Bill, who transitioned from Princeton campus goof-off to one of the nation’s most principled, powerful, and effective public citizens, died at age 87. His life was celebrated and his death was widely noted in national media and elsewhere. He died Nov. 27, 2019, at his home in Medina, Wash.

In 1970 Bill shaped the Environmental Protection Agency as its first administrator. In 1983 he returned to revive the agency after a previous secretary had torpedoed it. In 2008 Time magazine called Ruckelshaus one of the best cabinet secretaries in U.S. history.

Bill was also celebrated for something he did not do. As acting attorney general in 1973, he refused to fire Archibald Cox, who was closing in on President Richard Nixon’s impeachable activity. That led to the “Saturday Night Massacre” and Nixon’s eventual resignation.

In his first two years at Princeton Bill joined Cottage Club and roomed with Tom Pettus, but academics were such a stumble that his father, head of the local draft board, had his son drafted. After two years in the Army, Bill returned to graduate cum laude in 1957, went to Harvard Law School, and embarked on a distinguished career in government and private business and serve as a Princeton trustee.

Bill is survived by his wife, Jill; four daughters, Robin, Jennifer, Catherine ’83, and Mary; son William ’87 and his wife, Jeannie; sister Marion Bitzer; and 12 grandchildren.

Undergraduate Class of 1955