Nicholas W. Fast

— Hilton Head Island, S.C. Nicholas “Nick” Wilbur Fast of Sea Pines on Hilton Head Island, S.C., died Jan. 6, 2024, at age 92. He lived a long, happy life and died peacefully in his sleep at a hospital in Savannah from complications of pneumonia and a fall.

The only child of Evelyn “Honey” Wilbur and John Fast, he was born March 23, 1931, in New York, N.Y., and grew up in Bayshore, Long Island. His father died when he was young, and his mother later married Duke Busch.

He is predeceased by his wife Elizabeth “Betty” Trygstad Fast; and by his second wife Joyce “Joy” Dudek Fast. He is survived by his four sons: Steve, Jim, Carl and Ken and their wives and partners; 10 grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren, four stepnieces; and four doted-on cats.

Nick graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Arts in electrical engineering and naval architecture. He also rowed crew for MIT. Nick and Betty moved from Cambridge, Mass., to Groton after college, where he went to work at General Dynamics/Electric Boat designing and managing the construction of nuclear submarines.

Having grown up on Great South Bay in a maritime family, the world outside of work revolved around boats, including those he built in the backyard. He was a long-time active member, and a past commodore, of the Shennecossett Yacht Club in Groton. And the love of messing about in boats is being passed down through the generations.

While Nick spent more years in retirement than he had worked at EB, he always said he was busier after he stopped working. He took on a long-term volunteer commitment to the workshop and maintenance program at Mystic Seaport. He and Joy spent a lot of time cruising the New England coast before finally retiring from boating when they moved to Hilton Head. He had a constant stream of other projects involving first boats, and then houses and yards.

But he was also a big believer that there is no such thing as a bad nap, especially with a cat or two on your lap.