William S. Montgomery Jr. ’50

Bill died Jan. 26, 2016, in Sun City West, Ariz., of respiratory failure. 

He came to Princeton from Jenkintown (Pa.) High School. A member of Elm, he worked at WPRU, played freshman golf, and majored in basic engineering. 

His first career, in heat-processing furnaces, took him from the East to the West Coast and back. He was awarded two patents on glass tempering furnaces. In 1987, he changed careers by leaving his vice presidency in the Selas Corp. in Dresher, Pa., to form a company with his wife, selling giftware to the retail trade. They sold the business in 1991 and moved near his oldest son in California.  

In 2003 they moved to Arizona. There he renewed his interest in golf, playing regularly until his death. 

Bill was always a boater. Early in his first marriage, he built a sailboat in his apartment and sailed it on the Hudson River. An owner of several boats, his last was during retirement in California, where he was a commander of the Diablo Power Squadron and regularly sailed in the Sacramento Delta area.  

Bill is survived by his second wife of 46 years, Marilyn; five children; two stepsons; 27 grandchildren; and 37 great-grandchildren.