John Suydam Kuhlthau ’58

John died Sept. 4, 2020, in Princeton. He was 83.

He came to Princeton from Rutgers Preparatory School, where he was active in student government and the yearbook and won many class prizes.

At Princeton he was president of the Wesley Foundation and a member of the Student Christian Association and Orange Key. He majored in classics and was a member of Cloister Inn. He roomed with Dick Ford.

After graduation John attended Drew Theological Seminary, initially intending to enter the Methodist ministry. After a year he transferred to Rutgers Law School, graduating in 1962. He served in the Army and then joined his father’s law firm. John was a public defender, the prosecutor of Middlesex County, and then was appointed to the Superior Court of New Jersey in 1976. He retired in 1997, when he and Carol moved to Princeton.

John was a lifelong member of the United Methodist Church and devoted his life to charitable causes. He was a founding member of the Petey Greene Prisoner Assistance Program at Princeton and the John Suydam Kuhlthau Bioethics Conference at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, devoted to exploration of ethical and spiritual issues in medicine associated with the end of life.

John is survived by his wife of 62 years, Carol; daughters Eleanor, Ann, and Leslie; six grandchildren; and his brother, Kearney. The class extends its deepest sympathy to them all.