Harold L. Colburn Jr. ’47

Harold Colburn died May 1, 2012, in Moorestown, N.J. Hal was one of the elite group of the Class of 1947 perfect dues payers.

He entered Princeton in the summer of 1943 after graduating from Montclair (N.J.) High School. He accelerated through Navy V-12 and left to enter Albany Medical College before graduating. He received his medical degree from Albany in 1949 and in the early ’50s was awarded a Princeton bachelor’s degree in biology.

After serving in the Navy from 1950 to 1952 in Newport, R.I., and Sasebo, Japan, Hal did his residency in dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania. His medical career kept him near his home in Mount Laurel, N.J.

Hal developed the Burlington County Health Department, and from 1971 until 1984 was a Burlington County freeholder. When he was elected to the state assembly he helped institute the New Jersey Urban Hospital Reform Act and also chaired the assembly’s Health and Human Services Committee. This public service led him, in 1995, to the post of director of the state board of medical examiners.

Hal was predeceased by his wife, Jane. He is survived by son Robert (Robin) and daughter Suzanne Bartoli. The class sends gratitude to his family for Hal’s service to his profession and to the people of New Jersey.