William Carl Clifford ’48

With the death of Bill Clifford on Apr. 20, 2003, the class has suffered the loss of a fine oenophile and a splendid friend.

A native of Columbus, Ohio, Bill graduated from Princeton with high honors in English. He was a member of Terrace. After consecutive Fulbright grants for France and India, he settled in Greenwich Village and a life in book publishing. At various times he served on the staffs of Macmillan, Oxford U. Press, Silver Burdett, Vanguard, and Simon & Schuster.

In due course, he embarked on a freelance writing career with a special gift for wine writing. As NYC became old, Bill and his family (wife and two sons) migrated for a couple of years to the Devon coast in England before settling in Morris, Conn. His syndicated column, "Wine on the Table," flourished since 1968.

Sons Nicolas and Ben graduated with honors from Princeton in '82 and '88, respectively. Nicolas lives in Paris. Ben died tragically in an accident in Indonesia in 1994. The class will miss this enormously civilized man whose devotion to Princeton persisted.

The Class of 1948