Willis Frederick Doney Jr. ’46 *49

Bill died July 2, 2005, of pneumonia in Boston.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pa., he prepped at Shadyside Academy. Majoring in philosophy as an undergraduate, he later earned a master's and Ph.D. in philosophy at Princeton. A teaching career combined with writings in his field took him to Cornell from 1949 to 1952, Ohio State from 1953 to 1958, and to Dartmouth from 1958 to 1994, when he became professor emeritus. He was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton from 1972 to 1973 and spent a year at Oxford. He lectured at the University of Michigan, the University of Edinburgh, Harvard, and the Sorbonne.

Many of Bill's writings were on Rene Descartes, while Spinoza, Malebranche, and Berkeley were also subjects of his works. He belonged to philosophic societies in the U.S., France, and Great Britain. A longtime resident of Norwich, Vt., he also lived in Paris half of each year after retirement.

Bill was never married. The class honors the memory of a dedicated scholar.

The Class of 1946