NANTUCKET, MASSACHUSETTS.- William B. Macomber Jr., 82, former ambassador to Jordan and Turkey and president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, died due to complications from Parkinson’s disease.
William Macomber worked in the State Department in the Ford, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy and Eisenhower administrations. From 1969 to 1973 he served as undersecretary for management at the State Department.
In 1977 he retired from government service and became the president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1986 he retired and went to live to Nantucket.
William Macomber was born in Rochester, N.Y., and graduated from Yale University. He received a master’s degree in government from Yale in 1947, a law degree from Harvard University in 1949 and a master’s degree in social science from the University of Chicago in 1951.