James A. Bill *68

James Bill, professor of government emeritus at the College of William and Mary, died Nov. 21, 2015, of Parkinson’s disease and dementia. He was 76.

Bill graduated from Assumption College in 1961, received a master’s degree from Penn State, and earned a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton in 1968, having spent two years of research in Tehran. For the next 25 years, he made innumerable trips to Iran and other Middle Eastern countries. Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that “if the U.S. government had paid more attention to what he [Bill] was saying back in the 1970s, our country — and the world — could have been spared a lot of trouble then, and now.”

He began his career at the University of Texas, Austin, where he taught for 20 years. In 1987, Bill joined William and Mary, where he founded the Reves Center for International Studies. He published 10 significant books.

A frequent media guest, Bill was interviewed by, among others, Walter Cronkite, Charlie Rose, Mike Wallace, and the McNeil/Lehrer Report. In 2012, he received an honorary doctorate degree from William and Mary.

Bill is survived by Ann, his wife of 50 years; a son, Timothy ’90; a daughter, Rebecca Bill Chavez ’93; and five grandchildren.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.