A Tribute to Bill J. Healey

Try to imagine the last time the owner of your company thanked you for a good day’s work. That is, if such a thing has ever happened to you at all. When it came to Bill Healey, saying thanks was simply part of the daily routine at the company he co-founded in New Jersey. He spent much of his time on the Viking Yachts factory floor, keeping an eye on the boats and talking with Viking’s workers. At the end of each shift, he’d stand  at the door to thank them as they left to head home. He knew the names of hundreds of carpenters, electricians and outfitters, and often the names of their family members, too.

Bill Healey and his brother Bob founded Viking Yachts in 1964 after buying the local boatbuilder Peterson-Viking. Bill had previously worked with his father at P.J. Healey Structural Steel, and he took on the oversight of design, engineering and manufacturing at Viking Yachts. In 1972, he introduced the fiberglass Viking 40 Convertible, kicking off what would become one heck of a run for the brand that continues to this day. During his tenure, Viking delivered more than 4,500 boats. That figure is now 6,000, with the 880,000-square-foot facility in New Gretna, N.J., turning out as many as 100 boats a year across multiple production lines.

Quality control through vertical integration was important to him long before it became a buzzworthy concept. Nearly 90 percent of each Viking is built in-house, and he would ride around the factory on a bicycle to make sure things were being done the way he wanted them done. He also cared about making sure his well-trained workforce would stick with him. He established a health department at the yard and gave on-site medical care not only to Viking’s employees, but also to their families.

Viking became legendary among its fellow boatbuilders for standing up to lead the recreational marine industry’s fight against the federal luxury tax in the early 1990s. Bill’s brother Bob is remembered for, among other things, setting a boat on fire as a protest in Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay. Bob also took busloads of unemployed craftsmen to Washington, D.C., to raise some hell with the politicians. The luxury tax crippled the company with a massive drop in boat sales, ultimately dwindling Viking’s 1,500-strong workforce to fewer than 100 people. The luxury tax was repealed in 1993, after which Viking rebuilt its workforce, with the brothers still at the forefront and leading the recovery. In 2024, Viking celebrated 60 years in business, having also survived the Great Recession and the pandemic.

Bob Healey died in 2021, while Bill and his wife, Sissy, remained married for 62 years. They raised three children who then added six grandchildren to the family. Bob’s son, Bob Healey Jr., serves as Viking’s chairman today, while Bill’s son, Pat Healey, is president and CEO of the company. Bill had always enjoyed taking the grandkids out on his personal Viking, christened Valhalla, and three of them now work at Viking as well. They are learning all areas of the business, including sales, marketing, and events such as tournaments and boat shows. Bill’s daughter Kathy also is a supporter of the Viking brand, as are her children.

“For Bill, Viking was never just a business,” the company stated in a press release. “It was family, both by blood and by the generations of craftsmen who built the boats. It was the product, refined and improved with every hull and every model. And it was the passion that fueled him every day. His life’s work and his legacy endure in the company’s timeless mantra: building a better boat every day.”  

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