James Tolman Pyle ’35

James "Toly" Pyle died Apr. 1, 1998, at Huntington Hospital on Long Island of complications following a stroke. He was 84. Toly was an aviation pioneer and a prominent and popular member of our class.

Born into a Princeton family in Far Hills, N.J., Toly attended Groton School and belonged to Ivy Club. In 1957 he received the Class of '35 award for distinguished accomplishment, and he was a class v.p. in recent years.

Toly learned to fly during college and joined Pan American Airways after graduation. He accumulated over 14,000 hours of flying time and worked in administrative posts before serving during WWII as a transport pilot and air controller with the Navy in the South Pacific. In 1953 he began a distinguished career in aviation administration with the Federal Aviation Agency and was deputy administrator to E. R. Quesada in 1959. He had strong interests in air safety and aircraft noise abatement and was known as a father of modern air-control systems.

ln 1939 Toly married Ann Finlay in Havana, Cuba. Their marriage of 59 years, living in Oyster Bay, Long Island, and Seal Harbor, Maine, resulted in five children and nine grandchildren. As Toly said in '35's 50th-anniversary yearbook, "Ours has been a happy and rewarding life ... with many blessings." The class sends heartfelt condolences to all the family members.