William Hollingsworth Attwood was born in Paris, France, of American parents on July 14, 1919. He was educated in the United States and graduated from the Choate School in 1937 and in 1941 from Princeton University, where he majored in history and politics.
After three months at Columbia University Law School, he enlisted in the Army as a private in December 1941. He served in the Middle East and the Pacific with the Counter Intelligence Corps and was a paratrooper with the 13th Airborne Division, rising to the rank of captain by the war's end.
From 1946 to 1949, Mr. Attwood worked as a correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune, first in its Washington Bureau, then in Europe and later in New York, where he covered the United Nations. In 1949, he joined Collier's magazine as European correspondent and also wrote a nationally syndicated column. From 1951 until 1961, Mr. Attwood worked for Look magazine, serving successively as European editor, national affairs editor, and foreign editor. During this period he traveled 35,000 miles and visited over 70 countries to interview many of the world's leaders. In 1953, he joined Adlai E. Stevenson on an around-the-world fact-finding assignment for Look.
In 1960, Mr. Attwood took a leave of absence to serve as a speechwriter for John F. Kennedy during that year's presidential campaign. Between 1961 and 1966, he served successively under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson as U.S. Ambassador to two African states, Guinea and Kenya, and as adviser on African Affairs to this country's UN mission.
In May 1966, Mr. Attwood returned to Cowles Communications, Inc., publishers of Look, as editor in chief and was named to the additional post of vice president and director the following August. He joined Newsday as president and publisher in November 1970, was named chairman of the board in September 1978, and took early retirement in July 1979.
Mr. Attwood and his wife Simone were among a handful of American journalists and their wives who were admitted to China in the spring of 1971. His reports included an exclusive interview with exiled Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia--the first by an American since the prince had been deposed and exiled--and an interview with Premier Chou En-lai.
In 1978, Mr. Attwood was appointed by President Carter as the U.S. media representative to the 20th UNESCO General Conference in Paris.
In addition to other writings, Mr. Attwood has authored six books: The Man Who Could Grow Hair (1949), Still the Most Exciting Country (1955), The Reds and the Blacks (1968), The Fairly Scary Adventure Book (1969), Making It Through Middle Age (1982), and The Twilight Struggle: Tales of the Cold War (1987). His work has earned several national journalism awards, including the National Headliners Club Award, the George Polk Memorial Award, and the Page One Award.
In 1967, Mr Attwood was elected an alumni trustee of Princeton University. In 1971, he became a trustee of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Century Association, and the American Foreign Service Association; a director of the Overseas Development Council; a trustee of the International Center of Photography; Chairman, editorial board, GEO Magazine, 1979-1980; appointed by the Secretary of State to the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, September 1979; and elected as Democratic member of New Canaan Town Council in November 1979.
Attwood died from congestive heart failure in New Canaan, Connecticut on April 15, 1989.
