William Edward Thompson ’42

Bill, an expert in marketing and promotion whose avocations included entertaining international visitors and traveling, died Oct. 9, 2005, in New York.

He left us before graduation to join the Army Air Corps during World War II. After four years of service and discharge with the rank of captain, he returned to Princeton and graduated cum laude in economics.

Bill embarked on a career in marketing and promotion successively with corporate giants Seagram, Bigelow-Sanford, and B.F. Goodrich. On the way he worked as a self-employed research business writer and management consultant. Eventually, after a stint with Goodrich as marketing manager, having polished his management and promotion skills, he established William E. Thompson Inc. in River Vale, N.J., with extensive international connections that he had developed during his journeys throughout South America and Europe. Bill retired in 1976 after becoming visually disabled.

In 1958, Bill married Irene de Pfeiffer-Saenz from Buenos Aires, whom he met in New York while she was attending college there. They had Richard and Tracey. Sadly, Irene died of cancer in 1970. A couple of years later Bill married Anne Pahl.

To Richard and Tracey, and to Anne and Bill's four grandchildren, the class extends its condolences.

The Class of 1942