Necrology

Andrew Whitaker Bailey '69

Feb. 4, 1948-Apr. 15, 2024

Andrew Whitaker Bailey ’69 died on April 15, 2024, in Santa Rosa, Calif. Born in Penn Yan, N.Y., on Feb. 4, 1948, he came to Hamilton from Penn Yan Academy. On the Hill, he was a member of Delta Phi fraternity and majored in history. Graduating with honors in his major, Andy was shortly thereafter drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to Fort Bliss, Texas, where he learned the Vietnamese language and was trained to conduct interrogations. From there, he was sent to Long Binh, Vietnam, where he served as an interpreter and interrogator.

Completing active duty on Oct. 1, 1971, Andy pursued his interest in photography, a hobby he enjoyed since childhood, and moved to Rochester, N.Y., where he worked for a processor of commercial photographs: he formatted images to appear in advertisements and other media, such as the cover of the local phone directory featuring a photo of the Earth as seen from outer space.

In 1977, he drove to San Francisco to visit friends when he learned of a job with Faulkner Color Lab, which developed photographs. He took that job and remained in the Bay Area for the rest of his life. In 1978, he met Virginia Less, a native of Terra Linda, Calif., who lived in the same apartment building as he did, at a party of the building’s residents. They hit it off. They were married on Oct. 12, 1985, and made their home in Petaluma.

Andy worked for Faulkner until 1985, when he joined the staff at Chartmasters, a company specializing in technical and special effects photography first in Santa Clara and later in San Francisco. Among his assignments was to work with Steve Jobs who, following his departure from Apple, started a new company called NeXT. It was Andy’s job to prepare slides to accompany Jobs’s promotion of his new company, which initially produced computer workstations for higher education and business markets, and subsequently began developing software and hardware to serve those same markets. 

By 1999, the entire world of commercial photography was undergoing a major transformation as digital photography replaced film, enabling those who had formerly been customers to do their own work. The result was that Chartmasters and many other companies closed. Andy changed course.

In 2000, he worked in Santa Clara for Hillman Fasteners, a company that made various forms of fastening hardware, including screws, nails, and bolts. Andy’s job was to visit retail hardware stores to take orders and stock the shelves. In 2003, he left that job and moved to Phoenix with Virginia, whose employer transferred her there. Two years later, they returned to Petaluma, and Andy went back to work for Hillman. As time passed, though, his territory grew to the point where the driving became too much. He left Hillman for Orchard Supply Hardware, a local store that was part of a larger chain in the Bay area. He liked the challenge of providing solutions to problems customers brought to him, as well as recommending the necessary hardware. He retired in 2015.

One of Andy’s major interests was bowling. He enjoyed the sport since elementary school and had earned a letter in it at Penn Yan Academy. In California, he was a member of several leagues and was justifiably proud of having bowled three perfect, 300-point games. He was also a woodworker who fashioned, among other things, planter boxes for Virginia’s garden. He read books on history and other subjects and, along with Virginia, was a subscriber to the Santa Rosa Symphony.

Andrew W. Bailey is survived by his wife, his brother Philip Bailey ’65, and by several nieces and nephews.

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