WILLIAM C. ACKERLY ’50

WILLIAM C. ACKERLY, M.D., 87, a retired psychiatrist, died May 23, 2016. He was the son of Samuel S. Ackerly of the class of 1918 and the grandson of Clifford P. Clark of the class of 1895.  A member of Sigma Chi, he received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He was a U.S. Army veteran. After moving to Cambridge, Mass., he opened a private practice and was also the director of the Somerville Guidance Center. Always a lover of the outdoors, in 1965 he and his wife bought a house in Lyme Center, N.H., that was a few yards off the Appalachian Trail. There they offered respite to several thousand hikers, who stopped for water and other treats. He was known as “The Ice Cream Man” because he offered hikers ice cream cones. A man who loved good conversation, he enjoyed talking with the many hikers who came though each year. His wife, Frances Dickinson Ackerly, died in 2011. He is survived by one daughter, Susan A. Colfer ’88; three sons; five grandchildren; and three sisters..