George E. Ruckersfeldt ’59

George came to Princeton from West Hempstead (N.Y.) High School, where he was senior class president, president of the honor society, and captain of the football team. He matriculated at Princeton, but his heart was elsewhere, and at the end of freshman year or thereabouts he left the green of ivy for the haze gray of the Navy, transferring to the Naval Academy from which he graduated in 1960.

From there he went to flight school, flying the P5M (later SP-5) seaplane and the P-3 Orion on anti-submarine and maritime surveillance missions. He retired from the Navy in 1980 and became part owner of First Coast Calibration, an instrument calibration company in Jacksonville, Fla. He retired from that company in 1998.

George died June 28, 2023. He is survived by his wife, Barbara, whom he married in 1960; son George; daughters Dana, Jill, and Wendy; nine grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.