John W. Carpenter Jr. ’47

John Carpenter died May 8, 2013, in Orange City, Fla.

He was born in Cleveland and attended the University School in Shaker Heights, Ohio, before coming to Princeton. He served in the Navy in the Pacific and was in Tokyo Bay for the Japanese surrender.

Returning to Princeton, John was a member of Cannon Club and earned his degree in economics in 1949. He reconnected with the class at our first Chicago mini-reunion, and came back frequently thereafter.

John’s career involved selling prefab homes. He retired from Wick Building Systems in 1982. He had moved to Walloon Lake, Mich., in 1970 and split his time (when not traveling) between Michigan and Orange City.

His greatest interests were international travel and the Rotary Club. John had visited every continent. As a Rotarian, he worked for world community-service projects, including workshops for children in Peru and clothing for street people in Romania. He taught English in several countries and raised funds for the Rotary Foundation. He received the Service Above Self prize in 2007.

John had proposed the Dalai Lama as a Paul Harris Fellow, and shared the dais with him at a Rotary International meeting in Albuquerque.

The class sends condolences to John’s brother, Noble, and his many nieces and nephews.