Contee T. Seely ’61

Contee died Feb. 19, 2026, in Berkeley, Calif.

Born in Asheville, N.C., and raised in Baltimore, he came to us in a large contingent from the Landon School. At Princeton, he majored in philosophy, took his meals at Key and Seal, and was a member of the Bric-a-Brac and the International Students Association. He roomed with Bill Rough, Hal Lackey, Chuck Watson, Russ Tremaine, Dick Webster, Bill Buxton, Rich Palmer, and Bill Radebaugh.

After Princeton, Contee studied at the University of the Pacific to earn a teaching certificate and taught English, Spanish, and ESL, among other languages, in Latin America and the Bay Area, which does not come close to describing his interesting career. He was an influential language educator, author, and publisher at the Command Performance Language Institute, of which he was a founder, at the University of California at Berkeley. He was a “tireless innovator in the language teaching community,” according to his obituary, specializing in Total Physical Response in Storytelling (TPRS).

He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Maggie; children Michael and Christina; two grandchildren; and his brother James ’57.