Henry Jay Melosh III ’45

Hank Melosh died Dec. 19, 1995, at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, N.J., after a long struggle with leukemia.

Hank entered Princeton from Holderness Academy and became a member of Campus Club. His Princeton career was cut short by service in the Navy in the southwest Pacific as a radar officer aboard a destroyer. The Navy sent him to Cornell, where he earned his bachelor's in 1944, thus unable to add a Princeton degree to the one obtained by his father, Henry J. Melosh '16, and his brother, William '46.

After the war, Hank married Eleanor Frances Wilde, and took a position as an engineer with Babcock and Wilcox Corp. He earned his master's in mechanical engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1953, joined the Foster Wheeler Corp. in Livingston, N.J., as sales manager and retired from that company in 1987. Hank was renowned throughout the power industry for his combination of engineering knowledge and sales skills. Many electric power plants throughout the world owe much of their design and construction to his expertise. After retirement he delighted in planning elaborate fireworks displays for corporate festivities.

Hank is survived by Eleanor, with whom he had celebrated his 50th anniversary prior to his death. He is also survived by his son, Henry Jay Melosh IV '69, his daughter, Frances Gilfoyle, his brother, Robert, and his sister, Susan Cronyn, and by six grandchildren, to all of whom the class extends its deep sympathy.

The Class of 1945