Alexander Surko Jr. ’51 *55

Alex was born Oct. 3, 1928, to Alexander and Helen Knauer Surko in New York.

A graduate of Newton High School, he was active in the camera and Catholic clubs at Princeton, where he also was assistant manager of hockey. A member of Cloister Inn, Alex earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering and after graduation had three years of duty on the destroyer USS Perkins.  

Alex and Elise Foulkes were married in 1953. He returned to Princeton to earn a master’s degree in engineering in 1955 and, after a brief period with Shell Oil, returned to naval service as a Civil Engineer Corps officer. As a sea-duty executive officer, he was deployed twice to the Antarctic and later served in Morocco at Kenitra at the naval air facility there. He retired as a lieutenant commander in 1972 and joined the Massachusetts Port Authority in Boston as port engineer, specializing in maintenance, repair, and construction of waterfront facilities. These assignments included container and cruise terminals.

Alex retired in 1983 and moved to Fredericksburg, Va. He died at home Feb. 10, 2013, and is survived by Elise; their sons, Richard and Stephen; grandchildren Katherine, Jack, and Sam; and his brother, Edward. Burial was in Arlington with full honors.