William Stevenson (athlete)

William Edwards Stevenson (October 25, 1900 - April 2, 1985) was an American athlete, lawyer and diplomat, who won the gold medal in 4x400 m relay at the 1924 Summer Olympics and later served as president of Oberlin College.

At the Paris Olympics, Stevenson ran the last leg in the American 4x400 m relay team, which won the gold medal with a new world record of 3.16.0. His teammates were Commodore Cochran, Alan Helffrich and Oliver MacDonald.

Life

Born in Chicago, Illinois, William Stevenson won the AAU championships in convert|440|yd|abbr=on in 1921.

He was a graduate of Andover and Princeton before winning a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, where he studied law. After returning to United States, he was an assistant U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York in the 1920s and, in 1931, founded the prominent New York law partnership of Debevoise, Stevenson, Plimpton and Page, now Debevoise & Plimpton L.L.P.Nova, Susan, "Manor is rich with history: Offer has been accepted to buy 5,300-square-foot home", news article in the Real Estate section of "The Advocate" of Stamford (daily newspaper), Friday, April 20, 2007, pp R1, R4]

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.

During the World War II, Stevenson and his wife, Eleanor "Bumpie" Bumstead Stevenson, a 1923 graduate of Smith College, organized and administered American Red Cross operations in Great Britain, North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. Both he and his wife were awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious achievement in support of military operations.

In 1946, Stevenson succeeded Ernest Hatch Wilkins as a president of Oberlin College. He held this post until John F. Kennedy appointed him as an ambassador to Philippines in 1962, where he served until 1965. He then became the head of the Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies in Colorado.

Eleanor Stevenson was the author of "I Knew Your Soldier" in 1946. She was active in the civil rights movement and the first person to give a nationally broadcast speech on behalf of Planned Parenthood.

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, and the father-in-law of New Jersey Governor Robert B. Meyner.

Stevenson died in Fort Myers, Florida, aged 84.

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