Jess Roffe Wike II ’48

Jess Wike died on Sept. 10, 2001, at his home in Berwyn, Pa., of liver cancer.

After earning an MA and PhD from Penn, and teaching at the Wharton School from 1955-62, Jess spent his professional life as an investment counselor at Cooke and Bisler, Inc. He became senior partner, and when he retired in 1993, he was CEO. He served for 40 years on the board of West Pharmaceuticals.

Jess served on the boards of many cultural and educational institutions including the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Curtis Institute of Music, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and was associated with the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

A native of Roaring Spring, Pa., he came to us from the Episcopal Academy at Overbrook. At Princeton he was in SPIA, graduating with honors, and was in Quadrangle.

In the mid-1960s, Jess met, courted, and married his British-born bride, Penelope. "After 36 years of carefully developed hedonism, I am happily settled in a family life," he wrote in 1973.

To Penelope and their four children, Timothy, David, Mark, and daughter Zara Tuglu, the class shares their profound loss. Jess was a loyal and enthusiastic classmate.

The Class of 1948