Eric Kocher ’32

Eric died Jan. 2, 1999, from heart failure at his home on Long Island's North Shore. He had a distinguished career as a Foreign Service officer, playwright, and author.

After Princeton Eric earned an ABA at Harvard Business School, then worked for government agencies. In 1939 he entered Yale Drama School to study playwriting. This activity was interrupted by WWII; he was drafted. He became a labor officer supervising civilian labor in France, Belgium, and Germany, retiring as a major. In 1945 he joined UNRRA as director of three displaced-persons camps in Austria and was instrumental in reuniting families separated during the war. He then joined the Foreign Service and spent 22 years in Belgium, Malaya, Singapore, and Jordan.

Next, Eric spent nine years as associate dean of Columbia U. School of Intl. Affairs. He wrote his memoirs and a book on international job-hunting and employment. With the proceeds from that book he established an annual prize at Connecticut's Eugene O'Neill Theater Center for the most original, interesting play. In 1957 he received an award for the most original play from the American Theater Wing.

In 1947 Eric married Margaret, who survives him, along with their children, Eric Glenn, Terry, Christopher, and Debra, seven grandchildren, and a sister, Mildred Kocher Crowley. To all of them the class expresses its sympathy in our mutual loss.

The Class of 1932