Kenneth G. Petzinger ’63

Ken died Aug. 26, 2025, in Williamsburg, Va.

He came to Princeton from Eastern Christian High School in North Haledon, N.J. He majored in physics, was a member of the Woodrow Wilson Society, and served as treasurer and then secretary of the Princeton Evangelical Fellowship (now known as the Princeton Christian Fellowship).

Ken earned a master’s degree from Columbia in 1965 and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971. In 1968, he married Mary Vander Weit, whom he had known in high school. They had three children. Ken retired in 2008 but continued to teach as professor emeritus. He taught physics at William & Mary for 36 years.

Ken served on Williamsburg Community Chapel’s prayer team, its group Bible studies, and as a Sunday School teacher and prison minister. He wrote of his experience in our 50th-reunion yearbook: “I still remember the disquieting sound of heavy steel doors as they first clanged shut behind me. I spent 25 years as a volunteer in a local jail ministry and still maintain contact with a number of former inmates. … Arrival at Princeton initiated two tracks in my life, both of which have formed who I am today,” he wrote. “The first was an academic scientific track, specifically begun by the choice of a physics major. The second was a spiritual track, begun by my conversion to Christ, which has intertwined the science to this day.”

Ken is survived by his wife of 57 years, Mary; children Karen Crayosky, Amy Hansen, and Steve; and three grandchildren.