William Spencer Service Jr. ’52

BILL DIED Nov. 24, 1990, in Durham, N.C. He had fought a twoyear battle against cancer with courage, stoicism, and an unsurpassed sense of humor, all of which inspired his family and friends.

Bill was born in Philadelphia Oct. 30, 1930. He attended Chestnut Hill Academy and later Kent School. In his family's tradition, he then went to Princeton in the fall of 1948, as one of 52 high school and boarding school seniors, out of 100,000 nationwide contestants, to win a Pepsi Cola fouryear scholarship. At Princeton Bill roomed with John Geer, Fred Jones, and Henry Sherk. Bill majored in psychology, wrote for the TIGER and NASSAU LIT magazines, and joined Charter Club.

Following graduation Bill served in the U.S. Army as a counterintelligence officer in Germany, and then moved to Durham, N.C., where he became active in the civil rights movement and began the writing career he pursued until his death. Bill was a contributor to SPORTS ILLUSTRATED and the narrator of DINOSAURS, published by Bantam Books in 1981. The best known of Bill's writings was the book OWL, published in 1969 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and reprinted eight times. The TIME magazine review of OWL said it was "one of the most elegant and perceptive pieces of nature writing since T. H. White fell in love with a goshawk."

Bill is survived by his daughter, Cornelia Royle, his two sons, William S. Service III and Grant Service one grandchild; and by his dear and longtime friend and companion, Angelika Langen. Ave Atque Vale.

The Class of 1952