William Howard Godson III ’51

Bill died Dec. 21, 2021, in Newton Center, Mass., after a career that included 25 years with the CIA (fronting as a foreign service officer) and a lifetime of eclectic learning. 

He came to Princeton from the Loomis School, where he played football, basketball, and track. At Princeton he majored in history, played JV football, was a member of the NROTC, and, with his roommates John Cochran, Sprigg Duvall, and Guy Newland, joined Elm Club. Bill’s duties with the CIA included assignments in Islamabad, Iran, and Kampala, Uganda, as well as a regional specialist assigned to the Navy Department.

Following retirement from the CIA in 1977, Bill had administrative positions with the University of Maryland and Boston University and pursued a lifetime of learning that earned him degrees and certificates from Georgetown, American University, the University of Virginia, the Protestant Episcopal Seminary in Alexandria, and the Jesuit Seminary in Cambridge. He also traveled widely, with a special interest in Africa and the Americas and studied such languages as Farsi, Turkish, and Arabic. 

Survivors include his third wife, Juliet Waters, a British-born girls-school tennis coach.