Junius Yorke Peeler Jr. ’58

Yorke, known as Buzz at Princeton, died Aug. 25, 2024, in Concord, N.H. He was 89.

He came to Princeton from Mercersburg Academy, was music director of the Tigertones, captain and All-American of the fencing team, a Chapel deacon, and member of the Student Christian Association.

After graduation, he met Lois Ingham at the Union Theological Seminary, and they married in 1961. They moved to Vermont, where Buzz became minister of a parish in Norwich. Ten years later they moved to Beverly, Mass., and in 1979, he became senior minister of Union Church in Upper Montclair, N.J.

Always ready to play a sport or sing a song, Yorke sang his entire life: before every meal, wherever there was a choir, in a quartet he joined in Norwich that endured for 40 years, and at Tigertone reunions each fall in Connecticut through 2022. Soon before a valve replacement in 2007, he bicycled cross country from Seattle to Sharon, Vt.

Ever a teacher, a pastor, a father, a companion, and a friend, he was beloved of many, especially Lois, who died in 2015; his three children Susan (who predeceased him), Steve, and Scott ’84; seven grandchildren; five great grandchildren; and his partner his last eight years, Judy. The class extends its deepest sympathy to them all.