Arbie R. Thalacker ’57

Arbie died Jan 9, 2012, of pancreatic cancer.

At Princeton he majored in English, joined Cap and Gown, and was active in swimming, football, flying club, Keycept, the Campus Fund Drive, and the junior prom committee. Arbie married Rita senior year; together they had three sons.

He graduated from Michigan Law School and joined Shearman & Sterling in 1960. He became a partner in 1968 and retired in 2000, becoming of counsel. He restructured Chrysler and started representing the Chinese government in 1981.

In 1982 he and Rita separated. In 1986 he began to study Buddhism, which he said, “changed my life.” He followed Mahayana, “the Great Path,” leading to an awakened mind and heart and learning to put others before self. Then he attended a Buddhist seminary in 1990.

In 1995 he joined the board of Shambhala International and the board of Naropa University in Boulder, Colo., which is committed to contemplative education — transforming the world through wisdom and compassion. In 1998 he married Deborah, also a practicing Buddhist. Arbie sat on several nonprofit boards, including the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and one public company board. The couple had homes in Greenwich Village, Woodstock, N.Y., and Florida.

The class sends condolences to Deborah; sons Mark, Christopher, and Robert; and the grandchildren. In his life, Arbie earned good karma by following “the Path.”