Frederick Robert Korf ’42

Fred prepared for college at Riverdale Country School in New York City.

At Princeton he was president of Theatre Intime and the German Club. Fred joined Key and Seal and majored in psychology,

During senior year he signed up with the Marines. Following training at Quantico, Va., he received an officer’s commission and was assigned to anti-aircraft. He served in an anti-aircraft battalion on Tinian Island in the Marianas, home base of many B-29s, including the Enola Gay.  

After his discharge at the end of the war, Fred completed a doctoral degree at Columbia University. For 17 years he taught statistics and measurement at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon and left only when artillery shells crashing into his building showed him that working there had become too dangerous. He moved to Alliant International University in San Diego, where he became legendary as a professor of statistics. A colleague said, “Fred could keep students on the edge of their seats with a piece of chalk, a wry sense of humor, and an unsurpassed feel for numbers.”

To Fred’s wife, Ann Marie; daughters Judith Bertman and Lisa Korf; son Geoffrey; and his grandchildren, the class sends its sympathy.