Richard S. Williamson ’71

Rich, our senior-year class president, died unexpectedly Dec. 8, 2013, due to complications from a cerebral hemorrhage. He truly lived a life “in the nation’s service and in the service of all nations.”

Rich came to Princeton from New Trier High School in Winnetka, Ill. He was a starter on our varsity football team, a religion major, and a member of Cottage Club. Senior year he lived with Bill Stewart and Tom Shine at 24 Blair. Most importantly, Princeton is where his courtship of Jane Thatcher began.

Rich had a magnificent career that split work in the private sector (law, business executive, corporate boards) and public service, which included the Reagan White House; Assistant Secretary of State; Special Presidential Envoy to the Sudan; U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN Commission on Human Rights; and US Ambassadorships in Vienna and the U.N. He was a top foreign policy adviser to the presidential campaigns of Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) and Senator John McCain (R-AZ).

Rich wrote seven books, edited three, and wrote hundreds of articles, most on foreign policy.

Rich devoted his professional life trying to spread democracy and stop genocide. He didn’t shy away from the difficult problems; he ran towards them. Internationally, he didn’t hesitate to go to the places where you had to wear a flak jacket, and pack your own food.  He was shocked by man’s capacity for inhumanity. He couldn’t look away; he tried to do something about it.  To paraphrase RFK, Rich dreamed, and asked, “Why Not?”

And yet, for all he accomplished, for all he touched professionally, Rich’s North Star was still his family, which in our 25th-reunion yearbook, Rich credited to “my luck and Jane’s skill.”  Somehow he found time to coach all three kids in basketball and baseball and made a point of getting home in time for dinner.  

The class extends its deepest sympathy to Rich’s wife of 40 years, Jane; and their children, Lisa Graham (Ryan), Craig, and Ricky (Sara); and his adored granddaughter, Cora Jane.