William “Bill” Crosby Platt, senior writer in Dartmouth’s Office of Communications, was known for his curiosity, enthusiasm and devotion to both his family and his work. Platt, 64, died following a long illness at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston on Sept. 17, according to his obituary.
Platt’s wife Paula DelBonis-Platt said that he had a “passion” for writing and for family. When Platt wasn’t writing for the College, he was writing for fun or reading about writers, she said. DelBonis-Platt described him as a “writer to the core.”
“It’s really a gift in life to have such a passion and such a calling,” she added.
Originally from Manhasset, N.Y., Platt was a graduate of University of Massachusetts Boston and received his master’s degree from the University of Montana. According to DelBonis-Platt, Platt was the editor of The Mass Media, the student newspaper at UMass Boston. After graduation, Platt worked in several positions at a variety of news organizations, including the Boston Globe, the Vineyard Gazette, the Montana Standard’s Bureau in Anaconda, the Dow Jones Newswires, the Associated Press and the Concord Monitor.
DelBonis-Platt added that Platt worked in a time when journalism was shifting from just newspapers, and said that he noticed the “shift” within news organizations to include more “social media” and “digital format.”
Platt enjoyed covering a wide range of stories at Dartmouth’s Office of Communications, from the Polarization Research Lab to the Baker Bell Tower restoration project. DelBonis-Platt said that she can remember him coming home talking excitedly about his work on his projects.
“There really was this wide range, from whether somebody was a student who was going to the Olympics or whether it was something historical, like the computer programming language, BASIC, that was created at Dartmouth in the 1960s,” DelBonis-Platt said. “I think he really enjoyed the breadth of that, just the wide range of people that he could just talk to all day if he had the time.”
Senior vice president for communications and government relations Justin Anderson worked with Platt and said that they had a close relationship.
Anderson was “taken right away by [Platt’s] curiosity and his interest in learning about Dartmouth and learning about higher education at the time,” he said.
Anderson added that he and Platt “shared” a love for politics and the New Hampshire presidential primary. Platt worked overtime during every primary “trying to cover all of the candidates who came through,” Anderson said.
DelBonis-Platt spoke of how he “valued his colleagues so much” in the Office of Communications and how deeply he appreciated higher education as a way to “move our world forward” and “create understanding in our world.”
“He enjoyed connecting with all of the colleagues and the students at Dartmouth, the faculty and the staff so much,” she said.
At Dartmouth, one of Platt’s primary responsibilities was covering events at the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy. According to Rockefeller Center director and government professor Jason Barabas, Platt was one of the Center’s “principal points of contact” to cover their events.
Platt “was able to contextualize events,” Barabas said. “He was able to show what the event was about, how it related to the Dartmouth community, students and faculty and community members alike.”
Anderson said that in working with Platt, his wife and two sons Nate and Will “always came up in conversation,” and that he spoke of them “with pride.”
“You couldn’t work with Bill without knowing about his wife, Paula, and his two sons,” he said.
DelBonis-Platt said that Platt “enjoyed” doing everything with his family from “car trips” to “having meals and talking and laughing.” He also enjoyed going for long walks with their rescue dog, Pepper, who DelBonis-Platt described as “a fixture in some of the Dartmouth Zoom meetings.”
DelBonis-Platt shared that she and Platt also really enjoyed kayaking, traveling long distances together on the lakes and the rivers of New Hampshire and Maine and elsewhere. He “greatly enjoyed” recreational rowing in the Upper Valley, she added.
No matter where he was or what he was doing, Platt was always “interested in finding and then telling a good story,” according to Anderson. Platt approached his work with a deep sense of “curiosity” and focused on writing stories that would have “meaning for an audience.”
Throughout his work as a writer, and especially at the College, DelBonis-Platt said that Platt felt “so fortunate” to have a job that was “meaningful” and “brought joy to him.”
“He really felt it made a tremendous difference in people’s lives,” she said.
DelBonis-Platt said that when she thinks of her husband, she remembers their adventures, family time and his love of writing.
“I think the main thing is just [his] tremendous curiosity about the world and people,” DelBonis-Platt said.
