Necrology

William Bradford Saunders '53

May. 7, 1931-Aug. 26, 2007

William Bradford Saunders ’53, a retired advertising sales manager and Birmingham, MI, civic leader, was born in Detroit on May 7, 1931. The son of Anthony E. and Phyllis Leatherbee Saunders, he was a great-nephew of Professor and Dean Arthur Percy Saunders, who taught chemistry at Hamilton in the decades before World War II. Bill Saunders grew up in the Detroit suburb of Birmingham, attended Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, and prepared for college at Proctor Academy in New Hampshire. He entered Hamilton in 1949, became a member of Sigma Phi, and went out for football. He also played squash and, “fast on the cinders,” lettered in track. In addition, he sang with the Glee Club and Choir, served on the Chapel Board, and, highly sociable himself, was social chairman of the Sig house.

Following his graduation in 1953, Bill Saunders joined the U.S. Marine Corps. Earning a commission, he remained in uniform for three years and served as an intelligence officer with the 3rd Marine Air Wing. On June 26, 1954, Lt. Saunders and his high school sweetheart, Salome B. (Sally) Selover, were married in Bloomfield Hills. Shortly before his release from the Marine Corps in 1956, he contracted polio, which turned out to be life-changing for him. He had intended to leave his hometown and seek employment elsewhere, but by the time he was out of intensive care, Sally had moved back to Birmingham to await the birth of their first child. After his recovery, he joined her and settled down in Birmingham with his growing family.

There, Bill Saunders found employment as an aluminum sales manager for Revere Copper & Brass, Inc., in Detroit. However, the job failed to challenge him, and in 1962 he left it to join Time Inc.’s Life magazine in advertising sales. It was the first of a series of publications for which he would sell ad space out of Detroit. When Life “went under” as a weekly, he took a new job as district manager for the McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. and its Medical World News. He concluded his 30-year ad sales career as the Detroit manager for Changing Times, the Kiplinger personal finance magazine.

Meanwhile, Bill Saunders had become involved in Birmingham’s civic life. Appointed to the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals in 1965, he served as a city commissioner for a decade beginning in 1966, and a term as mayor of Birmingham during the early 1970s. In addition, he chaired the city’s Retirement Board and, for 20 years, the local cablecasting board. In 1975, he co-founded the Birmingham Racquet Club, a 1000-member organization utilizing annually an air-supported “bubble” roof to cover municipal tennis courts for winter play. His wife Sally successfully managed the indoor tennis club for many years.

Bill Saunders’ interest in Birmingham and the preservation of its historical past led him to advocate municipal purchase of the Allen House, which became the city’s historical museum. And his concern for the community’s residents prompted his early support for construction of the Baldwin House, a downtown apartment building for low-income seniors, which provoked controversy in that affluent suburb during his tenure as mayor. Besides community service, he took pleasure in tennis and golf. A loyal alumnus highly supportive of Hamilton, he also assisted the College in various volunteer capacities.

Known for his outgoing personality and sunny outlook on life, William B. Saunders died on August 26, 2007, at his home in Beverly Hills, MI, near Birmingham, after a long battle with cancer. Besides his wife of 53 years, he is survived by two daughters, Margery C. and Lucy L. Saunders ’81; a son, Frederick Anthony Saunders; and six grandchildren.

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