Colgate S. Prentice *51

Colgate Prentice, who held high-level positions with the United States Congress and the State Department, died July 28, 2016. He was 92.

Prentice served in the Pacific in World War II with the Army as a gunner on a B-29. He then graduated from Swarthmore in 1949. In 1951, he earned an M.P.A. degree from Princeton’s Wilson School. That year he began his long career in Washington, D.C. He worked for Sen. H. Alexander Smith 1901 of New Jersey, Sen. John Sherman Cooper of Kentucky, and Rep. Peter H.B. Freylinghuysen ’38 of New Jersey.

For two years, he was an executive assistant to Vice President Richard M. Nixon. He held several key positions in the State Department, including deputy assistant secretary for Congressional relations from 1969 to 1973. Prentice retired from government in 1980.

In later years, Prentice moved to the Medford Leas retirement community in New Jersey after his wife developed dementia. He showed her great devotion, rarely leaving her side, which made him beloved by staff and residents.

Prentice was predeceased by his wife, Pamela, whom he had married in 1950. He is survived by three children; seven grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; and his long-term companion, Jean Henderson.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.