James Haviland Tompkins ’45 *47

Tommy Tompkins died Oct. 19, 1995, at Morristown [N.J.] Memorial Hospital. Tommy, who was born in South Orange, N.J., entered Princeton from Montclair Academy, played both freshman and varsity golf, and was a member of Elm Club. He took his BS in aeronautical engineering cum laude in 1944, then served in the Navy during WWII as a lt. jg, returning to Princeton after the war to obtain his graduate degree in aeronautical engineering in 1947. In 1945 he married the former Mary Doggett.

Tommy got his first job along with classmate Bart Bumsted at Reaction Motors in Rockaway, N.J., testing rocket engines. He then worked at SmoothOn, Inc., a manufacturer of paint resins. Tommy at his death was chairman and CEO of SmoothOn. Tommy and Mary resided in Chatham, N.J., until 1970, when they moved to Mendham, where they resided until his death. As an avid golfer, he was a president of the Morris County Golf Club and as a sailor was a longtime member of the Wilson Cove Yacht Club in Norwalk, Conn., where one of his daughters lived. Tommy built and flew radio-controlled model airplanes.

In addition to Mary, Tommy is survived by three daughters, Lynne Ward, Elizabeth Abbey, Deborah Bianco, two sisters, Eleanor Poland and Carol Selvage, and seven grandchildren, to all of whom the class expresses its deep sympathy.

The Class of 1945