A Vignette of Bill Epstein

[Editor’s Note: Bill Epstein, a Pugwash participant for over 30 years and the only man to serve all seven UN Secretaries General, died on February 8, 2001 from cancer at the age of 88. The following tribute was written by Martin Kaplan.]

I first met Bill at the 1965 Pugwash Conference in Venice. My impressions at that time were reinforced thereafter in more than thirty Pugwash meetings that we both attended. The focus of his attention was unremitting during discussions in the working groups that he preferred - arms control, especially those on nuclear weapons. He was steadfast in his purpose, which was to try to push through effective organizational structures in the UN headquarters where he worked. His intense involvement in Pugwash meetings was such that before a speaker could pause for breath, his hand would shoot up to dispute or reply to a point. As a lawyer Bill could argue with great emphasis brooking no contradiction. He was remarkably well versed in politico/diplomatic aspects of whatever point was under discussion. In plenary sessions he would stride to the microphone like a charging bull, head bent forward purposefully, and his forceful intervention withstood all opposition. His employment by the UN to head the newly established disarmament unit gave him unmatched opportunities which he exploited liberally in meeting with highly influential political figures including prime ministers and ambassadors, but not forgetting their assistants who formulated the substantive work.

Bill never let up on his proselytizing during coffee breaks and in relaxation lounges; in evenings he sometimes fancied himself a bit of a Don Juan.

Perhaps the high point in Bill's Pugwash career was his conception and management of the excellent 1981 Conference in Banff, Canada, which all who attended will never forget. It is not well known that during this conference there was an incident (involving myself as the then Secretary-General of Pugwash) of some diplomatic delicacy. Senior scientists among the Soviet Union participants asked to see Bill and me confidentially, which we agreed to do. They had been asked by their political masters to include amongst the Soviet participants a well-known individual who we were convinced was most likely an employee of Soviet intelligence. They asked Bill if he could arrange for a visa to be issued for that participant, but would understand if that proved impossible. (Pugwash unwritten rules were very strict on the proposition that no participant requested by a national Pugwash group could be refused a visa, lest the conference be cancelled). Bill went through the motions of asking the highest Canadian political figures whom he knew would in all likelihood refuse the request despite the threat of cancellation of the meeting. In the event, the participant in question did not attend the conference, the Soviet participants were satisfied and made only a verbal protest to Bill and me, and Bill's honor (and mine) suffered not at all.

I last saw Bill at the Rustenberg Conference in South Africa in 1999. He was in excellent form, and that's how I will remember him and his great positive contributions in UN and Pugwash affairs.

- Martin Kaplan

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