William F. Oechler ’37

German professor, naval commander, and investment man Bill Oechler died Apr. 3, 2000. His wife, Helen, predeceased him, but he leaves a daughter, Susan Katherine Whitbeck, and grandchildren Caroline and Brainerd. He recently wrote "the University Club of New York listed me as having died. I am reasonably sure that is incorrect, but probably not by too much."

At Lawrenceville Bill was a sports manager and member of musical and literary clubs. At Princeton he majored in modern languages, won the second Humphreys Junior Gorman price, was Phi Beta Kappa and graduated with highest honors. After graduation he went to Harvard for his doctorate and taught German there for two years before WWII and two years after. He came out of the navy as a commander, having served first in the Atlantic and then in the Pacific as radar officer on a cruiser, taking part in the Philippine campaign, and the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. After Harvard he taught for six years at Cornell before becoming an investment counselor in 1954 with Scudder, Stevens & Clark in New York and Cincinnati, retiring in 1984 as a v.p. He since then spent his time in golf, travel, reading, and general puttering around the house and garden.

The Class of 1937