Francis C. Edmonds III ’64

Francis died Jan. 19, 2023, in Berlin, Germany, where he had been living since 1971.

Francis graduated from Friends Academy in Locust Valley, N.Y., and followed his father, Francis II ’40, and maternal grandfather, Donald Barnhouse 1919, to Princeton, where he majored in mathematics, was a member of the Wilson Society and the Evangelical Fellowship, and in Glee Club. Francis was also active in Der Deutsche Verein, an organization providing for the intellectual, cultural, and social life of those of German ancestry. In college, he became interested in the Sturm und Drang period, a late 18th-century German literary movement focusing on works filled with rousing action and high emotionalism.

In 1967, Francis earned an M.S. in mathematics from Cornell, taught for a few years, and then moved to Berlin. Working for IBM Germany, he was responsible for ensuring its programs were being adequately analyzed and tested before release.

In 1994, he exchanged American for German citizenship and began work as a technical translator, a choice necessitated by age discrimination in Germany. Unhappy with mandatory retirement laws, he joined the Freedom Democratic Party (FDP) and became a committed campaigner against age discrimination, convinced that people, whatever their age, could make an important contribution in their working life and afterward.

To his sister, Ruth Naylor, and other relatives, the class offers its condolences.