William Ayres Arrowsmith ’45

BILL ARROWSMITH died Feb. 20, 1992, at his home in Brookline, Mass. Bill entered Princeton from the Hill School, as a third generation Princetonian, after his grandfather (1865) and his father, Walter W. Arrowsmith '19. Bill was our preeminent scholar, showing his first interest in languages and the humanities by his service in the military intelligence branch of the Army, specializing in Japanese language studies. He took his degree in literature from Princeton, in 1947, where lie also majored in the humanities, and graduated Summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He was one of our distinguished Rhodes Scholars to Oxford Univ. During the war, Bill married the former Jean Reiser. They had two daughters, Nancy arid Beth, and were divorced in 1980.

Bill's distinguished career took him to at least it dozen academic posts. His longest Leaching tenures, for more than a decade each, were at the Univ. of Texas and Boston Univ.

Bill was a recognized authority on and critic of American higher education, as well as a noted Scholar and translator of the classics and modern literature. He served on the National Endownment for the Humanities, the board of the American Assn. for Higher Education, and the Intl. Council on the Future of the University. He was most noted for translations of dramas by Euripides and Aristophimes. In more recent years he translated many works by the nobel laureate Italian poet Eugenio Montale. Bill was it prolific contributor to scholarly journals, was the founding editor of the HUDSON REVIEW and the CHIMERA ARION, and was an editor of DELOS, MOSAIC, AMERICAN POETRY REVIEW, and PEQUOD.

In addition to his daughters, Bill is Survived by his sister Roberta Mills, The Class extends its (Jeep sympathy to the family,

The Class of 1945