William T. Caldwell III ’50

Bill, an ophthalmologist, died of pancreatic cancer Jan. 8, 2021, in Williamsburg, Va., where he lived since 1998. 

He graduated from the Taft School. At Princeton, where his father was in the Class of 1915, he was a member of NROTC, majored in chemistry, and belonged to Terrace.

In 1954 Bill earned a medical degree from Columbia. After internship in Miami, he served as a Navy lieutenant, mostly as a flight surgeon on the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt. Leaving active duty in 1958, he completed his training in ophthalmology at Columbia Presbyterian (NYC) Hospital in 1962. He then established a practice as an eye physician and surgeon in Red Bank, N.J., semi-retiring in 1991.

Bill had a passion for boating, fishing, and sailing that he shared with his family. An avid woodworker, he built his own iceboat, Little Blue, and designed his wooden boat, The Betty Boop. In retirement he pursued bird watching, was a docent at a mariners’ museum, built ship models, and crewed on sailboats. He taught himself Scottish Gaelic and made several trips to Scotland with his wife, Betty Ann, whom he married in 1952. 

Bill’s wife; two daughters, Linda Ann and Mary Ellen; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren survive him. His son, William, died in 2018.