William Mitchell, Boston Harbor pilot

Later that day, Mr. Mitchell took command of a cargo ship from India and maneuvered the vessel into the harbor before dining with the captain.

For 40 years, Mr. Mitchell, who lived in the South End, piloted the harbor and waterways of New England. He met captains from around the world and quickly won the respect of their crews.

Mr. Mitchell died of cancer Oct. 14 at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He was 80.

“He was one of the last of a breed,’’ said his friend Richard Chase, a former shipping agent who often hired Mr. Mitchell to navigate the Cape Cod Canal.

“Bill had a way of establishing his authority on the bridge and yet making people feel comfortable with him, so everyone was clear what was going to happen,’’ said Chase, of Melrose.

Mr. Mitchell, who grew up in Roslindale, came from a family of seafaring men. Both his father, Edward, and his older brother were Boston Harbor pilots.

Mr. Mitchell, who graduated from St. John’s Preparatory School in 1947, had initially considered a career in medicine, according to his family.

He studied premedical courses at the College of the Holy Cross and graduated in 1951. He served in the Army from 1952 to 1954, achieving the rank of captain.

But a coveted opening with the highly skilled Boston Harbor pilots changed his career plans. Mr. Mitchell began the requisite long apprenticeship with the pilots in 1954.

For almost 10 years, he studied and ferried pilots from the organization’s schooners out to cargo ships. “He’d put a dory over the side and row a senior pilot out to the vessels,’’ Chase said.

Mr. Mitchell became a full pilot in 1963.

George Ohlson, who was a Boston Harbor pilot for 45 years, recalled the rough seas he and Mr. Mitchell often faced while getting to and from cargo ships.

“It gets kind of hairy,’’ he said. “The whole idea of training in the first part is getting on and off the ships. You’ve got to go in heavy weather, storms, and snows.’’

The tradition-bound harbor pilots did not switch to using motorboats to reach cargo ships until the 1970s.

Ohlson said Mr. Mitchell was a personable mariner. “He was a talkative guy, very knowledgeable about current events,’’ he said. “He liked politics.’’

Mr. Mitchell served as president of the Boston Harbor Pilots Association from 1979 to 1983.

His wife, Mary, said he loved to travel. “As soon as he had a little bit of time in the schedule, it was time to go somewhere,’’ she said, recounting adventures in Europe, South America, and China. “We did have a rich life,’’ she said.

Her husband would sometimes start the day singing tunes from “Oklahoma’’ or “South Pacific.’’ He loved Boston sports, owned a raft of tools, and “knew exactly how to use every one,’’ she said.

“He was a lot of fun, very skilled, very intelligent, but I think bottom line was he was really a good man who understood what it meant to be an honorable person,’’ she said. “That meant everything to him.’’

Mr. Mitchell was a widower when his romance with Mary (Silva) began over a cup of coffee. They were married seven years.

His first wife, Nancy (Hanlon), died after 31 years of marriage. They had a daughter, Ellen, who lives in The Netherlands.

In Concord Square, where Mr. Mitchell had lived since the late 1960s, neighbors marveled at the pieces of Boston history he kept in his basement. From old brownstone banisters to newspaper clippings from the 1942 Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire, Mr. Mitchell was a link to a disappearing past, they said.

He helped neighbors with yard sales to raise money to restore the square.

“He was always there for whatever we wanted to do,’’ said his neighbor Joe Alexander.

After the neighborhood association repaired the square’s elegant fountain, Mr. Mitchell became the de facto groundskeeper, cleaning out the drains.

“He was a tough guy on the surface,’’ Alexander said. “And he was a religious man, but you’d never know it to meet him. You knew it after you got to know him.’’

In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Mitchell leaves his sister, Barbara Hynes of Norwood, and several nephews.

A Mass will be said at 11 a.m. tomorrow at St. Cecelia’s Church, 18 Belvedere St., in Boston. Burial will be in St. Joseph Cemetery in West Roxbury.

Correction: Because of a reporting error, an obituary of retired Boston Harbor pilot William T. Mitchell in Thursday's Globe misspelled the name of his first wife, Nancy Hanlon. The length of their marriage was also incorrect. They were married for 31 years.