G. Robert Compton Jr. ’45

Bob Compton died Feb. 3, 1996 at Morristown [N.J.] Memorial Hospital, following a two-year battle with cancer and clinical depression. He was 71.

Bob entered Princeton from Pingry, following his father, George '22, and ahead of his late brother, Ray '49. He roomed with Pingry classmate Mike Morrison, played freshman football, managed the hockey team, and joined Cap and Gown with Lud Ludington and Nels Hubbell. His Princeton career was interrupted in 1944, when he joined the Navy, trained in electronics and served aboard the USS Duluth in the Pacific theater. He took his degree in electrical engineering in 1947, and joined the Landsdale [Pa.] Tube Co. In 1950 he joined McKiernan-Terry Corp. in Dover, N.J., a manufacturer of pile installation and other heavy construction equipment, as a sales trainee; he retired in 1986 as CEO and owner of the fifth successor company in the same location.

Bob was a founding member of the Deep Foundations Institute, an international education organization of engineers, constructors, and academicians, serving as its executive director from his retirement until he became ill.

In 1951 Bob married Jean Hurlbut, whom he met at Gay and Lud Ludington's wedding; they had six children, including two sets of fraternal twins. Bob is survived by Jeannie; their five daughters, Kate Lareau, Susan Pollard, Gail Flynn, Polly Compton, and Robin Campbell; their son, George Robert III (Geordie); and seven grandchildren, to all of whom the class extends its deep sympathy.

The Class of 1945