Wil died Nov. 9, 2016, in California. A native of New York, he came to Princeton as a math major, and although little is known about his life on campus, his son Charles did tell us that he “had tea with Albert Einstein, as all incoming freshmen did.” We suspect that “all” included only talented math majors.
According to Charles, the head of Wil’s department recommended that Wil be given an opportunity to spend a summer translating Russian mathematics papers. Over the years he also learned Hebrew, Arabic, and Mandarin and later became an expert in Fortran, the computer-programming language.
Wil left Princeton without graduating, worked for J.J. Newberry in New York as a programmer/analyst, then went to Costa Mesa, Calif., and worked for several firms as a systems-engineering consultant. He was active in the open-source movement and ended up on the Fortran ’77 Standards Committee, which added structured programming to its library.
Wil is survived by his wife, Dorothy; and children Dorothy, Elaine, Charles, and Thomas. We extend our sympathy and condolences to them on the loss of this talented man.