In 1951, Bill became the youngest person ever to be elected to the Royal Geographic Society. He attended St. John’s College at Oxford in 1953 to study Arabic and returned to commence service in the Army, where he wrote a primer on Arabic grammar for the National Security Agency.
In 1956, Bill joined Chemical Bank in New York; in 1968, he attended Harvard’s Advanced Management Program, and from 1970 to 1977 he led Chemical’s international division. He was vice chair of the Chemical board of directors from 1977 until retiring in 1983. Then from 1985 to 1988 he was a partner of Price Waterhouse & Partners. He was director of NAC ReCorp. from 1986 to 1999.
His stellar business career included numerous directorships of corporations and nonprofits. Bill died June 15, 2022, leaving his sons, Thomas and Philip, to whom the class offers our sympathies.