John S. Gelblum ’74

John died March 4, 2022, in Kanazawa, Japan, where he had resided continuously since graduation. 

Initially, a one-year teaching position through the Princeton in Asia program brought John to Japan. Once there, his great interest in languages caused him to remain in Kanazawa, where he was a professor at a local university for almost 40 years. In addition, John started his own business for translating medical texts from Japanese to English, thereby combining his two main academic interests, languages and medicine. He remained active with his translation practice up until his passing. In addition, he served on the editorial board of a nuclear medicine journal based in Japan (the first non-doctor to do so). 

At Princeton, John majored in comparative literature and Germanic studies and spent his junior year at the University of Vienna. To further improve his fluency in German, John spent an additional year studying at the University of Vienna, delaying his graduation by a year after having originally at Princeton with the Class of 1973. 

John is survived by his brothers Robert and Michael ’82.