William Adam Hirsh Jr. ’27

BILL DIED Mar. 17, 1991, at St. Malry's Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nev., after a long illness. He left Princeton in June 1926 to prepare for a business career at Babson Institute. For many years he worked in Chicago (his birthplace) as president and general manager of the Octigan Forge and Manufacturing Company, making steel forgings. During WWII he supervised the production of airplanes, tanks, guns' ammunition, and trucks. For a time he was director and treasurer of the Bowers Printing Ink Company. After selling his Chicago business in 1952, Bill moved to northern Nevada. He resided at Hidden Valley Ranch, Verdi, for 18 years before moving to incline Village in 1968 and to Reno in 1972, where he was an original partner in the Park Lane Shopping Center.

Bill was a patron of the arts, and his support enabled the compilation and publication of the multi-volume GREAT BOOKS OF THE WESTERN WORLD. He served on the boards of directors of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Nevada Opera Guild; and he still found time to be an inveterate traveler. He was much interested in speech therapy, and a memorial was established in the speech and audiology dept., School of Medicine, Univ. of Nevada. Bill is survived by his widow (nee Mary Kathryn Nannini, whom he married in 1953), sons Michael John Hirsh and William A. Barker; daughter Sherry Ann Hirsh; seven grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, two nephews, a great nephew , and a niece. He was one of 1927's more interesting members.

The Class of 1927