William W. Schlaepfer ’54

Bill died June 20, 2024, one week after celebrating his 92nd birthday.

At Shorewood High School he was active in tennis, golf, and science. At Princeton, Bill majored in biology, joined Dial Club, and was active in intramural sports. After earning a medical degree from Yale Medical School in 1958, he pursued a research career in neuropathology, beginning at the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Munich. He moved on to Cornell University, became a tenured professor at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis in 1968, and professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1979. He retired in 2016.

Bill’s research led to the discovery of the central role of RNA in neuron degeneration. He enjoyed an almost 50-year record of continuous grant funding, running an active laboratory that spawned such major discoveries while performing day-to-day surgical neuropathology and training scores of talented residents and fellows.

In 2011, he received a lifetime achievement award from the American Association of Neuropathologists, of which he was president in 1986-87. He served as a member of the NIH pathology and neurobiology study sections.

Bill married Joan French (Yale 1954) in 1960. They had three daughters.

Bill was a champion of lifelong learning, an avid tennis player, and an accomplished bridge player. He treasured classical music and opera. Above all, he loved spending time with his children and grandchildren.

He is survived by daughters Julie Spahn ’86, Linda Werner, and Karen Rendulich; and seven grandchildren.