Ned died June 9, 2005, at his home in New York after a long illness.
He came to Princeton via Hackley School and Lawrenceville. Majoring in English, he graduated with high honors and also with high honors in the Divisional Program in the Humanities. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, he also was a Lyman Biddle Senior Scholar.
Ned was on the freshman football team, won the class tennis championship sophomore and senior years, was editor of the Nassau Sovereign, chairman of the Undergraduate Dance Committee, and a member of Elm Club. After graduation, Ned taught at Stanford University before entering the Navy in 1942. He was discharged at the end of the war as a lieutenant.
Following his Navy service, Ned began a distinguished career as an editor and writer, first at Hyperion Press, then at The New Yorker, and then as editor-in-chief of New American Library. Next he became vice president of G.P. Putnam's and Berkley Books before moving to The New York Times as vice president and editor-in-chief of Times Books, and lastly as senior editor at Scribner/Macmillan.
He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Ethelyn Atha Chase; his sons, Edward T. and Cornelius "Chevy" Chase; two daughters, Cynthia Chase Culler '75 (the first woman valedictorian at Princeton) and Daphne Rowe; and nine grandchildren.
The Class of 1941