Rip died Dec. 11, 2014, after a 10-year remission from melanoma. That decade held satisfaction in work, service, and community theater.

At Princeton, Rip majored in English, but his life centered on the musical brotherhood of the Nassoons, of which he was president during his senior year. After graduation, Rip worked in his hometown of Indianapolis, then in Atlanta, where he met and married Debbie in 1979.

He earned an MBA at Harvard and worked for IBM until he left to start It’s Magic Productions, a multimedia company. The opportunity to help launch the organization GuideStar shifted Rip’s work path into the nonprofit world, where he wove his knowledge of technology into the arts and public education. Rip capped his career as executive director of the TechPoint Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that Indiana’s youth are a prepared workforce, and he implemented the first urban New Tech High School. Graduation rates there rose to double the district average, and the school continues to flourish.

After moving to North Carolina in 2009, Rip fell deeply into local theater and was rehearsing his role as King Arthur in Spamalot when he received his terminal diagnosis. He spent a beautiful, long, final summer in Northern Michigan.

To Debbie, their four children, Rip’s sisters, and wide circle of friends, the class sends deepest sympathy for a good life ended too soon.

Undergraduate Class of 1976