Gerald Preston Dagenhardt ’61

Gerry died Jan. 27, 2010, at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.  

Born in Winston-Salem, N.C., he came to Princeton from Anniston (Ala.) High School. At Princeton he majored in history and wrote his thesis on “Saint-Evremond and the Social Ethic of the French Nobility,” which won him the Walter Phelps Hall Prize in European history. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated magna cum laude. After Princeton, Gerry went on to Harvard to earn a master’s degree in French history.

About his academic career, we know that Gerry studied further in Paris, taught in Canada, and may have taught at Kent State University as well as in a prep school in Northern Virginia, but little else. In our 15th-reunion yearbook he indicated he was living in Brookline, Mass., and in the 25th yearbook it was Arlington, Va. We also know that he returned to the Winston-Salem area in recent years to care for his mother.  

He is survived by his mother, Louise; his sister, Carol; a niece; and a great-nephew. We send them our condolences and wish that we had seen more of Gerry over the years.