Edward H. Breisacher ’54

Ed died Dec. 3, 2018, after a long battle with multiple myeloma and dementia.

He prepared at Penn Charter School, where he was active in baseball, publications, and glee club. At Princeton he majored in English and wrote his senior thesis on Lord Byron, was a member of Cannon Club, and participated in Roy Heath’s Advisee Project. He developed a lifelong passion for competitive swimming starting in his freshman year and eventually captained the team in his senior year.

After military service and periods of teaching and study in Germany, he traveled in the Middle East, edited college textbooks, and earned an MBA. Then he co-founded and directed the Darwin Press, which specialized in scholarly works on the Middle East and science. Darwin also published Princeton Retrospectives: Twenty-Fifth-Year Reflections on a College Education, Roy Heath’s report of interviews of members of the Advisee Project and others from the Class of 1954.

Ed was a member of the local club of the U.S. Masters Swimming organization, the Princeton Area Masters workout group, and treasurer of Friends of Princeton Swimming and Diving, and he played a major role in developing support for building the DeNunzio Pool. He remained a competitive swimmer until his last years, achieving All-American status in 2007 in the 50-meter freestyle with the best time in his age group, and top-10 ratings 21 times. He also enjoyed singing in Gilbert and Sullivan productions and the church choir, and breeding golden retrievers.

Ed is survived by his son, Eric.