John Winter Gartner ’27

AFTER A BRIEF ILLNESS, John died Mar, 3, 1992, at the Cheshire Medical Center in Keene, N.H., not far from his retirement home in Fitzwilliam. After a year of teaching at the Princeton Country Day School, he began 42 years as master of French and Spanish at the Lawrenceville School. At Princeton he played on the varsity lacrosse team. His prowess in basketball made him a natural choice for coach of Lawrenceville's varsity basketball team, from 1928 to 1953, a service of truly historic length.

At Lawrenceville he was also master of Thomas House, from 1929 to 1933, and chairman of the French and Spanish departments. He served as director of the summer semester, chairman of financial aid, and head of the discipline committee. From 1938 to 1947, he was a member of the Lawrence Township School Board, and in 1942 was elected president. During WWII John worked for the local ration board. He and his family attended the Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church. He loved to travel in France as often as possible. At Princeton he was on the advisory council for romance languages and literature, and he served on the College Board French Examiners Committee, from 1949 to 1962.

John's many friends will miss his cheerful disposition and quickly flashing smile.

In 1933 John married Mary Blackwell (deceased) an alumna of Marot Junior College. They had four children: Barbara Parker, Wendy Roland, John W. Jr., and Sandra Carter; 11 grandchildrren and 14 great-grandchildren. To this dynamic family, John's Class sends its sympathy and its more than merely formal sense of great loss.

The Class of 1927