William S. Shannon ’46

If you knew textiles and tennis, you knew Bill Shannon. Home from service with the 186th Combat Engineer Battalion in the South Pacific (i.e., New Guinea, Morotai, the Philippines, and Japan), he wrote his senior thesis on the textile industry. Then, after graduating in 1948, he made textiles his life’s work at Springs Industries, remaining with them until he retired in 1987 as vice president for marketing. His work took him to the Carolinas, Los Angeles, and ultimately, back to New York and New Canaan, Conn.

A tennis buff, Bill played in the Super Senior Tennis Circuit in New England and later in Vero Beach, Fla., where he and his wife, Pat, moved full time in 1997. Earlier, he had been a regular at the Princeton Club of New York. Pat and he attended our 50th and 60th reunions.

Bill died May 20, 2011, in Greenville, S.C., a few weeks after he lost Pat. Their daughter, Frances Allison, died in 1997. To Bill’s remaining children, Bill Jr., Caroline Yama, Rhetta Shannon, and Sarah Moncho; their spouses; and his seven granddaughters, the class extends sympathy.