William Stevenson
Born: 1900 in Chicago, Illinois
Died: April 2, 1985 in Fort Myers, Florida
Family: Wife – Eleanor (died, 1987). Daughters: Helen Meyner (died, 1997) and Priscilla Hunt
Track and field highlights
1924: Olympic gold medalist as a member of world record 4×400-meter relay (3:16.0) at the Paris Olympic Games. Stevenson ran the second leg. His teammates were Commodore Cochran, Alan HYPERLINK “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Helffrich”Helffrich and Oliver MacDonald
1923: British AAU champ for 440 yards
1923-25: Rhodes Scholar and athlete at Oxford University. Competed against British sprinters Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell, who also won Olympic gold medals in 1924 and were featured in the 1981 movie, Chariots of Fire
1921: USA Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) champion for 440 yards
Military highlights
US Marines World War I
1945: US Army Bronze Star Medal
Career highlights
1946-59: President of Oberlin College
1961-64: Ambassador to the Philippines
Head of the Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies in Colorado
Other highlights
In 1937, Stevenson bought Buttonwood Manor in the North Stamford section of Stamford, Connecticut, an 1809 Colonial-style house. When Stevenson and his wife went to England during World War II, they rented the house to Dorothy Fields, a renowned lyricist, according to the columnist and war correspondent Ernie Pyle.
He was the father of U.S. Representative Helen Stevenson Meyner, who served for two terms, from 1975 to 1979. She was the wife of two-term New Jersey Gov. Robert Meyner. His other daughter, Priscilla, married Richard Hunt, a Harvard professor and the university’s marshal. He was also a cousin of the Vice-President Adlai E. Stevenson, presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson, Senator Adlai Stevenson III, and actor McLean Stevenson.
Education
1922: University of Princeton
1925: University of Oxford, Rhodes scholarship,