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Memorials 2007

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Charles R. (Chappie) Wagner '52 died on December 29, 2007 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He majored in architecture and was President of Dial Lodge. Chappie practiced as an architect until 1961 then embarked on a career as a university architect and physical planner at The University of West Virginia, SUNY Stony Brook, George Mason University and several overseas schools. These included designing colleges in Tanganyika and Vladivostok, Russia, which he found "wonderful and somewhat humbling experiences". Chappie and his wife, Peggy, lived in Fairfax, VA.

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Burton J. Weiss '52 died on December 9. He was a WoodrowWilsonSchool graduate, and his entries in our yearbooks show that his interest in public and international affairs never waned. His career field of finance included several years in London, and he and wife Nan continued to enjoy travel after his retirement in 1988. The yearbook entries show his intense devotion to his family, noting in the 55th book "the remarkable progress of all six of our grandchildren in their schoolwork, their athletic interests and their social interactions.? The obituary that appeared in the Raleigh Times & Observer on line is at: http://www.legacy.com/newsobserver/Obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=99410000.

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Donald A. Edwards '52 died on October 23, his wife Jeanie has informed us. They were living in New Brauenfels, TX. Don was a businessman with a particular mission to help young business people be successful - both in his vocation as a business consultant with his own firm and as his pro bono avocation. In the Book of Our History he reccalled often being confused with his namesake (without the miiddle initial) in the class. That sometimes resulted in in the wrong set of transcripts arriving at home, but it didn't affect his business career.

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Classmate Robert C. Smith died on June 28. Bob (also known as "R.C.") had a long career in the wholesale business and banking and securities fields, including more than a decade as president of Friend-Smith & Co. in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which he co-founded in 1960. In our 10th Reunion Yearbook he noted that he had moved to Puerto Rico "to escape New England winters," but he then returned north as far as the Philadelphia area. He was with Fidelity Bank there from 1977 to 1996. He and his wife Carol, whom he married in 1958, lived in Phoenixville, PA, at the time of his death.

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The University has learned that Bob Arnstein '52 died April 30 in Bainbridge Island, Michigan. Bob had moved there from Birmingham, MI about three years ago.

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Dick Gillespie has informed us that Frank Peard'52 died May 25. He had recently been diagnosed with acute leukemia and was flown from his home in Florida with his wife Barb to the cancer center in Boston ten days ago. Diz saw him on Sunday in Boston and he died on Friday. His service, primarily for his family, will be June 2 in Duxbury MA.
From the 55th Reunion Yearbook, we learn that Frank had lost his wife Barbie since the 50th Reunion but had then found and married "another wonderful Barbara."

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With the death of classmate Jack McCune on May 9, '52 lost a friend of great courage and dignity and an outstanding member of the Class Executive Committee. Jack had reported in mid-November he was suffering from acute leukemia, but he remained positive about his treatment, asking that people be told he "was holding his own" as late as a few days before his death. Bob Jiranek has provided the link to the Washington Post article describing his career in secondary education, including a stint as acting headmaster of the St. Alban's School in Washington.

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Jefferson C. Wright '52 died in March, 2007, in Paris, where he and his wife Sara had lived for some years. After many years living abroad for various corporations, and then on his own behalf in aircraft sales, Jeff and Sara decided to retire in France, where they were close to their children and grandchildren in the U.K., Italy and Spain. In the 55th Reunion Yearbook, Sara reported that Jeff, after four strokes and feeble lungs, "could not be well," but he was patient and had wonderful medical care.

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John S. Tasker '52 died December 7, 2005. The information has just come to us from the University. John was a member of Elm Club and majored in economics. The last address we had for him was in New Milford, CT, and his work address was as a consultant and control analyst with Pitney Bowes in Stamford. He reported he was still fully employed at the time of his submission to the 2002 Book of Our History. He wasn't able to attend our 50th Reunion, at least in part because of the severe arthritis from which Gail, his wife (and business parnter in a new internet venture he was explororing), suffered, but he said then that he hoped to attend later reunions.

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 Our Classmate and leading Class member Richard Pivirotto died January 8, 2007. Dick had been afflicted by pancreatic cancer. The memorial service is to be held at Christ Church Greenwich, 254 East Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT, on January 12 at 1 p.m., with a reception preceding the service from 11 to 1. Directions to the church can be found at the church's website, http://www.christchurchgreenwich.com/.
Dick was known to many of us first as an outstanding member of the championship football teams Princeton fielded during our years as undergraduates. He followed Princeton with an MBA from Harvard Business School, service in the Army, and his "debut in the business world" at a Pittsburgh department store. He rose quickly in the business world, becoming President and Chairman of Associated Dry Goods Corporation in 1970, founding his own consulting firm in 1981, and serving on the boards of directors of a number of major companies and charitable organizations, including service as Chairman of the Board of the Greenwich Hospital.
Dick's devotion to Princeton was recognized in the Distinguished Classmate Award
for Service to the Class of 1952 that he received at our 50th Reunion. The award cited his 14 years as a Trustee of the University, his four years as President of the Class, and his service to Annual Giving in ways in which the Class of 1952 established all-time records in major gifts. The full text of the citation is in the archives of this website; click here to read it. Since the 50th, Dick continued as an active member of the Class Executive Committee and its Annual Giving Committee.
As important as Princeton and his many institutional attachments were to Dick, a review of his contributions to our yearbooks shows that his wife Mimi and their children were even more important, and to them the Class extends its sympathy.
Read also the obituary in the on-line newspaper Greenwich Time. Gordon Lamb provided the link: http://www.legacy.com/Link.asp?I=LS000085928369X.


 The University has informed us that Dr. Howard S. Zucker '52 died August 28, 2007. At Princeton he majored in Biology and belonged to Court Club. After receiving an M.D. at Johns Hopkins University, Howie practiced as a pathologist and laboratory director. In our 50th BOH his history became remarkable; 281 children, 619 grandchildren and 206 great grandchildren while making time to "advance the condition of human life and the standard of living"..   









            The University has informed us of the death of Douglas Otto Pederson '52on June 17, 2007. Doug left Princeton at the end of our freshman year. He received a BA in English from Allegheny College and an MA from New Mexico Highlands University.               
Doug and his wife, Kelsey, were performing artists at the time of our 50th reunion. We have no other information on him.  

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 Barry Loper has just discovered that classmate Joel Stone died on February 2, 2007 in Concord MA. At Princeton he majored in English in the Special Program in the Humanities and won the Sophomore and Junior English prizes. He was a member of Prospect Cooperative Club. Joel fell off class and university records after graduation. His widow, Dorothy, told Barry that he received a Fulbright Scholarship to the Sorbonne, did his service time in Japan and followed a career in writing.

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Classmate John Ramsey Bronk died December 31, 2007. At Princeton he majored in Biology, was a member of Elm Club and won a Rhodes Scholarship. He received a PhD in Biochemistry from Oxford University.After a brief tenure at the National Institutes of Health. Ramsey spent his career as a university professor at Columbia (Zoology) and York University in the UK (Biochemistry).Ramsey is survived by his wife Sylvia, three children and three grandchildren.