
PAW started “Lives Lived & Lost” in 2013 to reflect on the impact alumni who died the previous year had on the world. This issue profiles 12 who died in 2024, as well as Tiger Bech ’21, who was killed in the early hours of New Year’s Day in a truck attack in New Orleans. We felt it was important to include Bech and the remembrances of his classmates, coaches, and family.
The University will pay tribute to all students, alumni, faculty, and staff members whose deaths were recorded last year at the Service of Remembrance on Alumni Day, Feb. 22.
— Peter Barzilai s’97, PAW editor
Tiger Bech ’21 Was Joy On and Off the Field
Jon E. Barfield ’74 Gave Back, Including to Princeton
Claire Crooks ’95 Taught Teens About Healthy Relationships
Artist Frank Stella ’58 Defied Labels and Reinvented Himself
Susan Cotts Watkins *80 Led Research on AIDS in Africa
The Military Was One Facet of Christopher E. Hornbarger ’90
Uthara Srinivasan ’95 Made Princeton Reunions Greener
Journalist Michael Aron *70 Commanded Respect From All Sides
Brian Olsen ’64 Pioneered ‘Ready-to-Assemble’ Furniture
Moorhead Kennedy Jr. ’52 Survived to Recount the Iranian Hostage Crisis
Fu Shen *76 Was a Prolific Scholar and a Gifted Artist
Thomas C. Hanks ’66 Changed How We Understand Earthquakes
Larry Lucchino ’67 Brought Back the Old-Fashioned Ballpark
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John Milton Cooper Jr. ’61
1 Day AgoJim Leach ’64’s Life and Career of Service
The February PAW omitted a notable alumnus who died in 2024: James Albert “Jim” Leach ’64. His New York Times obituary noted that in the same conversation he could speak learnedly about high school and college wrestling, banking regulation, and great American artists, and repeat what he said in Russian. That breadth stemmed from his distinguished life and career. A native of Iowa, where he was a state wrestling champion and a 15-term Republican congressman, he served as chairman of the House banking committee and later as President Barack Obama’s appointee to head the National Endowment for the Humanities. Jim Leach truly embodied our motto of Princeton in the world’s service.