Alfred De Jonge ’49

Al died April 1, 2011, in Stamford, Conn.  

At age 14 he narrowly escaped the Holocaust by helping his family get to England; a year later they moved to the United States. Upon enlisting in the Army after high school, he was one of only eight recruits from the 75th Infantry Division selected for Officer Candidate School.  

Following the war, Al attended Princeton on the GI Bill, where he belonged to Quadrangle Club and was often assigned as driver and translator for Albert Einstein (then at Princeton’s Institute of Advanced Study). After graduating in three years, he pursued a career in international advertising, which utilized his gift for languages.

Al took comfort in the low-key pleasures of suburbia and his long happy marriage to Jane. His neighbors came to appreciate his dry wit, gentle courtly manner, and utter lack of bluster. His conviction that the most important factor in life was luck — geographic, economic, historical, and matrimonial — gave him a rare objectivity and made him a valued adviser to a wide variety of friends and associates.

He is survived by Jane; his brother, Curt; sons Peter ’77 and William; and three grandchildren, including Matthew ’10.