William Spencer Hicks Jr. ’58

Bill died Dec. 16, 2021, in Pittsboro, N.C. He was 85.

He came to Princeton from Woodmere High in Hewlett, N.Y., where he participated in student government, publications, and track. At Princeton Bill “majored” in Triangle Club and Theatre Intime. 

He spent the first 20 years after graduation in show business — as an actor for five years, and then moving backstage and rising to become development director for Shakespeare in the Park. In the 1980s he became a major fundraiser for candidates in New York state and city politics.

In 1968 Bill met his lifelong partner and later husband, William “Bill” Sadler, a Wall Streeter, while on a trip to Puerto Rico. They were together 53 years and known by many simply as “The Bills.” 

After buying a home in Garrison in 1995, the Bills helped start an endowment to support gymnastics at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point that today totals millions. Bill was also an active board member and president of the Putnam History Museum in Cold Spring. In 2016 the Bills moved to a retirement community in Pittsboro.

Bill is survived by his husband, his brother, and two nieces. The class extends its deepest sympathy to them all.