Three SAE brothers attended a surprise 50th wedding anniversary for Bill Kingston ’59 and his wife Jackie (Grim) ’61 (Alpha Phi) at the Wilton, Connecticut, home of a neighbor on June 23, 2012. Top row from left, Ron Demer ’59 SAE; Rick Dyer ’59, Alpha Delt; Betty Pritchard, Elmira College; Kent Hewitt ’59, SAE; Roy Pritchard ’59, Rockledge; Linda Volckmann, Stanford; Carl Volckmann ’60, Sigma Chi; and Ev Seyler ’60, SAE. Bottom row, Myra Maloney (Hewitt) Hart ’62, DG; Bill, Jackie, and Judy (Wetzel) Seyler ’60, Pi Phi.
Rick, Roy, Carl, and Ev rowed crew with Bill. The group sang the crew song, and the SAEs serenaded Jackie with our Sweetheart Song.
Bill Kingston ’59 was EA, rowed crew, was in the Cornell Glee Club, sang with the SAE Hillcresters, and was a director of freshman orientation. He ranked near the top of his engineering class and was a member of Eta Kappa Nu, the electrical engineering honorary society, Sphinx Head, the senior men’s honorary society, and was a Cornell National Scholar, the university’s highest scholarship award.
While singing in a joint concert of the Cornell Glee Club and the Women’s Chorus, he met Jackie Grimm ’61, an Alpha Phi. They married after she graduated.
Bill is active in class of ’59 affairs and university alumni activities, serving on the Cornell Council. While at Cornell, Bill earned extra money in the summers selling Wearever aluminum pots and pans door to door. While he did not move too many pots, he “met a lot of very friendly ladies.”
Bill joined Norden Labs in Norwalk, Connecticut, “developers of the WWII Norden bombsight, and then a part of United Technologies,” and had a very successful career in engineering and then senior management. He obtained a master’s degree in engineering at Yale University while at Norden.
He left Norden in 1989 to found a consulting group and is still actively involved in the business. He serves on the board of directors of John Sargent’s (’61, SAE) company.
Bill and Jackie live in Wilton, Connecticut, and enjoy traveling. Bill remains close to many SAEs. He can be reached by email at wkingston1@aol.com.
