William J. Ledger ’54

Bill died Sept. 29, 2020. 

At Turtle Creek (Pa.) High School he participated in football, basketball, and track. At Princeton he played varsity football, basketball, and lacrosse; was president of Cannon Club; and wrote his senior thesis 
in the Woodrow Wilson School. In 1958 he earned a medical degree from the University 
of Pennsylvania.

After an internship, service in the Air 
Force, residency, and teaching at two universities, he was appointed Given Foundation Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City in 1979. 

A pioneer in the diagnosis and treatment of gynecologic infections, Bill was a founder and first president of the Infectious Diseases Society for Obstetrics and Gynecology and the first obstetrician-gynecologist elected to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. He was the chief investigator at one of the major test sites for the first approved quadrivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines, and a pioneer investigator in trials of immuno-enhancing agents to speed the elimination of HPV infections in women.

In 1999 he retired as department chairman and became professor emeritus of obstetrics and gynecology, continuing to work full time on research and teaching.

Bill was known to his colleagues, students, residents, nurses, and patients as a compassionate, knowledgeable physician who liked a good joke and loved Princeton football, as reflected in his book Team of Destiny: Princeton Football’s Undefeated 1951 Season.