William D. Witter, 73; Followed Father Into Investment Field

William David Witter, 73, investment manager and scion of stockbroker Dean Witter who in 1967 founded his own firm, William D. Witter Inc., died Sunday in his New York City home after a short illness.

Born in San Francisco, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale and an MBA from Stanford before joining his father’s firm, Dean Witter Inc. (now a part of Morgan Stanley), in 1956.

After a decade, he left to found his own company, specializing in asset management and research for institutional investors. He sold it to Drexel Burnham Lambert in 1976.

Witter was a founding investor of National Semiconductor Corp. in Silicon Valley. He was a longtime trustee of his father’s Dean Witter Foundation based in San Francisco.

He also served on the board of overseers of the Hoover Institution, the public policy research group at Stanford University.