Charles W. Bray III ’55

Until he died of pneumonia in Milwaukee July 23, 2006, Charlie embodied the ideal of public service — to the nation as a diplomat for three decades, to the University and the class as a founder and president of Princeton Project 55, and to the nonprofit sector as president of the Johnson Foundation in Racine, Wis., and founding chairman of Ten Chimneys Foundation to restore the Wisconsin home of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontaine.

At Princeton he was elected president of Tiger Inn and of the University Press Club. Following graduation, Charlie was a Fulbright Scholar and an Army enlisted man before entering the Foreign Service.

After Henry Kissinger was named Secretary of State in 1973, the media spotlight fell on Charlie when he resigned as the State Department's chief spokesman because Kissinger, as national security adviser, had authorized wiretaps on some diplomats' telephones.

Yet Charlie remained in public service as deputy director of the US Information Agency, director of the National Foreign Affairs Training Center, and later as ambassador to Senegal.

Charlie's first wife, Eleanor, died in 1993. In 1999 he married Katie Gingrass. The class extends its deepest sympathy to her and also to Charlie's children, Charles IV, David, and Katherine; his brothers, Richard and Thomas; his stepchildren; and his grandchildren.