Strong—William Strong, 95, on December 28, 2025, with his family by his side, at Pennswood Village retirement community in Newtown, Pa. Bill was born on April 5, 1930, to Tasie Shaak Strong and Theodore Strong in St. Louis, Mo. He grew up in Chatham, N.J. While at college at Yale University, Bill participated in a summer-long Students in Government Seminar, where he met Nancy Gruner. A few years later in New York City, Bill and Nancy began dating. Soon after marriage, they moved near Columbia University, both getting master’s degrees while working there. Attracted to a faith practiced seven days a week, they attended the new Morningside Heights Meeting and became members.
After their daughter, Laura, was born, Bill and Nancy signed up for a Church World Service program of food distribution. This led to three years in Peru, Costa Rica, and Chile. Their son, Tom, was born in Peru. Following these travels, Bill and Nancy led a workshop near Mexico City with the Mexican Friends Service Committee. His experiences in Peru led Bill to pursue a career in family planning work. After a stay at Pendle Hill study center outside Philadelphia, Pa., they returned to New York, where Bill worked in family planning at World Education, a nonprofit that improves the education, social, and economic security of people worldwide. This led to a move to Boston, Mass., and his most meaningful job as associate director of The Pathfinder Fund, which promotes contraception and population control around the world. Bill traveled to 20 countries with the goal of making family planning available to all. In his final year in Boston, Bill left the Pathfinder Fund to become executive director of Massachusetts Planned Parenthood.
When the family moved to Newtown, Pa., Bill became curious about the for-profit world, and found a job as a trust officer at a bank in Trenton, N.J. After four years there, he decided to work for peace fulltime. Bill headed the War Tax Concerns Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting which included an effort to get the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)-sponsored Peace Tax Fund bill through Congress. Bill was a longtime member of Newtown (Pa.) Meeting.
Bill’s volunteer activities included work with local Quaker meetings, AFSC, Koinonia, Yale Alumni Fund, and Habitat for Humanity. He served on the boards at Preterm, several Planned Parenthoods, and HiTOPS, among others. In his late 60s, Bill’s volunteer work at the Bucks County Community College Library blossomed into a new career in book repair. Over the years, Bill repaired 13,000 books as a volunteer there and at the Princeton Public Library, as well as 100 paid book repairs. Bill delighted in meeting people and hearing their stories of cherished family books.
Bill took five trips to Cuba spanning five decades, including a two-month trip in 1969 cutting sugar cane with the Venceremos Brigade. In the following years, Bill gave talks on Cuba at many Quaker meetings.
Bill was predeceased by his wife of 67 years, Nancy Strong, who died in 2024.
He is survived by two children, Laura Strong (Eric) and Tom Strong (Pura); and four grandchildren.
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