Bill died of pancreatic cancer June 7, 2014, in Blacksburg, Va., where he had been an award-winning professor of mathematics for four decades at Virginia Tech.
A leading light of ’63 in an intellectual sense, Bill published research in pure mathematics/theoretical physics in many articles and books while lecturing in a dozen countries and visiting about 70 more because he loved traveling to remote places.
Last year he told the class that terminal illness would thwart his dream of attending our 50th reunion, then bravely lived on with good humor and without complaint.
“He was cracking jokes, and good ones, too, until he became too weak to speak more than a word or two,” said classmate and close friend Paul Kirk.
Bill was unfailingly grateful to Princeton. He came from Lakewood, N.J., ate at Wilson, and roomed senior year with John Andrews, Ashin, Morris Brooks, Isherwood, and Vic Katz, who was best man at his wedding. After finishing a thesis on quantum field theory, he earned his master’s degree and Ph.D. at Harvard.
Bill said marrying Barbara in 1968 was “the greatest attainment” of his life. In addition to Barbara, he is survived by his sons, Eric and Evan ’00; a daughter, Loni ’04; his sisters, Enid, Adelaide, and Francine; and granddaughter Ellie.