A. Edward Conover ’21

A. Edward Conover, an engineer and a poet, died Dec. 4, 1995, at the Friends Village home in Newtown, Penn., where he had been living since 1981.

Ed maintained a lifelong interest in Princeton and was secretary and treasurer of the class for many years. As an undergraduate, he prepared for a career in engineering, was on the track team, and won a Phi Beta Kappa key. He then took a year of mechanical engineering at Columbia Univ. He married Margaret Gabel (Smith College). They had two children.

Ed first worked with the Central Foundry Co. and then spent 34 rewarding years with HewittRobins, a plant-design company. He was both an engineer and a salesman, and was a composite executive. One of his chief engineering achievements was the design of two huge "shake-outs," handling 100 tons of steel for Sherman tank bodies during WWII. He was also a longtime member of the executive committee of the Princeton Engineering Assn.

Upon retirement, Ed took consulting assignments, including a memorable one in the Atacana desert of Chile. At age 88, he developed a latent poetic streak and produced four chapbooks of poems. Ed is survived by his daughter, Joyce Sutherland, his son, Gerret B., six grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

The Class of 1921