Remembering William Pounds

We mark with sadness the death of our friend and colleague William Pounds, an emeritus member of the Whitehead Institute board of directors and emeritus dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Over the course of two decades, the Institute benefited enormously from Bill’s knowledge, creativity, astute perception, and wise counsel. He served as a director, a member of the board’s audit and development committees, and an executive committee member of the Whitehead Institute Board of Associates. In addition, with his wife Helen, Bill was a generous philanthropic supporter of Whitehead Institute.

An expert in corporate governance and operations management who served on dozens of corporate boards, Bill also played a leadership role in — and provided generous philanthropic support to — an array of Boston cultural, environmental, and educational organizations, including the Museum of Fine Arts, the Boston Lyric Opera, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also was a dedicated supporter of Carnegie Mellon University, from which he earned bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. He also very proudly served in the Navy as a fighter pilot during the Korean War, an experience that he often recounted.

We will miss Bill’s wit and wisdom, passion and commitment. And we offer our deepest condolences to Helen, the entire Pounds family, and Bill’s many friends and colleagues.