William Harold Congleton ’42 *43

Bill died June 11, 2001, from complications of Parkinson's and heart disease, in St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Brighton, Mass. He retired in 1999 as a general partner in The Palmer Organization, a venture capital firm he cofounded in 1972.

Preparing for Princeton at Darlington School, Bill majored in chemical engineering and graduated with honors. Joining Standard Oil Co. of Indiana, after earning a chemical engineering graduate degree at Princeton in 1943, he was involved in the designing and planning of processing facilities. He received an MBA from Harvard in 1948 and, after five more years with Standard of Indiana, he moved to Boston, where he joined American Research and Development Corp., a venture capital firm specializing in funding technology startups. Twenty years later he cofounded Palmer.

Bill was overseer or trustee of several organizations, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New England Conservatory of Music, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, and the Lahey Clinic. A devoted Princetonian, he established a scholarship fund for deserving undergraduates.

To his wife, Marge; to his children, William and Gretchen; and to his three grandchildren the class extends its deepest sympathies.

The Class of 1942