William Catherwood Fletcher

William Catherwood Fletcher was born in Oakland, California on October 13, 1932 and passed away December 14, 2014.
He resided in Burma, California, Washington, Japan, Ohio, New Jersey, Switzerland, Kansas, and, most recently, Natchez, Mississippi. He attended Riverside Polytechnic High School, UCLA, California Baptist Theological Seminary, and finally earned his PhD from the University of Southern California.
He was a naval veteran of the Korean War where he served as Electronics Technician First Class on the USS Saipan. He was the founder, president and chief executive officer of Centre de Recherches et d’Etude in Geneva, Switzerland from 1965-1970 and was the Director of Soviet and Eastern European Studies at the University of Kansas from 1970-1996.
He published twelve scholarly books, three dozen major articles and was the only scholar in his field to have been published by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
Bill is preceded in death by his wife of over 50 years, Diane. Surviving relatives include one brother and his wife, Rev. Stephen Fletcher and Gloria Shane, of Glendale, CA ; his children and their spouses, Stephen and Mary Fletcher of Lawrence, Kansas; Laurie and Tom Hall of Oceanside, California; and Linda and Jack Rodriguez of Natchez, Mississippi and his 10 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren.
The family would like to thank Sharon Smitherman for her companionship and affection toward our father in the last few years of his life. A memorial service will be planned for a later date.
Please sign this guestbook at Obituaries.LJWorld.com.