John J. Harmon ’42

John Harmon died Aug. 18, 2010, in Rochester, N.Y., after a fall in his home.

John came to Princeton from Trinity School in New York City. At Princeton he joined Dial Lodge.  

In March 1942 John joined the American Field Service and drove ambulances for the British, first in Egypt and then in Italy and France.   In April 1945, with the British, he entered the Belsen concentration camp and saw the mass graves of thousands of inmates and the pitiable condition of the survivors. For his services he was awarded membership in the Order of the British Empire.

After returning to America, John graduated from the Episcopal Divinity School and was ordained into the Episcopal priesthood.   He was successively rector of St. John’s Church in Roxbury, Mass., associate director of a social justice organization in Boston, and finally director of patient relations in the Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester. During the civil-rights movement and the Vietnam War, John struggled for the rights of marginalized members of society.  

His wife, Nicky, died in 2005. John is survived by his daughters Betsy, Cappy, Sara, and Peggy; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren, to whom the class sends condolences.