In a December 6, 2008 email from Peter Hodgson, Jr. to me he states (in part):

"I was a huge fan of your dad" ... "I did work under Bill's eye, cutting, shaving, weighing the stuff in the ice trays in the very beginning at 424 Temple Street, and then, much later, out in Branford, when he had developed all kinds of mechanical contraptions; there was a fellow who worked with Bill for years, much younger ..." And then he mentioned two other Silly Putty people - John Payson* and Libby Patton.

He indicated that Pete treated my father like a "son".

In a January 9, 2011 e-mail from Pete Sr's youngest daughter she states (in part):
"..just wanted ... to tell you how much I loved your father, without whom I cannot imagine Silly Putty having been, and whom I will always remember from his charming face to his delightful sense of humor and obvious affection for us ragtag children, hanging around the house on Temple Street, helping to fold the vienna sausages of Silly Putty into their plastic eggs when we were bored. Alice too, was one of my favorite people, I remember her sweet poetic grace and ready smile at the Block Shop and got the feeling she was a similar kind of delicate backbone to the place as Bill was to Silly Putty. They were important people to me and I can call up their images and hear their voices effortlessly ...." And she also stated "I remember Elizabeth (?) Huggins and can drum up her image as well".

* Willie Ruff indicated that John Payson was a computer/marketing expert & former Yale student who set up marketing models and who went on to a large toy company, possibly Mattel. Peter Hodgson, Jr. indicated that Payson "having rescued the Yale laundry per computers, took on the job of mapping local TV markets across the country". Payson helped to develop the marketing strategy for Silly Putty.