William John Orndorff ’42

Bill died May 27, 2000, at Hanover (PA) Hospital, following a career in foreign service. An avid traveler, he made many trips during the past 20 years to countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia, as well as the Americas.

After preparing for Princeton at Mercersburg Academy, he majored in English. Following graduation, he attended the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown U. and then entered the US diplomatic corps. In the mid-1940s, his assignments included the Soviet Union and France, serving later in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Outer Mongolia, and Bangkok. In the late 1950s, Bill pursued a doctoral degree in English literature at the U. of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, where he resided until 1964, when he returned to Hanover to care for his parents.

In addition to membership in the Boston Atheneum, the American Horticultural Society, and the Friends of the Art Museum of Princeton U., Bill served on the board of the Hanover Historical Society.

As Bill left no survivors, we are indebted to Helene Kegler, a dear friend, to whom the class extends its most sincere sympathies, for the above details of his life.

The Class of 1942