Dave, who was the Boston Red Sox Rookie of the Year in 1956 and who pitched seven years in the big leagues before becoming vice chair and executive vice president of the A.G. Edwards brokerage firm, died Jan. 9, 2011, in St. Louis of complications from prostate cancer.
The last surviving child of Baseball Hall of Fame’s George Sisler, Dave entered Princeton from the John Burroughs School, majored in engineering, ate at Cottage Club, and was a two-sport star. Basketball captain Fred Tritschler remembers that Dave had an unstoppable jump shot, possessed a laid-back sense of humor, and graduated magna cum laude. In baseball, he had an earned run average of an astonishing 0.99 and was signed by Boston for the then-huge sum of $30,000. He considered 1960 his best season when, as a relief pitcher for Detroit, he made 41 game appearances and registered his finest ERA with a 2.48. At A.G. Edwards, Chuck Thies recalls, Dave was head of the branch offices, one of the strengths of the organization.
The class sends sincere sympathy to his wife, Janet; son David G.; and three grandchildren. If Morris “Moe” Berg ’23 was Princeton’s most famous major-league baseballer in the first half of the 20th century, Dave certainly was the most celebrated alumnus in the second half.