He entered Princeton from the Peddie School and joined Terrace Club. He performed with Theatre Intime, and in addition to dramatics, enjoyed riding horseback out of the Armory.
After receiving his Princeton degree in modern languages in 1945, he served briefly in the infantry before becoming vice consul in the American Embassy in Cairo. However, after eight years in the Foreign Service he switched to banking and briefly joined Chase Manhattan in New York before moving to Galveston, Texas, where he became vice president and senior trust officer of the U.S. National Bank.
He and his wife, the former Ann Hall, met in Texas and were married in 1956. Both were active in the Trinity Episcopal School in Galveston, where Bud served on the board. Bud and Ann divorced, and he moved to St. Petersburg, Fla., where he joined the National Trust Bank of Florida in St. Petersburg.
After spending three decades in banking, Bud entered into his third and final career phase of assisting elderly people, mostly as a court-appointed guardian.
Bud leaves behind his son, Mark Frazier Atkinson, to whom the class expresses its sympathy.