Photo: Sameer A. Khan/Fotobuddy
IN MEMORIAM: Nobel Prize-winning author and humanities professor emerita TONI MORRISON died Aug. 5 in the Bronx, N.Y. She was 88. A faculty member from 1989 to 2006, she founded the Princeton Atelier in 1994. President Eisgruber ’83 praised Morrison’s scholarly leadership in creative writing and African American studies and her mentorship of students, saying she “has inscribed her name permanently and beautifully upon the tapestry of Princeton’s campus and history.”

Morrison received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Song of Solomon in 1978 and the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved in 1988. In 1993, she became the first African American to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Morrison received the National Humanities Medal in 2000 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. Princeton awarded her an honorary doctorate in 2013, and in 2017, the University renamed West College as Morrison Hall in her honor. Her papers are housed in the Princeton University Library.


Photo: Denise Applewhite/Office of Communications
IN MEMORIAM: Physics professor STEVEN GUBSER ’94 *98, a scholar of string theory and black holes, died Aug. 3 in a rock-climbing accident while vacationing with his family in Chamonix, France. He was 47. Gubser was granted tenure in 2001 and became a full professor in 2005. His research on black holes shed light on connections between theoretical models and real-world systems. He was an innovative teacher and wrote about science for the lay reader. A full-page photo of Gubser and his daughter Lillian unicycling in this year’s P-rade appeared in the July 10 issue of PAW.


Photo: John H. Simpson ’66
IN MEMORIAM: Music professor emeritus PETER WESTERGAARD *56 died June 26 in Princeton. He was 88. He joined the faculty in 1968 and retired in 2001. Westergaard was a composer of chamber music, opera, and orchestral works. He served as chair of the music department in 1974–78 and 1983–86 and conducted the Princeton University Orchestra in the 1970s. Westergaard received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to complete his opera The Tempest, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.


Photo: Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill
IN MEMORIAM: Former history professor COLIN A. PALMER died June 20 in Kingston, Jamaica. He was 75. Palmer joined Princeton’s faculty in 2000 and taught until 2011, serving as acting chair of African American studies. His research focused on the African diaspora, exploring aspects that extended well beyond the American slave trade.


Photo: Orren Jack Turner
IN MEMORIAM: DAVID HAZEN ’48 *49, professor emeritus of mechanical and aerospace engineering, died April 27 in Easton, Md. He was 91. Hazen joined the faculty in 1949 and retired in 1982. His research on low-speed aeronautics and aerodynamics helped to make planes safer to land and to allow shorter runways. Hazen served as chairman of the Naval Research Advisory Committee, and he received the Navy’s highest civilian honor.