John Bowlin Routh ’35

A COURAGEOUS determination characterized the two main activities in Jack's post graduate life: serving his country and battling a terminal disease. After graduation from Yale Law School, Jack joined the Army, helped write the first tank gunnery manual, taught instructors at the Armored School how to shoot, and ultimately commanded an armored battalion of 155-mm howitzers. According to a general who served with Jack, "His service had been distinguished up to now. At this point it became valorous. His battalion was attached to the Third Armored Division and took part in some of its deepest and most rapid penetrations of the German positions." Jack earned the rank of colonel and was awarded the Legion of Merit. After the war he served the National War College for two years and the C.I.A. for seven, and then became director of the Asia Foundation.

Twenty-one years ago, after Jack had retired to civilian life as a self-employed investor, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and gradually he had to give up the activities he loved: golf, tennis, gardening, even reading. Until the end he functioned physically and mentally at levels that amazed his doctors. His sense of humor never flagged, and he never lost interest in Princeton, in the activities of his classmates, and in the PAW, which his son-in-law, Chris, read to him regularly.

Jack died Feb. 10, 1990, in Carmel, Calif. A daughter, Mrs. May Moore, and two sons, John Jr. and Stephen, survive him. His wife, Stephanie, died in 1978.