David K. Reeves ’48

Our doughty class secretary suffered a debilitating stroke in early September and died Nov. 23, 2012, in Princeton, his home since 1945. He was 86.

David was a native of Baltimore. Before college, he attended Gilman and Canterbury schools and served in the Army Air Corps. A history major and a member of Colonial, he graduated in 1949.

A devout Roman Catholic with a strong social conscience, David lived his faith in his business career and in volunteering. He was marketing director for the publisher Sheed & Ward for 18 years, and later development director for the bioethics-research program of the Hastings Center.

As class secretary since our 25th reunion, David was the leading influence in bringing ’48 together as a coherent class. (That couldn’t happen in our decade-long undergraduate years after World War II.) David strengthened and supported ’48 and Princeton in other, unpublicized ways. He successfully established at Reunions an alcohol-free gathering place, open to all alumni, for example.

His favorite recreation in his active years was beagling — in New Jersey and in the Cotswolds in England.

David’s second wife, Clara Grossman, predeceased him. His survivors include his first wife, Anne Reeves; his brother, Charles Jr. ’45; daughter Emily Reeves; sons Samuel, Charles, and Cornelius; and five granddaughters. We honor David for his good works, and especially for his devotion and service to ’48.