John Hurst Purnell ’41

Hurst died Mar. 11, 1999, of natural causes, in Chestertown, Md. He is survived by Eleanor Clark Gummey Yerkes, whom he married in 1992. Two stepchildren also survive.

He prepped at the Calvert School and Gilman and earned an architectural degree from Princeton, where he belonged to Colonial Club. Before being allowed to enlist in the Navy he worked as an engineer at the Glenn L. Martin Co. After the war he cofounded Property Construction, which built a high reputation for the restoration of 18th-century houses; for many years he was president of the Society for the Preservation of Maryland Antiquities. After his retirement he was assistant headmaster and business director of St. Timothy's School in Stevenson, Md. Hurst served three terms on the Kent County Board of Realtors.

Hurst's first wife, Elizabeth White Dixon, died in 1989. We mourn the passing of this talented and discriminating gentleman.

The Class of 1941