James Chapman Gieske ’61

Jim died Aug. 10, 2023, at the University of Maryland Shore Medical Center (formerly Memorial Hospital) in Easton, Md., where he had worked for many years.

The son of Edward Gieske ’29 and born in Baltimore, Jim came to us from Gilman School. At Princeton, he majored in biology, was in the Savoyards and the Pre-Med Society, and took his meals at Charter. He roomed with Skip Kestler and Gilman classmates Gus Lewis, Bill Woodward, and Warren Hills.

Following Princeton, Jim earned a medical degree at Johns Hopkins, where he met and married fellow student Judith Porter. After training in Boston, he joined the Navy and served as a medical officer at sea on a spy ship during the Vietnam War.

In 1973, he moved to Easton, where he was preceded by four generations of Chapmans, and he opened a pediatric thoracic surgical practice while Judi practiced pediatrics. He was a co-founder of the Delmarva Foundation for Medical Care (now Qlarant). In retirement he and Judi traveled widely in the Caribbean (a two-year sailing trip), and visited the Arctic and Antarctica, the Galapagos, and the canals of France by barge.

Jim is survived by Judi; sons Chapman, Hardy, and Porter; and four grandchildren.