Our multitalented and devoted classmate died at home March 5, 2012.
After preparing at Albany Academy, he followed his cousin, Henry Shultz ’31, to Princeton. Herb majored in English, was vice president of the Press Club, campus correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune, a captain at Commons, and a member of Key and Seal. During World War II he served as a Marine combat correspondent in the Pacific theater.
He was president of the family-owned coal and oil companies Rodie Coal and North River Coal Companies and Kingston Coal and Oil Co. He served as a director of Central Hudson Gas and Electric Co. and trustee of Rondout Savings Bank. He later became vice president of Vassar College and Storm King Art Center.
Herb helped found the Kingston Boys and Girls Club. He served as a trustee of Kingston Hospital, vestryman of St. John’s Episcopal Church, and an executive committeeman of the Ulster Chapter of the NAACP. An avid fly-fisherman, he had a lifelong interest in jazz and the St. Louis Cardinals.
Predeceased by his wife of 54 years, Barbara Hinkley Rodie, he is survived by his children, Barbara S. Redfield, Herbert Jr., and Anne R. Shultz; four grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. To them all, Herb’s classmates extend deepest sympathies.