William L. Beale Jr. ’27

Bill died in Bethesda, Md., Oct. 27, 2002; he was 97. A native of DC, he prepared for Princeton at Western High and Devitt Preparatory. At Princeton he won general honors, rowed on the 150-lb. crew, and was active in the Polity Club. He became a journalist, was assigned to the US Senate and the House of Representatives, and covered national political conventions, beginning with Alf Landon in 1936. Other major stories he covered include the WWI Bonus Marchers' convergence on DC, the first 100 days of the first Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, during which the New Deal legislation was passed, Roosevelt's strategic planning meeting with Churchill in Quebec, and the drafting of the UN charter. He was chief of the DC bureau of the Associated Press from 1948-69. Bill is survived by Lucrece, his wife of 61 years, two children, two granddaughters, and a sister. We extend our sympathies to Bill's family.

The Class of 1927