John M. Sanborne ’47

John Sanborne died June 5, 2011, in Scottsdale, Ariz.

John went directly from high school in Hackensack, N.J., into the Army infantry, serving in the European theater and returning home after receiving a Purple Heart.

At Princeton he roomed with Ted Stanley ’49, whom he had met while in the Army. His degree in electrical engineering was awarded in 1949, with our class’s largest graduating group.

John met his future wife, Anne Beaumont, at the Newark (Ohio) train station, where he was going east to a Princeton-Yale game and she was going west to college at Denison. He and Anne were married in 1952 and lived in Arizona since 1955, where they raised their three children, Chris, David, and Jill. An active family of outdoors people, they spent their summer vacations hiking in the Mammoth Lakes area of the Sierras.

John’s 17-year career at Motorola was interrupted when he founded Mountain West Alarm Supply Co. After five productive years with this direct-mail catalog business, he sold it and returned to Motorola.

When the class had its 1993 Phoenix mini-reunion, John was on the planning committee. He and Anne also kept up a friendship with Ace and Cheri Bushnell and Barbara Leonard.

The class sends its condolences to Anne, their children, and five grandchildren.