Hamilton Darby Perry ’46

Darby Perry died from Alzheimer’s disease Dec. 2, 2009, at home in Manhattan. He was 85.

He came to Princeton from the Darrow School, and became associate editor of The Daily Princetonian. During World War II, he spent three years in the Navy on torpedo boats, including at the Normandy invasion (PT-510). He was discharged as a petty officer first class with two battle stars with combat commendations.

Darby began his career in 1949 as a crime reporter with The Florida Times-Union, then moved to New York to write TV commercials. In 1961, he helped found the monthly news magazine USA-1. He became the publisher of American Heritage magazine and retired in 1987 as publisher of The Franklin Library. He wrote numerous magazine articles and six nonfiction books on history and celebrity crime, two of which were selected by major book clubs. He arranged to have the archives of George Braziller Inc. donated to the Department of Rare Books and Special  Collections of the Princeton University Library.

Darby was married first to Margaret Cornelia Watts. They had three children, Cornelia Colson, Doane Ethredge, and James Franklin Perry, who survive him, as do his second wife, Margaret Mounsey Happel, and his stepchild. The class extends them our sincere sympathy.