have held the record for most times listening to John Mayer’s Continuum album, was a Dairy Queen aficionado, acrobatic trick performer, and had a dance move (yes that’s right, just one move, and we all know it) to kill.

Bill had a love-hate relationship with many things including golf, work, and neighbors. His vibrantly colored golf pants from the 80s will be forever memories for his kids, and he loved him some take out lobster tails at all hours of the night after successful work days in NYC. He had some favorite Kinnelon neighbors, loved just about every neighbor at Beachfront North during his porch partying days, and his Bradley Beach neighbors, well there was some minor love for them too, but only if they kept their bikes out of shared hallways and closed the recycling bin lids.

Bill was a lover of Johnny Walker red, or sometimes blue, white wine, the type varied by the year, Winston cigarettes, Mrs. Hess's chocolate chip cookies and pepper dip, salty snacks, sugary cereal, chili, chicken fried steak, and blue cheese on any type of red meat. He always had a glass of ice water within reach and made the fluffiest scrambled eggs.

He could watch movies, the History channel, or sporting events for hours, and back in the day could also sit on the front steps and admire his perfectly manicured front yard for hours. He checked his grandkids’ Team Snap app alerts more religiously than anyone and always knew when they had a game or competition. Bill would check in before, after, and even during the games for all of the stats and updates.

One of Bill’s favorite things in his later years was helping his kids and grandkids with investments. He would monitor their accounts like a hawk. He literally logged into one such investment account 212 times in the 90 days up until he passed. That is an average of 2 to 3 times a day. One of his last texts to Kait, less than one week before he passed said: “It’s funny …I feel more pressure with Tyler’s $50 and Jude’s $1,000 than your money. Haha” When he cared, he really cared. When he took something on as his responsibility, he was all in. If you were loved by Bill, you knew it.

Bill’s texts typically included an emoji array of red wine glasses, the Scotland flag, hearts, and exclamation points, usually many of each. He was very loved, and his loved ones hope he is in a better place sipping wine, feeling a Scottish vibe, and knowing he is in our hearts.

Please join the family for a celebration of Bill’s life at his brother Dave’s house in the Pittsburgh area on May 16th.

Services are entrusted to Jersey Shore Cremation Service, 43 Taylor Avenue, Manasquan, NJ - JerseyShoreCremation.com