James M. Hitzrot II ’50

Jim died Dec. 20, 2017, in Bedford, Mass.

He prepared for Princeton at Mercersburg Academy. At Princeton, where his father was in the Class of 1920, he belonged to Dial and earned high honors in biology. A 150-pound crew letterman, Jim rowed in the first post-war United States boat at Henley, winning the Thames Challenge Cup in 1948.

He earned a medical degree from Harvard Medical School, then interned at Johns Hopkins. He fulfilled his service requirement with the U.S. Health Service, which provided public-health service in the Southwest, mostly among the Navajos. He returned to Johns Hopkins for his residency in orthopedic surgery. Following a year of research in England, he started his surgical practice in Baltimore, where he was chief of orthopedics at Church Home and Hospital from 1970 until 1990, when he retired.

Soon after retirement, he found a calling for the preservation of historical maps and papers at the Towson (Md.) Public Library. In 2005 he moved to a retirement village in Bedford with his wife, Bobbie, whom he married in 1955.

Jim was always active. He played tennis, skied, gardened, hiked, and traveled. He cherished the summers spent with family at their cottage by New York’s Lake George.

He is survived by his wife, Bobbie; daughters Sandy, Ellie, Kathy, and Ann; and five grandchildren.