John L. Weinburg ’47

John, who died Aug. 8, 2006, is now a brilliant star in our fabulous constellation of departed classmates.

After combat service as a Marine in the Pacific theater, he rejoined Princeton in 1946, went on to Harvard Business School, and then followed in his illustrious father’s footsteps by joining Goldman Sachs.

He married Sue Ann Gotshal in 1952 and again served as a Marine, this time in Korea.

John’s Goldman Sachs career was marked by extraordinary professional acumen and intense loyalty, both to clients and his firm, which he managed from 1976 to 1990. A full-page New York Times obituary justifies The Economist’s opinion that John was “the foremost banker of the last half century.”

John was also an unpretentious guy who “wore suits off the rack” and “socks that hung too low,” according to his colleague, ex-Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, who said: “He never thought about reward for himself.”

John also rendered extraordinary service to many charitable and educational institutions. He was honorary chairman of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware and a Princeton trustee, an honor that, as he told his classmates, he truly cherished. At Princeton, he endowed a chair in economics and business policy.

We celebrate his extraordinary legacy and send our sympathy to Sue Ann and the children.