An unhoused Chilmark man was found dead under piles of blankets inside a car where he had been living through some of the coldest days of the winter when frigid temperatures plunged to near zero.
The cause of the death of William P. Steranka, 78, is “unknown,” according to Chilmark Police, who pronounced him dead after his body was discovered in a commercial lot on Tabor House Road by an Island resident on the morning of Jan. 27.
Steranka, who often recited poetry and frequented church dinners and art openings, is presumed by those who knew him to have died from hypothermia. Police said they’re still waiting on autopsy results, however, and cannot confirm the precise cause of death.
In the aftermath, some community members expressed anguish as to how Steranka fell through the cracks on an Island with a stark disparity of wealth and privilege.
Local housing advocates have made concerted efforts to help year-rounders navigate a crisis in affordability that has left many struggling to get by, particularly amid the kind of frigid cold that has gripped New England for the last month.
A shelter for the unhoused was first opened in 2013 in direct response to a person dying from hypothermia and the shock it caused in the community. The initiative ultimately became incorporated as a nonprofit known as Harbor Homes.
The standing mission of Harbor Homes runs parallel to a more informal network of Islanders who often offer temporary shelter in their homes to those struggling to survive on the Island in the dead of winter.
According to police, Steranka didn’t utilize Harbor Homes services, but members of the more informal network said they were directly in touch with Steranka and could not coax him into a better shelter.
The National Weather Service reported temperatures hovering at 12°F that night, and with the wind-chill factor, it dipped below zero. It was only a day after a winter storm dumped over one foot of snow on Island shores.
Sean Slavin, Chilmark Chief of Police, told The Times that it was believed that Steranka chose to live in his car and relied on transportation from Chilmark residents. It is unknown whether the car was operational.
“There are people that would go and check on him,” Slavin said. “One of those people went to check on him … and found him deceased.”
The investigation will be taken over by state police, according to Slavin, as is standard operating procedure on cases like this. Massachusetts State Police Trooper Leah M. O’Connell referred The Times to Chilmark Police and the district attorney’s office. Danielle Whitney, spokesperson for the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s Office, said “preliminary investigations don’t reveal anything suspicious at this time.”
Claire Ganz, The Times’ Chilmark town columnist, reported on Steranka’s death in last week’s edition of the newspaper. Steranka was a friend of hers. He was a Pennsylvania native and often spoke of military service, and had lived on the Island for many years preceding his death, she said.
“He was reserved and had a gentle laugh,” Ganz wrote in the town column. “I don’t know his story, but I enjoyed the easy rhythm of friendship that develops around a dinner table when we come as we are.”
Ganz said it was common for people to pick Steranka up on their way somewhere, and that he could often be seen around Tabor House and North roads.
Ganz added, “In Chilmark, we have a history of accepting people on their own terms. Harbor Homes is one model, but there are these informal networks that matter, too.”
One of Steranka’s friends, Chilmark resident and potter William “Bill” O’Callaghan, said he would often give Steranka rides.
“The last time I saw him was a few weeks ago, and he didn’t look well. He was really having a difficult time walking, catching his breath. I advised him to go to the hospital. He said he knew a doctor, and he called her the next day, and the next I heard, he had passed,” O’Callaghan said.
O’Callaghan said Steranka was a bit of a mystery. He knew sparse details about his life, but remembered his kindness and quality of conversation. Steranka had told him he was a veteran.
“He didn’t discuss much about his life, except that he was from Pennsylvania originally,
and he was in Vietnam and hurt his leg,” he said.
Steranka also attended many shows at Pathways Arts, the winter residency that holds concerts and poetry readings at the Chilmark Tavern.
Scott Crawford, the sound engineer and co-director at Pathways, said Steranka “was quiet, loved his coffee, came to many events, and once recited four different authors verbatim by memory.”
During one poetry reading, back in 2022, Steranka recited “Grass,” a poem by Carl Sandburg about the horrors of war, to a small crowd. He remembered most of it exactly as written, with full confidence in the phrases. As a preamble, he referenced the ongoing war in Ukraine that was sparked by Russia’s invasion into the neighboring country that year.
“There’s not a lot you can say about war. It’s basically about death and destruction, and it’s no new thing. And it has a tendency to spiral out of control,” Steranka said at Pathways, his voice assured, calm, and projecting throughout the space.
Chief Slavin, I question your choice of words. Does anyone truly choose to live in their car for a winter?
It’s usually because of restrictions of shelters. Addicted people won’t go because they can’t use, can’t bring their pets, people with mental illness don’t want to take their meds to name a few. You can also add undocumented immigrants in fear of ICE.
It is incorrect to say that “people with mental illness don’t want to take their meds”.
The general population often promotes an unfair ignorance about mental illness, including knowing nothing about devastating side effects from some psych meds, particularly antipsychotics.
If someone has cancer and decides not to go through any more doctor appointments and chemo and radiation, after trying to tolerate the intolerable side effects, it would be cruel to off-handedly suggest that cancer patients “don’t want take the medication” that may extend their lives, but without quality of life due to “medical” intervention.
Considering how many in this community feel about putting vaccines in their body, even though the vaccines help protect the immune compromised, elderly and infants, I’d think there’d be more compassion for mentally ill who understandably sometimes reject toxic, hard-to-tolerate side-effects of prescribed meds.
Mental illnesses are the last bastion of cruel misunderstandings and ignorance. No other illnesses— cancers, pneumonias, alpha gal, even alcoholism, etc, expect the victim to tolerate the intolerable—and blame him if he doesn’t.
Will was a good man whom I knew from years past when I was a manager at the lampost. He used to come in and play in the pool tournament. He and Stu, the old owner of Smoking Bones, used to get into it all the time lol. Will was always on his own time and definitely walked to a different beat. I have always engaged with him, and we have had many interactions over the years. It’s very sad to read this knowing that he ended up this way. Rest In Peace, Will
Sarah, thank you for eloquently writing this difficult piece. William Steranka’s quiet presence shall be missed. He was often at gatherings. I can’t recall a time when he wasn’t at Pathway’s. A quiet presence, though when he did read, there was a striking honesty about him. Many did not know his name. So very sad, at least those who did not know who he was, now will.
I first met Will over dinner at the old WT Red Cat with Peter Ochs back in the 90’s. More recently, he was a regular at the Tuesday night dinners at the Chilmark Community Church. Always soft-spoken and polite, he will be missed at the table.
Who knows why people make the choices that they do, but I don’t think Chief Slavin was out of line in his comment. Not everyone is willing to accept help when offered.
Homeless is now unhoused, and hunger is now food insecurity, and illegal is undocumented. All words to allocate the responsibility to the state rather than the individual. ”chose to live in his car” is the incorrect phrase. Wokeness is unabated.
Andrew, why do you care what words people use when trying to be kind? Instead of worrying about “wokeness” how about worrying about the needs of your fellow human beings? It would be a better use of your time and energy. Thank you.
So very sad, this should not happen especially in this seasonally at least very wealthy, sometimes insane wealthy community. But sometimes these disenfranchised individuals don’t honestly know where to turn and aren’t capable of reaching out for much needed help.
Didn’t know the man and truly sorry for his passing but the elephant in the room here is the fact that the difficulty in treating, and the lack of treatment options for the mentally ill is so often the factor behind homelessness (and substance addiction).
Sadly a woefully un-prioritized tragedy.
Respectfully, no one falls through the cracks, but rather the cracks are often indifference created because most folks really don’t want to be bothered enough to offer solutions. I sadly expect some in our community to disagree with me, but I can say, 1st hand, that I know how it feels to be judged and ignored over just the basics of living in my community. You won’t hear me complaining because it is a waste of precious energy, which I choose not to spend, as I recall Michelle Obama saying, “When they go low, we go high!”
The reasoning behind choices may not make sense to anyone but the person who makes them, but illness is never something one chooses.
Experiencing or witnessing unthinkable suffering can cause a person to think differently thereafter.
Some illnesses we are born with, others we pick up along the way.
I hope we can learn more about who this mysterious man,William Steranka, was, who his family was, and what his younger years were, before Vietnam.
Here in NYC we lost at least 25 people to exposure in these last 3 weeks. I don’t even know their names, but there are numbers to call when we see freezing people living on the streets. These people often say no to offers of going to a shelter.
We are wrong to see William as “refusing” help. We are the one refusing to understand why, for him, his choices were obvious, sensible, and preferable to the alternatives of police, hospitals, and medical care.????
May his memory be for a blessing.
I would caution against a rush to judgment about anyone else’s mental condition. Bill was a Vineyarder. We all share the same diagnosis to varying degrees. Sadly, the advice “Go Get Help”, delivered with good intentions by those who have never struggled with severe mental illness, rests on the assumption that you’ll be ushered into the arms of a coherent and effective mental health system that will guide you back to health and wellness. This mythical system does not exist. There are wonderful people on the island doing the best they can within the confines of a tattered system.
If someone is standing on a ledge and risks dying if they fall, the police intervene immediately and do everything possible to get that person help. Yet here on the island, a man can be in immediate danger of death due to his own actions and it is somehow framed as his “right” to remain in danger, with the reassurance that “people would go check on him.”
That is a failure of government. Mentally ill unhoused people should not be unaccounted for. Yes, I am saying that police or another agency on our idyllic island should keep track of these individuals and know where they are when they pose a danger to themselves. At the very least, there should be a way to contact them, and if that fails, someone should physically check on them and make it clear the purpose is their safety.
Part of the problem with euphemisms like “unhoused” versus “homeless” is that homelessness can include shelters or couch surfing. In this case, at ten degrees outside, “unhoused” was literal. He had no house—no insulated walls, roof, or heat—the only things that could have saved him from deadly cold.
It’s nice to see an article humanizing someone who died possibly as a result of their homelessness. He may have had pneumonia untreated or something like that. I have lost countless friends who were homeless when they died. Not a single one of them had an obituary or a memorial of any kind. I have thought about how nice it would be if there were a way for people to share memories and pay tribute either through a website or (better yet) locally there could be a memorial/installation that people could visit and contribute to! There are many reasons why people might not be able to stay in a shelter (if there is one with beds available)…. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they are choosing to be outside.