Christopher R. Sherrill ’57

The Rev. “Kit” Sherrill died April 10, 2023, of injuries suffered in a fall. He had served conscientiously and well his Lord, his nation, his church, his family and friends, and our class. 

He attended Beaver Falls (Pa.) High School, and an Episcopal priest in that town helped Kit obtain a scholarship to Princeton. This priest was probably the inspiration for his future career. Leaving Princeton after sophomore year, he met H. Leigh Davidson in a Beaver Falls church youth group. Facing the military draft, he enlisted in the Navy, where he became a chaplain’s assistant. He then returned to Beaver Falls and graduated from Geneva College there. The next day he married Leigh. 

Challenged by his priest to test his vocation before going to seminary, Kit worked for a time for the Hartford Fire Insurance Co., then enrolled at and graduated from Yale Divinity School. He was one of four classmates who became Episcopal priests. Kit served churches in Pittsburgh, Missouri, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C., before coming to Trinity Church in Princeton. During this period, he renewed ties with classmates and the University. Until Parkinson’s prevented him from holding a Bible steadily, he was the go-to classmate to lead religious services for the class at Reunions and the annual Service of Remembrance. 

Having spent many summers in Southport, Maine, and leading services at All Saints by-the-Sea, Kit and Leigh retired there in 2001. Nonetheless, as his write-up in the 50th-reunion book says, he became uncomfortable with aspects of the Episcopal church and became ecumenical in his beliefs. In hospice he was heard repeating a prayer with the words, “Reach out to others in love.” 

He is survived by his wife, Leigh; three children, Susan, Christopher, and Charles, and their families.