Coleman died Aug. 3, 2004, of kidney cancer and a stroke.
He was born in Columbus, Ohio, and grew up in Mason City, Iowa. At Princeton he roomed with Bill Bradley, John Garber, Bill Kingston, and Bruce McMillen. He earned a law degree at Yale in 1968, worked at the Department of Justice, and served four years with the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps, including teaching at the Naval Justice School in Newport, R.I. Coleman then became Henry Kissinger's personal assistant, leaving shortly before the Watergate break-in for a partnership at Covington & Burling, where he worked from 1972 to 1979 and from 1981 to 1995. From 1979 to 1981 he was general counsel of the Navy under President Carter.
In 1995 he moved to Boston as an executive at Oak Industries, a maker of telecommunications equipment. He was active in pro bono work while in private practice, including teaching at Howard University.
He is survived by his wife of 36 years, Jutta Bielefeldt Hicks; daughter Toni '94; son Christian '97; his father, Jack W. Hicks; and brother James. To them, the class extends heartfelt sympathy and condolences on the loss of this remarkable lawyer and public servant — a Princetonian's Princetonian, who also did not take himself too seriously but provided serious value to all who worked with him and knew him.
The Class of 1965