William E Colby

Son of Elbridge Colby, an army officer and educator, and Margaret Mary Egan Colby. Public high school Burlington, VT; Princeton University A.B. 1940. 1941 joined the U.S. Army and in 1943 the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). In 1945 Colby married Barbara Heinzen; they had four children. Columbia University J.D. 1947. Joined CIA 1949; CIA station chief in Saigon from 1959 to 1962 and headed the agency's Far East division from 1962 to 1967. 1968 to 1971 he directed the Phoenix program in South Vietnam. 4 September 1973 President Richard Nixon appointed him director. 30 January 1976 President Gerald Ford replaced him with George H. W. Bush. Colby died from drowning and hypothermia after apparently collapsing from a heart attack or stroke and falling out of his canoe, the state's medical examiner said.