Joseph Prendergast ’27

JOE PRENDERGAS1, 88, died of cancer at Loudoun Memorial Hospital, Leesburg, Va., Nov. 25, 1992. He lived at Oak Hill in Aldie, Va., in a house designed by Thomas Jefferson and occupied by James Monroe when he wrote the Monroe Doctrine.

Born in Chicago, Joe came to us from Exeter Academy. He was our Class president for four years, served on innumerable Class committees, was president of Cap and Gown Club, and was a star halfback ("Five Yard Prendergast") on the 1925 and 1926 football teams. After graduation from Princeton, he studied law at Baliol College, Oxford Univ., on a scholarship.

In 1935, he was named assistant U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York, later holding top jobs in the Dept. of Justice in Washington. Enlisting in the U.S. Army as a private in 1942, he rose to the rank of major, was wounded and taken prisoner by the Germans near the Rhine, escaped, recovered, and received numerous combat decorations.

After WWII, he became executive director of the National Recreation and Parks Assn. in N.Y.C. In 1969 he was named executive director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. His charitable and educational directorships were too numerous to mention here.

Joe retired in 1977. His first wife, the former Amalya Sartorelli, was sister of "Fish" Crawford's first wife, Helene. Amalya died in 1969. Joe is survived by his widow, Eugenic, and three stepchildren.

The Class's sympathy extends to them in the loss of one of our most distinguished, respected, and beloved classmates.

The Class of 1927