Charles H. Phelps Jr. ’52

Charles died Dec. 20, 2013.

He graduated from Middlesex School in Concord, Mass. At Princeton, he majored in electrical engineering and joined Dial, the freshman squash team, and the Tiger staff. He roomed with Bill Carson, Dom Telesco, and Harry Zehner.

After graduation he served in the Army in Korea and in 1959 studied at the New York College of Music. Charles was an accomplished pianist, played guitar, and composed music.

He held a number of jobs that built upon his electrical engineering skills, many of them entrepreneurial, some corporate. Among his remarks for The Book of Our History, engaging and unvarnished, is the following: “Best years: New York City, 1956 to 1965; least memorable: Princeton’s electrical engineering school and math teachers, 1948–1951.”

Charles was married to Nancy Young Phelps, with whom he had a son, Alden. She died in 2011. To Alden, the class sends sympathy on the loss of our accomplished classmate, his father.