Austin McKenney Francis Jr. ’56

Mac, a man of boundless energy and multiple enthusiasms (for fly-fishing, squash, billiards, and Japanese whiskey and cutlery), died Dec. 15, 2021, of COVID-19. Mac and Ross, his wife of 56 years, lived in New York City and Roscoe, N.Y. 

Mac came to Princeton from Petersburg (Va.) High School. He was a varsity swimmer and member of Quadrangle Club and the Marching Band. As a student in the Special Program in the Humanities he wrote his senior thesis on nature, religion, and poetry for Professor of English E.D.H. Johnson ’34. Following graduation and Navy OCS, he served three years aboard the USS Hancock.

Mac earned an MBA at New York University and founded A.M. Francis Inc., a financial-communications consulting firm. Avocationally, his passion for fly fishing led to books about the sport and its rich history: Catskill Flytier (1977, with Harry Darbee), and Catskill Rivers: Birthplace of American Fly Fishing (1983, expanded as Land of Little Rivers, 1999). Other titles include Smart Squash (1977) and Carom Billiards: A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Players (2017).

He was a member of the Brooklyn Fly Fishers and the University Club and a former member of the Princeton Club of New York and the Anglers’ Club of New York. The class extends our deepest sympathies to Ross.