Dr. William E. Stephenson

Dr. William E. "Bill' Stephenson died on Thursday, August 16, 2012 at Glenaire Skilled Nursing Center after a brief illness. He was preceded in death by his wife Marilyn, his parents Allen W. and Lefa Whisman Stephenson, and his three siblings, Robert Stephenson, Ruth Caldwell and Mary Elizabeth McNay. He is survived by nephews and nieces, and by a group of close friends he counted as "family."

Bill was born in Plymouth, Indiana, October 31, 1930. He grew up in Indianapolis, graduating from Shortridge High School in 1947. He studied classical piano for eight years, and gave a solo recital the day of his thirteenth birthday. He was also a successful entertainer at piano comedy, working professionally through his adolescence. He appeared on national and local radio, and had a program of his own on early local television. At Shortridge he was active in school clubs, appeared in school plays and entertainments, and was editor and columnist for the school paper. Writing became a second major interest, along with music.

He attended Indiana University-Bloomington, graduating with a B.A. in Drama in 1951. He continued to work as a pianist until he entered graduate studies in English literature at the University of California-Berkeley in 1957. There he received his M.A. in 1959 and Ph.D. in 1963, holding a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship 196l-1963.

He began publication of scholarly articles in 1962, on topics from the ancient Roman writer Apuleius to modern motion pictures, and became an assistant professor of English at University of California-Los Angeles in 1963. He married Marilyn Ramey of Los Angeles on December 16, 1967. She died on February 23, 1989, after years as a reference librarian at East Carolina University.

Bill came to East Carolina University in 1970 to establish a program of film studies, emphasizing the literary nature and critical principles of film, in the English Department there. He became a tenured full professor in 1976 and retired in 1991.

Besides articles in these years, he published Sallie Southall Cotten (1987:Pamlico Press), the biography of a North Carolina woman who while a plantation wife and mother near Greenville became known nationally as an advocate for women's education. Her story had not been told, and Bill thought it deserved to be. The book won the Margaret Schumann Award of the North Carolina Victorian Society that year.

After retirement in Raleigh, NC, Bill continued to write, producing 68 biographical articles about film and theater figures for American National Biography (1999, Oxford University Press). He was also active as a volunteer: he read books on tape for the North Carolina Library for the Blind; he played the piano at Mayview Convalescent Center in Raleigh, UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill, and Glenaire Retirement Community in Cary, NC; he devoted much time and interest to the Raleigh Men's Center, serving as Chairman of its Leadership Council in 1994-1995. All his life, Bill maintained a deep interest in books, films, theater, music and world travel. His quick wit and sense of humor always sustained him through personal ups and downs.

He became a resident at Glenaire in 2005. A celebration of life service will be held at Glenaire on Friday, September 7, 2012 at 2:30 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made in his memory to the Glenaire Foundation, 4000 Glenaire Circle, Cary, NC 27511.

Condolences may be sent through www.brownwynnecary.com