For almost 20 years, Bill Kenwright was Everton’s “chairman, our leader, our friend and inspiration”.
Those words were handwritten in a wreath – topped with flat sea holly (blue, naturally) – and placed at the foot of Dixie Dean’s statue outside Goodison Park this week by Sean Dyche and Seamus Coleman.
On Sunday, when Everton travel to the London Stadium, i understands West Ham will place a wreath on the chair Kenwright would normally have taken in the directors’ box, with a period of applause before kick-off to pay tribute to both the Everton chairman and Sir Bobby Charlton, who died last Saturday.
West Ham boss David Moyes, Everton manager from 2002-2013 and a long-standing friend of Kenwright’s, will lay wreaths on the pitch alongside current head coach Sean Dyche and Sir Geoff Hurst – the latter as Charlton’s teammate in England’s 1966 World Cup-winning side.
To those who knew Kenwright, he was a dedicated lifelong servant to his club and one who seemed “invincible”.
“I knew him well and we were in contact only a few weeks ago when he was on his way to the London clinic [for surgery], but he was so excited about Everton signing Jack Harrison from Leeds,” Everton shareholder Professor Tom Cannon, who first met Kenwright in the 1990s, tells i.
“The most personal of my memories of Bill was after I’d had the honour on behalf of the University of Liverpool to present him with an Honorary Doctorate at the [Royal Liverpool] Philharmonic.
“After the ceremony, while his mum and family wanted to talk about the event, all Bill wanted to talk about was the results of Everton’s recent overseas tour until his mum made him focus on the degree ceremony. He wasn’t very happy that the doctoral gown was red!”
Everton held a minute’s silence ahead of Dyche’s pre-match press conference on Friday at Finch Farm. Kenwright’s face had adorned the giant screens at Goodison as players trained there earlier this week for what already feels like a must-win trip to east London, with the Toffees just three points above the relegation zone.
On a personal level, Kenwright was deeply hurt by the vitriol that came his way as the club’s fortunes worsened in recent years. A boyhood supporter who could be seen clapping along to Z-Cars as fervently as any other fan in the terraces, nobody ever doubted his love for the club or the city.
Long before the depths of the Farhad Moshiri era, his tenure as chairman saw Everton finish fourth in 2005 and in 2009, they reached the FA Cup final via a famous Wembley victory over Manchester United.
Even as he bore the brunt of supporters’ frustrations, advised along with the rest of the board not to attend home games from January onwards for safety reasons, he desperately sought a solution to Everton’s troubles.
After his passing was announced on Tuesday, tributes from the community quickly started to appear outside Goodison Park. For a theatre producer synonymous with the glitz of West End spectacles, many of them were touching in their simplicity – a series of blue and white scarves scrawled with biro: “RIP, Bill”.
A further commemoration is expected on Wednesday, when Everton play Burnley in the Carabao Cup round of 16, their first home game since Kenwright’s passing.
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