Class of '71 News:

With a considerable record of service to the Class already, Bill Zwecker ‘71 has stepped forward to take on another challenge: Planned Giving Chair. In that role, he’ll be asking classmates to consider Princeton in long-term financial plans, including wills, trusts and bequests.

Zweck, as many of us knew him in our undergraduate days, isn’t coming to this new assignment from a similar field, like money management or financial planning. For many years, he’s been an entertainment reporter and movie critic in Chicago, where TV viewers can see him regularly on the CBS affiliate, WBBM-TV, or read his column in the Chicago Sun-Times.

But Bill, who also has been treasurer of the Princeton Club of Chicago, says he can rely on a dedicated staff at the University for advice on planned giving. ”The laws are constantly changing in this area, so it’s nice to have people with the background and resources in this field,” he said in a recent call from his CBS office. “It’s important to have people who can give advice to classmates on all kinds of ways to tweak their own personal situations.”

“Everyone has a different situation,” he adds. “One of the biggest challenges is the sense that Princeton is so rich, and other institutions or charities are more deserving. It’s great that the university is in great financial condition, but it’s an ongoing process to maintain the quality of education and research. For the alumni who have benefited the most, we’d like to persuade them to chip in.”

It’s no secret to many in the class that 1971’s contributions to Princeton have rarely been robust. “Our class has never been out front in terms of giving, and we have classes on both sides of us with members that are heirs to huge American fortunes,” Bill says. “A lot of us went into careers that were not particularly lucrative. Even those that went into more traditional careers in law and medicine chose areas that didn’t necessarily rake in the big bucks. Since we’re not a particularly wealthy class, fund-raising has been a challenge.

“My thought is: Let’s focus on participation. There are ways to give that are not onerous. For instance, I’ve named the university as a beneficiary of my company insurance policy. It costs me nothing.”

One area he plans to target: single classmates who have been successful and don’t have big obligations of putting children through college. Even if 10 to 15 percent of those people could be persuaded to give, he says, it would be a major boost to planned giving. Zweck says he hopes to do more targeted appeals to individuals, with letters followed by phone calls.

He’ll be coordinating his efforts somewhat with the Annual Giving co-chairs, Jon Cieslak and Podie Lynch, and notes that the recently announced capital campaign by the University “may have some impact.” But he insists he has no monetary goals.

“I’m really thinking in terms of participatory goals. I’m looking to double the list of 1746 Society members in the class,” referring to a program recognizing top Princeton contributors. “It’s really all about remembering Princeton, and not about looking for a huge gift.”

Bill plans to spend more time in New York and the Princeton area in the coming year with these new duties, and will be coming to Reunions. He’s convinced that the opportunity to meet with classmates, even if just for a quick chat, can serve as an important door-opener.

Classmates may remember Bill as a member of the Undergraduate Assembly and Secretary-Treasurer of the class during our sophomore year. He also served for a time as Class Secretary during the 1970s.

He currently splits his days between the TV studio, where he’s part of an early morning team (and is used to rising in the dark), and the Sun-Times. He’s often cited in blurbs for current movies, and as an entertainment reporter, he covers whatever moves in Hollywood and on television, including the celebrity beat. With that, he travels fairly regularly to LA and New York, racking up 100,000 air miles a year.

Bill and his partner, Thomas Gorman IV, have an apartment in Chicago they are preparing to remodel, and have a new place in Palm Desert, Calif. He says he’s “playing tennis again” and golfs, and notes that their travels have taken them to Australia, Europe and the Caribbean in recent years.

Divorced for many years, Bill says he’s close to his ex-wife, Debbie, and their son Brayton, and is doting on a 2-year-old grandson who lives in Chicago – with another grandchild due in March.

Longevity is often an issue with planned giving, and, interestingly, Bill has quite a set of precedents in his family: his father lived to 90, and his mother (a pioneering women’s and fashion columnist in Chicago) is 97.

-- Jeff Marshall ‘71