Alexander Travis Stumpf ’46

Stumpf was Stumpf. He had no equal, in any sense of the word. Crusty. Fiery. A self-ordained curmudgeon. In the summer of '42, he joined us from Kent School, where oarsmen had discovered the meanings of "pull" and "leg drive" under orders barked by coxswain Stumpf.

Rejected by the military, Stumpf joined the American Field Service and drove ambulances that, lurching down Italian mountainsides, soaked his ankles in the blood of his wounded passengers. Back on campus, he joined Cap and Gown, the Daily Princetonian, and Triangle, and never failed to let us know he had the courage of his convictions.

Next, he studied animal husbandry at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and took charge of the registered Angus cattle business on his family's farm in Rapidan, Va., supervising herd after herd of prime beefsteak. He and Virginian Lucy Slaughter married in 1952; she died several years ago. Son Sandy (A.T.S. Jr.) survives.

The Virginia Angus Hall of Merit inducted Stumpf in 1989. It must have known, as '46 knew, that, until he died Dec. 18, 2004, in Orange, Va., if you wanted a good friend whose strong opinions were vigorously expressed, Stumpf was your man. Down to the last class member, we shall miss him.

The Class of 1946