Albert D. Kissling ’57

Described by his family and friends as “a man with a passion for social justice,” Al died of cancer Dec. 18, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas.

He came to Princeton from The Hill School. He majored in history and was on the fencing and lightweight football teams for two years. He joined Cloister Inn and played intramural football, basketball, and softball. Al was a member of the Westminster Fellowship and the Student Christian Association, presaging his career as a Presbyterian minister. Senior year he roomed with Whitey Blume, Harry Bruen, Dave Isles, and Phil Woerner.

Al attended Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va., earning a bachelor’s in divinity, and then obtained a fellowship to study at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where he graduated with a master’s degree in theology. He worked and traveled in Germany, the Mideast, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe, including Russia, which gave him a chance to study communism. After a brief period of teaching school in his native Jacksonville, Fla., he became a pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Searcy, Ark. In 1966, Al married Lillian Beth Poe, and they had two children, Matthew and Allison.

Al became senior pastor at the Trinity Presbyterian Church in Hendersonville, N.C. There he spent 20 years, increasing the church membership, building a larger church home, and spearheading campaigns for a migrant housing complex and a Women’s Crisis Ministry. Later he settled in San Antonio, where he sponsored a class mini-reunion to work with Habitat for Humanity. He was also a member of the class caring committee.

Al was divorced from Beth, who survives him. He is also survived by his second wife, Janice Shute Kissling; his two children; his stepson, Thomas Shute; and their families.