December 4, 2002: Memorials
PHILIP HENRY PHENIX ’34
Phil died July 13, 2002, after a short illness. He graduated summa cum laude in mathematical physics at the age of 19 and won our class’s Outstanding Achievement Award.
Phil was a longtime resident of the Bridgewater Retirement Community, in Virginia, to which he moved in 1982 from NYC, and where he and his wife of 59 years, Gena Tenney Phenix, a Barnard alumna and faculty member, took part in many community activities and enterprises. He served on Bridgewater College’s long-range planning committee and received the college’s Outstanding Service Award, cited as a man of deep religious faith, a gifted teacher, and a devoted community servant. Prior to his retirement in 1982, he was a professor of philosophy and education at Columbia U.
In addition to Gena, he is survived by two sons, Roger and Morgan, a nephew, and two nieces. A brother, Robert ’35, died in 1989.
The Class of 1934
WILLIAM LOUIS TAGGART Jr. ’36
Bill died June 6, 2002. He was 88. His father was in the Class of 1911.
After graduating from Phillips Andover Academy, Bill majored in politics and was a member of Tiger Inn at Princeton. He became president, succeeding his father in 1945, of the Colonial Banking Co. of Grand Rapids, Mich. For many years he was a board member of Morewood Realty Co. of NYC. He was a former warden of the Episcopal Church Vestry of Grand Rapids.
Bill is survived by his wife of 60 years, the former Dorothy Dupuy, daughters Marion Silliman, Susan Ruhl, Lillian Andrews, and Ann Gordon, as well as 10 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren.
Bill lived a full and productive life. He indeed will be missed.
The Class of 1936
THEODORE RIDGWAY JAECKEL ’38
Ted died May 22, 2002, at the Princeton Medical Center. He was born in Stettin, Germany, in 1915, the son of Foreign Service officer Theodore Jaeckel and Violet Ridgway. He came to Princeton from St. George’s School. At Princeton he majored in English and ate at Cloister Inn.
Following graduation he worked in publishing before joining the Office of Strategic Services during WWII. Following the war he joined the Foreign Service, serving in Paris, Athens, New Delhi, Mexico City, Hong Kong, and Caracas. After he retired in 1971, he worked for the Princeton University Press in Princeton, and Field Enterprises in Chicago, then resided in Hunter, N.Y., and Sarasota, Fla., for several years before moving to Cranbury, N.J., in 1998.
Ted was predeceased by his beloved wife of 60 years, Yolanda, in 2000, and is survived by two brothers, John ’42 and Hugo, sons Theodore Jr. and Christopher ’64, daughter Pamela Oppen, five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
The Class of 1938
ROBERT A. J. Bordley ’40
Bobby had been suffering from renal failure for some time before his death in Baltimore, on June 20, 2002, but those close to him said that he was eternally the same Bobby — “his optimistic and scrappy outlook” never waned.
He prepared at Gilman School and at Princeton majored in psychology. He lettered on the ice hockey team and also played baseball and lacrosse. He was the on-campus manager for New York’s Herald-Tribune. In 1941 he joined the staff of PAW.
During WWII Bobby was in the Army in Germany, attaining the rank of major. Postwar he was a radio and television advertising executive in DC and Atlanta.
In our 50th reunion book, Bobby remarked, “Best decision in life I ever made was back in 1936 when I chose Princeton and landed in this great class.” That dedication continued; he was a past president of our class and of the Princeton Club of DC. To his three children, Robinson ’70, Martha Bordley Malt, and William, and his seven grandchildren, we offer our sincere condolences.
The Class of 1940
John WATKINS EIMAN ’43
Jack died July 12, 2002, following a long illness. He was 80.
A native of Bala Cynwyd, Pa., he prepped at the Haverford School. After Princeton, Jack received a medical degree from Penn. From 1945-48 he was a Navy medical officer. He interned at Philadelphia’s Graduate Hospital, then completed his residency program in pathology at the U. of Penn hospital and Abington Memorial Hospital. For 30 years, from 1954 until he retired in 1984, he served as chief of pathology at Abington.
Jack enjoyed golf, photography, travel, sailing, and skiing. He is survived by his wife of 54 years, the former Daisy Biddle, sons Thomas and Jack, daughter Paula, and two grandchildren. To the entire family we offer our deepest and most heartfelt condolences.
The Class of 1943
EUGENE WINFIELD TRONE ’45
Gene died Nov. 28, 2001, two days after a fall in his garden in Old Town Alexandria, Va.
Gene prepared at William Penn High in York, Pa. At Princeton he joined Cloister Inn, but his experience was interrupted for service in the Army Air Corps and Military Intelligence. Returning, he majored in philosophy in 1948, and received the 1869 Prize in Ethics (the first award in 26 years) for his thesis. He had married the former June Finch in 1947, and they used that Ethics prize money toward graduate studies at the Sorbonne.
Gene went on to Georgetown U. and began a career in the Foreign Service in 1951, becoming an Middle East expert through service in Iraq, Lebanon, and Jordan, returning to DC in 1963. He served in Egypt from 1969-72, and was a liaison with the Egyptian government until 1976. He worked closely with then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in connection with the historic shuttle diplomacy to end the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. After Gene retired in 1978, he became a consultant on Middle East affairs. Gene’s ever-present bow tie adorned the halls of the Cosmos and Army & Navy Clubs in DC.
In addition to June, Gene is survived by his daughter, Eugenie, and a stepdaughter, Alayne Tiemeyer. The class extends its sympathy to the family.
The Class of 1945
ALEXANDER GARCIN O’Brien ’48
Alex died June 12, 2002, after a long illness. Early in his career, on a Reynolds Metals training program, Alex operated a monstrous bus full of aluminum displays throughout the East. You guessed it: he parked the monster in front of Ivy on Prospect Avenue.
A native of Louisville, Alex never lost his devotion to Kentucky or his distinctive accent. He came to us by way of Canterbury School in New Milford, Conn. He majored in history and thrived at the Ivy Club. He served in the infantry as a second lieutenant from 1945-46. Prior to his death, he had retired from Jefferson Smurfit Corp.
Alex was involved in civic affairs and was perennially on the board of the Louisville YMCA, for 20 years of which he was treasurer. He also spent two decades on the schools committee. He was a golfer and active at the Louisville Country Club as well as a fisherman.
To his widow, Patsy, his children, Edward, Robert, Elizabeth, and Thomas, as well as brothers E. J. ’42 and Bobbie ’46, the class expresses its sorrow at the death of a loyal, cheerful Princetonian.
The Class of 1948
