William R. Tincher '53 earned a political science degree at the University of Wichita before attending Washburn University Law School. Due to a glitch with his undergraduate degree, he actually walked for both degrees on the same day. He later received not only Washburn's Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1983, but Wichita State's 1984 Alumni Achievement Award.
Tincher spent the Eisenhower administration as chief prosecuting attorney for the Federal Trade Commission, winning both criminal and civil antitrust lawsuits and receiving the FTC's Distinguished Service Award. He then took over as president and CEO (1961) and chairman of the board (1968) of Purex Industries, which then made only liquid bleach. Under his leadership, Purex grew and diversified to produce, by 1971, "drugs, toiletries, swimming pool chemicals, industrial solvents, mobile homes, aircraft maintenance, flour, fresh produce and vegetable seeds." He retired in 1984 at 57, "the age most people become CEOs," says his son Dwight.
He enjoyed tennis, traveling and a fine cigar — his first was given him by Winston Churchill, who admonished, "Every man needs a vice." He was a devoted family man and "overachiever" with a photographic memory. Dwight recalls the family was audited by the IRS, and their agents "came away knowing more about IRS law than they had before."
Bill Tincher died April 21 in Santa Ana, Calif.
