Used Pontoon Boats - Former Godfrey Marine COO Has Passes Away

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Hello, Rick here from Used Pontoon Boats. William (Bill) J. Deputy, former Godfrey Marine COO has passes away. Bill worked in and around the boating industry for 40 years. He joined his brothers in 1990 at Godfrey and helped grow the company into one of the largest in the marine industry in terms of unit sales. In 2005 the company had sales of over $200 million and was about 15th in the country in total unit sales. This was a terrific accomplishment by any measure.

Over the years the company expanded from pontoon boats to aluminum fishing boats, fiberglass center console boats under the Polar brand, and is generally considered to have originated the deck boat concept. Bill was deeply involved in the development of the Hurricane deck boat brand which gained huge sales and started a trend that is now imitated by a dozen other builders.

The Deputy family sold Godfrey in 2005 to a Chicago venture capital company, CHS, which had purchased nearby Rinker a few months earlier. He served as COO of Godfrey Marine until the sale of the company in November 2005. Bill worked as a liaison in the acquisition.

Subsequently, he served on the board of directors of Nautic Global Group, the name of the holding company that owns Godfrey and Rinker.

“Bill built lifelong relationships with dealers, suppliers and employees. Like an extended family, Bill surrounded himself with others that envisioned an expansion of Godfrey into the mission that we live by today: ‘A Boat for Every Passion’,” said Bob Moran, CEO of Nautic Global Group.

Deputy earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Purdue University in 1967 and his Master of Business Administration in 1970 from the University of Chicago.

He was a member of New Buffalo Yacht Club, New Buffalo Harbor Commission, Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, Elcona Country Club, Sunset Ridge Country Club, Admiral's Club "Air Transportation," Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineers, Who's Who in Finance and Industry and John Purdue Club.

Deputy is survived by five brothers: Robert J. (Mary Pat) Deputy of Elkhart, Peter J. (Lisa) Deputy of Granger, Lawrence P. (Sherrod) Deputy of Bristol, Thomas M. (Peggy) Deputy of Dumfries, Va., and Richard A. Deputy of Sarasota, FL.

Used Pontoon Boats, By Rick Ostler
Pontoon Enclosures-North American Waterway