Necrology

William Everard Braunlich '57

Mar. 6, 1937-Nov. 9, 2023

William Everard Braunlich ’57 died on Oct. 9, 2023, in Burlington, Mass. Born on March 6, 1937, on Staten Island, N.Y., he came to Hamilton from Curtis High School. On the Hill, he majored in history and economics and was a member and, as a senior, president of Delta Phi fraternity. He participated in the Campus Fund and in the Chapel Congregation during his freshman and sophomore years and was a member of the Interfraternity Council in his senior year. He was also a member of the track team during his first two years.

Following graduation, Bill worked for New York Telephone Co., beginning a career in the phone industry that would last until his retirement in 2006, interrupted only by six years of active duty in the U.S. Navy. Shortly after he accepted the job at New York Telephone, he reported to the Navy’s Officer Candidate School in Newport, R.I. After completing school in November 1958, Bill was assigned to USS John Wills, a destroyer escort based in Newport. After two three-year hitches, he left active duty but remained in the Naval Reserve for 23 years, until he retired in 1980 with the rank of commander.

Bill enrolled at Columbia University Law School but after a year decided that he “did not want to spend the rest of my life as an attorney.” After withdrawing from that program, he returned to New York Telephone as division manager. During this time he met June Schlichting, a native of Queens, N.Y. They were married on Feb. 11, 1967, in Rego Park, N.J., and first made their home in nearby Chatham. They had two daughters.

In 1973, Bill returned to graduate school at the Stern School of Business at New York University, completing his M.B.A. in finance and marketing in 1975 while continuing to work for New York Telephone. In 1979, the family moved to the Boston suburb of Boxford, Mass., when he was promoted to vice president and general manager of NYNEX Information Resources Co., based in Lynn. In 1984, after AT&T concluded its divestiture of the several regional companies that provided local phone service, New York Telephone merged with New England Bell to form NYNEX. That same year, Bill was promoted to chief operating officer of NYNEX Yellow Pages.

In 1990, when NYNEX offered what Bill later characterized as “a very generous management retirement incentive,” he retired on a Friday. The following Monday he began work as president of Volt Telecommunications Group, a company specializing in engineering, installation, and maintenance of telephone infrastructure. Under his leadership, the company became highly profitable by the time he retired in 2006.

But for Bill, “retirement” was a misnomer. Well before he formally stopped work, Bill was already immersed in a project that had captured his attention when his younger daughter, Heidi, was diagnosed with intractable epilepsy, a condition whereby a patient’s seizures cannot be controlled by medications. He became a board member and later president of the Epilepsy Association of Massachusetts. During his tenure, the organization grew from a Boston-based initiative to a statewide group and simultaneously became one of the largest epilepsy organizations in the country. For his work Bill received the organization’s Candlelight Award in 1993. 

The Massachusetts Epilepsy Association would subsequently merge with its counterpart in Rhode Island, and Bill continued his involvement by joining the board of directors of the Massachusetts/Rhode Island Epilepsy Foundation; he would later chair the board. The organization eventually expanded to become the Epilepsy Foundation of New England for which Bill went on to serve as treasurer and later president.

In 1995, Bill became a member of the executive committee and on different occasions served as senior vice chair. Ultimately, he joined the board of the National Epilepsy Foundation. His service earned him the title of Volunteer of the Year in 2009.

In 1999, Bill and June moved from Boxford to Rockport, Mass., a town on the North Shore of Boston. He volunteered to serve on United Way campaigns and was an active member of Episcopal churches, first in Topsfield and then in Gloucester. 

In 2006, he became a co-founder of the Epilepsy Therapy Development Project that focuses on supporting research and development projects to help those with the disease. Between February and October 2006, Bill was responsible for raising $700,000 for the project.

Bill’s devotion to the cause of epilepsy research was matched by his commitment to Hamilton. He was a consistent donor to the Hamilton Fund and for a time served on the Annual Giving Leadership Committee. In 1998, he established the Robert Gustav Braunlich III ’55 Memorial Scholarship, named for his older brother who was diagnosed with tuberculosis in February 1957, four months before Bill graduated. This scholarship was one component of Hamilton’s New Century Campaign.

Bill served on the Alumni Council and volunteered in support of several capital campaigns. For his class’s 50th reunion, he led the gift chair committee and served on the reunion planning committee. A Joel Bristol Associate, he also volunteered as a resource for the Career Center. For all of his extraordinary service, Bill received the 2013 Bell Ringer Award, the Alumni Association’s most prestigious honor.

Recalling with particular pleasure courses with Edgar B. “Digger” Graves, Sidney Wertimer, and William Starnes, Bill wrote in his 50th reunion yearbook: “I firmly believe that the breadth and depth of our Hamilton education, with strong focus on written and oral communication, provided the underpinning for a successful career in the Navy, in the telecommunications industry, and in my charitable activities. … Our total Hamilton experience, interwoven throughout by the honor system, served for me to absolutely reinforce this value as a primary attribute for life.”

William E. Braunlich is survived by his wife, his younger brother, two daughters, and a grandson. He was predeceased by his brother Robert G. Braunlich III ’55.

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