John Brackett Hersey ’34

BRACKETi HERSEY, one of the nation's leading oceanographers, died Nov. 4, 1992, after a long series of hospitalizations for multiple illnesses. He was a winner, during WWII, of the Navy's Individual Citation Medal and, in 1970, of its Distinguished Civilian Service Award. A Ph.D. in physics and geology, he spent 20 years at the Wood's Hole (Mass.) Oceanographic Inst., where his particular interest was research in submarine geophysics. He was at the Office of Naval Research in Washington for 13 years, before semiretiring in 1979. In 1961 he was pictured in TIME magazine for his leadership of an expedition to the Puerto Rico trench. The next year he was featured in an NBC documentary on oceanography, and in 1964 he gave a well received talk at one of our N.Y.C. Class dinners. In 1975 he won our Outstanding Achievement Award.

Surviving Brackett are his wife of 46 years, Sally (Magowan) (Vassar '37); a son, Cyrus; a daughter, Joslyn; and a granddaughter, Joslyn C. Bender. To them we offer our sincere sympathies.

The Class of 1934