Joseph Rollin Otto Jr. ’55

Rolly was an active participant in the floating penny-ante poker games embraced by the 10 seniors clustered in the fourth entry of Oughty-One. He died June 5, 2022, an unstinting family man and respected endocrinologist in Towson, Md.

Rolly was born March 7, 1932, in Baltimore, attended Calvert School, and graduated from Gilman. At Princeton, he majored in biology and joined Court Club. Immediately after graduation he married his high school sweetheart, Lucy Fallon. Spencer Nauman, the last surviving member of the Fourth Entry Ten, remembers that the group’s traditional wedding present was to pay the groom’s phone bill.

After Princeton and marriage Rolly attended the Medical School of the University of Maryland, then practiced medicine until 1964. Rolly and Lucy were inseparable. She read him his medical school textbooks because she could read out loud faster than he could read to himself. They grocery shopped together, folded laundry together, made their bed together, and read and discussed TV shows’ medical mysteries together. They traveled together to Florida to watch spring training of their beloved Orioles and kept statistics on the team.

Rolly was named Boppy by his oldest grandson, Seth, and the name stuck. The Bop was a man of order and predictability, loving nothing more than a plan. He packed for a trip with a spreadsheet in hand and kept more spreadsheets concerning appointments and yard maintenance, weight, and blood pressure. He was also an avid badminton, croquet, and pingpong player. He was a card shark, not sparing his grandchildren, and was relentless in Parcheesi. 

Rolly was predeceased by Lucy. He is survived by children Susan Gilbert, Joseph Jr., and Helen Tuten; grandchildren Seth, Devin, Nicholas, Gabriella, Madelyn, Caleb, Abiwren, and William; and great-grandson Liam.