Jack was born Dec. 20, 1929, in New York, the son of Alfred F. and Nannie Hamilton Benziger. His father was the fifth-generation co-owner of Benziger & Co., a major Catholic publishing house and manufacturer of religious articles.

Jack attended the Canterbury School and left Princeton to complete his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of West Florida.

He spent the majority of his 30-year Air Force career as chief navigator on reconnaissance-mission assignments around the world. In Vietnam his plane was shot down; he was saved by a USAF pararescue team and received a Purple Heart. Jack retired as a colonel in 1978, and he and his first wife, Agnes (“Penny”), relocated to Edgewater Beach, Fla. Following her death he married Thelma O’Donnell, and they maintained homes in Edgewater and Georgetown, Maine.

Jack died July 25, 2012, from a hemorrhagic stroke and is survived by Thelma; his daughters, Nanette Benziger, Agnes Atkinson, and Monica Starr; grandchildren Christopher Atkinson and Lucas Starr; stepchildren Thomas O’Donnell, Brenda Liner, Annette Palombo, and John O’Donnell; and his nephew, John Benziger ’78. His brother, Peter ’47, predeceased him. A memorial Mass was celebrated in New Smyrna Beach, Fla.

Undergraduate Class of 1951