Charles S. Northen III ’59

Charles died July 1, 2017, in Birmingham, Ala., three miles from the place he was raised.

Graduating with the first class of Indian Springs School in Birmingham, Charles spent but two years with us at Princeton, choosing history as his major and Tower as his club. Married in December 1957, Charles elected to continue his education at Vanderbilt University, where he graduated cum laude and earned a master’s degree in history in 1961.

Charles chose investment management for his career, a field in which he achieved great success. He organized the investment section in the trust department of First Alabama Bank of Birmingham, serving for several years as its head and then as head of the trust division of Central Bank of the South. He retired as senior investment officer of Regions Financial Corp., later serving as a managing director of the investment-banking firm Sterne, Agee & Leach. Civic memberships included Kiwanis, Society of Colonial Wars, and St. Andrews Society of the Middle South.

Divorced from his first wife in 1972, Charles later married Betty Taylor, who at the time was a trust officer in a competing bank. Charles quipped in our 25th-reunion yearbook that they had to find things other than work for evening conversations.

Charles is survived by Betty, daughter Margaret, sons Charles IV and Bryce, stepdaughter Vicki, and five grandchildren. We have sent condolences.