William M. Spackman ’27

"SPACK" DIED Aug. 3, 1990, at his home in Princeton, after a career which made him one of our most distinguished literary alumni. Descended from Pennsylvania Quakers, he was an irreverent wit, whose editorship of the NASSAU LIT aroused the righteous wrath of prexy and many Princetonians. He called himself a "flaneur" (loafer), but was a real student who won a Rhodes. He returned to a varied American career as magazine editor, teacher of classical literature in universities, and media service in the U.S. Navy during WWII,

"Spack" married Mary Ann, daughter of Bishop Paul Matthews of the Episcopal Diocese of NJ. For years the Spackmans enjoyed spending several months of the year at a villa in Brittany, France. They eventually retired to an estate in Princeton. There his literary career showed renewed vigor in five novels, and a volume of essays which won an award from the Academy of Arts and Letters.

His first wife died in 1978, and in 1979 he married Laurice Khairallah. The Class extends its sympathy to her; his brother, Thomas Spackman II; his son, Peter; and his daughter, Harriet Newell; also to his eight grandchildren and six greatgrandchildren.

The Class of 1927