Frank R. Bailey Jr. ’48

Frank died Jan. 25, 2014, at home in Grove City, Pa. He was 88. He had a lifelong passion for building boats and sailing them on lakes near Pittsburgh and on Lake Huron.

He came to Princeton from Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh, but after only one term was drafted into the Army, serving in the Philippines and Japan. Returning to campus, he graduated in 1950 with a degree in mechanical engineering.

Frank spent 32 years in management at the Dravo Corp., which he described as “an old, prestigious … firm on an island in the Ohio River involved in river transportation and materials handling.”

After the steel industry in Pittsburgh collapsed, Frank took early retirement, free to turn again to boat building and sailing. The Baileys by then had moved to Grove City, and they wintered regularly in Edgewood, Fla. He founded Toad Hill Boat Co., a small firm in which he attempted “various difficult projects, not necessarily marine.” He also served on the board of the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and managed a small family foundation.

Helena Bailey (née Vuyk) and Frank were married in 1951. She died in 2011. They had three children, Frank R. III, John, and Ann Christina Bailey. Frank’s late brother, John, was in the Class of 1945.