John Tucker, seminal founder of Princeton Project ’55; passionate lover of modern art, racehorses, and his wife, Jayne W. Barnard; and creator of his own agenda, died Oct. 9, 2010, of lung cancer in Lanexa, Va. He was 76.
A brilliant trial lawyer with a passion for seeing justice done, John was a raconteur with a trenchant sense of humor. Princeton and the University of Michigan Law School prepared John to practice law for 32 years — including arguing two cases before the Supreme Court, counseling the defense in the “Chicago 7” case, and representing the plaintiffs in the Contract Buyers League cases in Chicago in the 1960s.
Eschewing the legal for the literary, John became a writer. His book, May God Have Mercy, was a finalist for an Edgar Award in the “true crime” category and his professional memoir, Trial and Error: The Education of a Courtroom Lawyer, was published in 1997. Despite the reduced income he had as an author, he loved writing as he loved the law.
He is survived by Jayne; children, Katie Tucker Tripp, Cynthia, Laura, and Michael; nine grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. To them all, the class expresses its sorrow at this life’s conclusion.