Henry Morgenthau III ’39

Our elder statesman, oldest poet, and one of our few published autobiographers died July 11, 2018, at the age of 101.

In his 1991 book, Mostly Morgenthaus, he devoted a chapter to “Princeton, a Painful Awakening.” In our 40th-reunion book, he had already shared this mature and magnanimous realization about being the son of the Jewish secretary of the treasury under President Franklin D. Roosevelt: “That much of what I thought I wanted and couldn’t have while I was at Princeton was not what I would come to place much value on in the long term.” His contribution to our 50th-reunion book is another masterpiece of reconciliation with his Princeton experience. It ends, “And for this, we can be truly grateful.”

Henry’s distinguished career in public television with WGBH of Boston is well known. His mini-series, “South African Essay,” won a Peabody Award. A captain in World War II, he earned a Bronze Star in the European Theater. At home, he served in the “kitchen cabinet” of his wife, Ruth, an adviser to three presidents. Outside the home he devoted time and talent to the performing arts, community service, and Judaism.

We will remember the poems of his 99th year, A Sunday in Purgatory, which he called “a celebration of the evening of life [where] I am enlivened with thoughts that I can’t take with me.” And we will remember how at the end of walking the whole P-rade at our 75th reunion he stood in front of the reviewing stand while President Eisgruber ’83 led the locomotive cheer that concluded, “Henry Morgenthau, Henry Morgenthau, Henry Morgenthau!”

The class extends its sympathy and admiration to his three children and six grandchildren.