J. Paul Barringer '24
The Class of '24 and the Princeton community lost a strong advocate on Aug., 15, 1996, when Paul Barringer died at home in Princeton of congestive heart failure. He was 93.
Born in Stafford, Pa., Paul attended Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire (where he played baseball) before enrolling in Princeton, as did his five brothers. He was a member of the freshman and 150-lb. crew team. After graduation, he worked in commercial and investment banking at Brown Bros. and Harriman and at the Guaranty Trust Co. of NYC.
In 1942 he joined the Army Air Force and served in Burma and India, rising to the rank of colonel. He earned the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star. He joined the State Dept. in 1946, working in the office of transport and communications policy. He later served in the foreign service as counselor of the U.S. embassies in Haiti and Libya.
After retiring from the State Dept. in 1965, he organized Educational Career Services, which placed private school headmasters and college presidents. He also was president and CEO of the Barringer Crater Co., which owns a crater in northern Arizona. He promoted the science of meteoritics and went on expeditions with his wife to Mauritania and Hudson Bay with the noted geologist Dr. Robert Dietz in search of other meteorite craters.
The Class of 1924

William James Parker '37
Jim Parker, who left college during freshman year, but who remained a loyal alumnus of Princeton ("It is the Place."), died Aug. 4, 1996. He had studied for a short time at Hamilton College before transfering to Princeton. He left Lucia, his wife of 55 years, son Geoffrey, daughter Elizabeth, and three grandchildren.
Jim started off with "strictly gas station type work" with Socony-Vacuum, now Mobil, transferring to a bulk plant in Boston, where he loaded and unloaded tankers, tank cars, and trucks. Faced with an alternative of 20 years in Saudi Arabia, he shifted to General Motors in the insurance division, and later joined Sylvania Electric Products. There his job evolved into one in which he was in charge of the administration of industrial relations for the company, which had 35 plants and 28,00 employees. He was also manager of labor relations at the headquarters in NYC, when it was taken over by General Telephone.
In 1959 Jim started Parke Associates in Boston, specializing in personal and human resources and in every aspect of executive search, compensation, supervisory training, and performance appraisals. He retired in 1987. By 1990 he and Lucia had their own cottage at a retirement colony, Brookhaven, in Lexington, Mass., where unfortunately he developed Alzheimer's. He also had inoperable cancer of the prostate, which finally was the cause of death.
The Class of 1937

George H. Bright '40
George died at his Keene Valley, N.Y., home on July 11, 1996, having been in ill health and forced to use a voice transmitter to communicate. Son of George H. Bright 1894, he grew up in Princeton and prepared at St. George's. In college he played soccer and interclub sports for Colonial Club. Initially with the field artillery in WWII, he trained with commando forces in Scotland and later was executive officer with the Atlantic Amphibious Force, finally ending up with the OSS in Burma and China.
His business enterprises included merchandising, television, real estate, and airport involvement. He also operated a gift shop for wood carvings and paintings and sponsored a bobsled crew to race in the Adirondacks. Golf was George's favorite sport, which he played with enthusiasm from October to May at his winter home in Vero Beach, Fla., frequently joining classmates in local matches and tournaments. In our 50th year book he wrote, "I don't work because work is for people who don't play golf."
He is survived by three sons, Peter, Michael, and George. In George Bright we have lost one of more singular and colorful classmates.
The Class of 1940

James A. Gardner '44
On June 17, 1996, Jim Gardner died at the Kimball Hospital in Lakewood, N.J., of pneumonia. He was 76. Jim was born in London, came to this country in his youth, and became a citizen in 1951. He prepared for Princeton at Peddie School, roomed with Dick Jones and Dick Amundsen, majored in engineering, and was a member of Key and Seal Club.
Upon graduation in 1944, Jim joined the Budd Co. and after 24 years designing and selling railway cars, joined SEPTA for the startup of the country's first automated rapid transit system and, uniquely, one using the transit cars on which he held the design patent.
Later, after moving to the Jersey shore, he worked as an environmentalist for the Navy at Lakehurst, N.J., and upon his retirement, received the Naval Engineering Center Citation and the Meritorious Civil Servant Award. Jim was an avid stamp and coin collector and enjoyed photography and travel. He battled many illnesses, chiefly cancer and collapse of his glandular system from which he was suffering when he served on the committee at our 50th reunion.
To Ruth, his wife of 52 years, his daughter, Jamie, his son, William '74, his sister, Isobel Sillix, and four grandchildren, the class extends its sympathy.
The Class of 1944

Henry Jay Melosh III '45
Hank Melosh died Dec. 19, 1995, at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, N.J., after a long struggle with leukemia.
Hank entered Princeton from Holderness Academy and became a member of Campus Club. His Princeton career was cut short by service in the Navy in the southwest Pacific as a radar officer aboard a destroyer. The Navy sent him to Cornell, where he earned his bachelor's in 1944, thus unable to add a Princeton degree to the one obtained by his father, Henry J. Melosh '16, and his brother, William '46.
After the war, Hank married Eleanor Frances Wilde, and took a position as an engineer with Babcock and Wilcox Corp. He earned his master's in mechanical engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1953, joined the Foster Wheeler Corp. in Livingston, N.J., as sales manager and retired from that company in 1987. Hank was renowned throughout the power industry for his combination of engineering knowledge and sales skills. Many electric power plants throughout the world owe much of their design and construction to his expertise. After retirement he delighted in planning elaborate fireworks displays for corporate festivities.
Hank is survived by Eleanor, with whom he had celebrated his 50th anniversary prior to his death. He is also survived by his son, Henry Jay Melosh IV '69, his daughter, Frances Gilfoyle, his brother, Robert, and his sister, Susan Cronyn, and by six grandchildren, to all of whom the class extends its deep sympathy.
The Class of 1945

James Benner Burns '50
Jim Burns of Falls Church, Va., an intelligence analyst with the CIA, died of lung cancer Mar. 9, 1996, at the Hospice Center of Northern Virginia. He was 69.
He served on a submarine with the Navy in the Pacific during WWII. While at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School he spent a year traveling across the country opening new chapters of the United World Federalists on college and university campuses.
After joining the CIA he served in Burma, India, Nepal, Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, Turkey, and L.A. He was awarded the Intelligence Star after departing Saigon in 1975. He retired in 1961 but continued to serve under contract in several countries until his death.
Jim was involved in community theater in northern Virginia, and for over 30 years he wrote lyrics and scores for the Hexagon Club's annual revues in Washington, D.C. He coauthored the book and wrote the music for The Shy Girl, which was produced by the Little Theatre of Alexandria in 1963. After retirement he volunteered many hours in schools in DC and Fairfax.
He is survived by his wife, Avery Lynn, their two sons, Douglas W. and Christopher M. He is also survived by his first wife, Beverly Ebert Runs, and their three sons, J. Kevin '74, Jeffrey E. '76, and Jonathan B. The class extends its deep sympathy to all of his family.
The Class of 1950