James Kraft ’57

Jim led a life lived to the fullest — lived around his passion, enjoying and understanding the arts and leading others to do the same. He studied, taught, consulted, created, collected books and prints and gave them away, and helped others enter their professions. He spoke, exercising a refined intellect abetted by sensitivity and acute social and personal intuition, gregariousness, and quiet humor. He loved his family, friends, Princeton classmates, students, and his Norfolk terriers that accompanied him everywhere.

At Princeton, he was a member of Cap & Gown, president of the Glee Club, and secretary of Theatre Intime.

After Princeton, Jim became a fellow at Cambridge and earned a Ph.D. in English at Fordham. He taught at three major universities. He spent seven years at the National Endowment of the Arts, and was dean of the New School for Social Research for one year. He consulted with Henry Bessire’s arts fundraising firm, the Whitney Museum, and the Manhattan School of Music. He wrote on Henry James, his specialty; and the poet Witter Bynner. He wrote two books of poetry clearly in his own voice.

Jim lived in Manhattan, the village of Old Chatham, N.Y., and the Berkshires. He died Oct. 18, 2022. He is survived by two children, Brooks Kraft and Elizabeth Jones, of a marriage of 22 years; four grandchildren; and a longtime companion.