Pits, as he was known to classmates, died Sept. 3, 2021.

He came to Princeton from Pittsburgh’s Shady Side Academy. He played JV football and was a member of Cap and Gown. He left Princeton in 1949 to attend the University of Pittsburgh Business School, graduating from there in 1951 with a degree in business administration.

Pits then enlisted in the Navy where, during a 1954 training course in Washington, he met and married Ann Hamill. As he wrote at our 25th, “Uncle Sam treated us to a one-year honeymoon on the island of Guam.” Following his discharge as a lieutenant junior grade, he moved to Boston, where he graduated from Harvard Business School with an MBA in 1957.

His career was in the financial world. He held positions at the Deutsche Genossenschafts Bank, the Bank of New York, and the Bradford Trust before becoming pesident and CEO of the Citizens Savings Bank of Ithaca, N.Y., in 1983. He retired from Citizens as CEO and director in 1992, moving to Jupiter, Fla., where he lived until his death.

His wife, Ann; four children; a sister; and an extended Princeton family survive him. His brother, Richard ’52, died in 2007. 

Undergraduate Class of 1950