Gordon Atkins ’30

Gordon Atkins died Nov. 24, 1998, in his home in Naperville, Ill., where he had lived since 1978. He was 91.

Born in Springfield, Mass., he prepared for Princeton at the Brooklyn Technical H.S.

At Princeton, Gordon roomed with Ben Hedges and Wally Reeves. He graduated with honors in economics and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. While he was teaching in the Brooklyn high schools, he earned his MA and PhD in history at Columbia. He married Helen D. Warrick in 1938.

Thrilled with the championship football team in his freshman year and the great teams of the Crisler era, he attended most of the games at Princeton for many decades.

In 1953, as the freshman class of the newly opened East Meadow H.S. in Long Island started, Gordon joined its staff and served as chairman of its rapidly growing social studies department. He retired in 1973 and thereafter devoted his time to his home, gardening, studying the activities of the NY Stock Exchange, touring the US, Canada, and Europe, and cruising in the Atlantic and the Caribbean.

He is survived by his daughter, Jean. The class extends its deepest sympathy to his family.

The Class of 1930