William Murrie Clevenger ’53

Bill died Jan. 21, 2021, in Owings, Md.

Born in Plainfield, N.J., Bill attended Hotchkiss before coming to Princeton, where he joined Charter Club and majored in English. He won an honorable mention for the Stinnecke Prize in Classics. 

Bill joined the Navy after graduation and was stationed in Newport, R.I.; Washington; Kwajalein, Marshall Islands; and Hawaii. He then entered the Foreign Service and was posted to Aleppo, Syria, as well as Tehran and Meshed in Iran.

Leaving the Foreign Service, Bill went to St. Antony’s College, Oxford, to continue Middle Eastern studies, and then worked for the World Bank before becoming an analyst for the General Accounting Office (now the Government Accountability Office) and settling in Owings, where he and his wife restored an 18th-century house, Patuxent Manor, in which they lived for 51 years. Bill maintained a lifelong interest in antiquity and literature, as well as politics and world affairs. He loved classical music and hot jazz, merlot, and good conversation. He was an accomplished chess and bridge player, and played squash at the Maryland Club, Baltimore, into his 80s.

Bill is survived by his wife of 53 years, Whitall; three children; and five grandchildren.