Henry Dustin Mirick Jr. ’60

Word of Dustin’s passing in 2016 has belatedly arrived from England, where he spent his postgraduate life. Born and raised in Ardmore, Pa., and namesake of his father, a member of the Class of  ’27, Dustin came to Princeton from St. Paul’s School. Here, he rowed on 150-pound crew, majored in history, and joined Charter Club. Drawn to history as a calling, he went on to Columbia, where he earned a master’s degree in 1962 and began his Ph.D. work in English medieval history. 

He earned a scholarship to King’s College, Cambridge, after which he moved on to teach American history at Hull University, where he completed his Ph.D. He then undertook a self-designed Heritage degree, combining archaeology, history, and Western art and architecture, which became a major element of his subsequent teaching and further scholarship.

Dustin and Kate married in 1973 and raised three daughters. He retired in 1997 and they moved near her family home, an old stone cottage in the Dales region of Yorkshire. Improvements and expansion of the house became his principal retirement pursuit, along with his lifelong study of history. 

Dustin contracted leukemia and struggled with it until his death in 2016. He leaves Kate and their three daughters and families, to whom we send our belated condolences.