Edward A. Williams ’40

The notice of Ed's death on Dec. 29, 1999, reached Princeton's Alumni Records' office and this memorialist much delayed. The class offers its belated regrets to his several nieces and nephews.

Ed was born in Cincinnati and attended the Hughes H.S. there. He was an English major at Princeton, and a member of the American Whig-Cliosophic Society and Gateway Club. He always credited Princeton and Princetonians for his career choices and successes.

Thus, upon graduation Ken Meyer '43 persuaded him to visit his home in Australia. There he began teaching at Geelong School near Melbourne. The father of Pat Merle-Smith '40, Col. Van S. Merle-Smith '11, military attache to the U.S. Ambassador to Australia, asked Ed in April 1942 to join Gen. MacArthur's headquarters G-2 (intelligence) staff.

After the war, Edward Pulling '20, founder of Millbrook School, asked Ed to teach English there and be a housemaster for 13 years; thereafter he headed the English Dept. at the Nichols School in Buffalo for 24 years until he retired.

Along the way, Ed coauthored a book on the postal history of Australia's Northwest Territory. His hobbies were ornithology and stamp collecting.

His classmates will remember with pleasure Ed's positive outlook and his lifelong dedication to the education of our nation's youths.

The Class of 1940