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William the Silent

(Encyclopedia)William the Silent or William of Orange (William I, prince of Orange), 1533–84, Dutch statesman, principal founder of Dutch independence. William married four times. His first wife was Anne of Egm...

Wilson, William Bauchop

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, William Bauchop, 1862–1934, American labor leader, U.S. Secretary of Labor (1913–21), b. Blantyre, Scotland. Coming as a child to the United States in 1870, he worked in Pennsylvania coal ...

Wilson, William Lyne

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, William Lyne, 1843–1900, American legislator, cabinet member, and university president, b. Jefferson co., Va. (now in W.Va.). He was a private in the Confederate army in the Civil War, and a...

Wirt, William Albert

(Encyclopedia)Wirt, William Albert, 1874–1938, American educator, b. Markle, Ind., grad. DePauw Univ. (Ph.B., 1898; Ph.D., 1916). In 1907 he became superintendent of schools in Gary, Ind., where he developed a pl...

Wirtz, William Willard

(Encyclopedia)Wirtz, William Willard, 1912–2010, U.S. secretary of labor (1962–69), b. DeKalb, Ill. A professor of law at Northwestern Univ. (1939–42), he served (1943–45) with the War Labor Board and was (...

Ward, William George

(Encyclopedia)Ward, William George, 1812–82, English Roman Catholic apologist, educated at Oxford. He became (1834) a fellow at Balliol College, Oxford, and was ordained in the Church of England. At first a Broad...

Warner, William Lloyd

(Encyclopedia)Warner, William Lloyd, 1898–1970, U.S. social anthropologist, b. Redlands, Calif., B.A., Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1925. After studying the Australian aborigines (1927–29), he applied the res...

Benét, William Rose

(Encyclopedia)Benét, William Rose, 1886–1950, American poet and editor, b. Brooklyn, grad. Yale, 1907; brother of Stephen Vincent Benét. He was associated as editor or assistant editor with the Century Magazine...

Watson, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Watson, Sir William, 1858–1935, English poet. His first great success was Wordsworth's Grave (1890), followed by a meditative elegy on Tennyson, Lachrymae Musarum (1892). He is also remembered for s...

Yancey, William Lowndes

(Encyclopedia)Yancey, William Lowndes, 1814–63, American leader of secession, b. Warren co., Ga. Admitted (1834) to the bar in Greenville, S.C., he soon moved to Alabama. There he became an outstanding lawyer, wa...