Jack D.B. Coleman ’66

Jack died Jan. 28, 2024.

Born in London, England, in 1937, Jack immigrated with his family to the United States in 1948. He graduated from the South Kent (Conn.) School, where he played football, rowed crew, and captained the hockey team.

He entered Princeton with the Class of ’60 and took a leave in 1958, during which he volunteered on Mackinac Island, served for four years as an Army medic, and toured Europe by bicycle. He returned to Princeton in 1965 and graduated with our class.

He earned a master’s degree in teaching from Harvard, where he met his wife, Roxanne. They lived for several years in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland and later in Alaska. He earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Massachusetts in 1975, before settling in Philadelphia.

Jack taught history at Philadelphia’s William Penn Charter School for 26 years before retiring in 2006. He is remembered by colleagues and students for his bagpipe-playing, requiring pushups of late arrivals, and firing a miniature cannon to start exams.

Jack is survived by daughters Elizabeth and Hannah, and brother Francis, to whom the class sends its heartfelt condolences.