John G. Lauff ’51

Jack was born Oct. 14, 1929, in Milan, Mich., the son of John and Mary Klein Lauff.

He attended the University of Michigan for a year prior to coming to Princeton. Jack was an economics major and active in Orange Key, Whig-Clio, and the band. He was a member of Cloister Inn, NROTC, and Catholic Club and roomed with Bill Brinckerhoff.

Jack was a Naval officer in the Atlantic and Mediterranean for three years before going to work for an advertising agency in New York. His promising potential was cut short when he developed behavioral abnormalities in his late 20s, which now are recognized as characteristic of bipolar disease. He spent much of his adult life in California in
a dysfunctional family and returned to Michigan after the death of his wife and adult son. He moved to a senior home in Greenville in 2002 and then relocated in 2011 to the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans, where he died April 6, 2011, of
cardiac arrest.

Jack is survived by his brother, George. His brothers Bernard and Raymond and his sisters Catherine, Mary, and Justina predeceased him. Jack’s ashes were buried at sea, as were those of his son, Johnny.