L. Eugene Houck ’59

    Gene, a retired DuPont manager, died April 8, 2023, in Corrales, N.M. 

Born on a farm in Carroll County, Md., Gene attended Westminster (Md.) High School, where he excelled in athletics, theater, music, and academics. A starting member of the football team, his aggressiveness was reputed to have caused numerous concussions, and as he aged, they took their toll, causing excess fluid around his brain and eventually his death.

Applying to Princeton despite his guidance counselor’s admonition that he would “never get in,” Gene was the first student from his high school to be accepted by Princeton. To prove the rule, he was followed by his younger brother, Robert ’62, and Robert’s daughter, Victoria ’85. Gene majored in chemistry, ate at Campus Club, sang with the Tigertones, and drilled with Army ROTC. His conventional undergraduate track was interrupted during junior year when he fell in love with his future wife, Patricia Senseney, got approval to marry, and lived off campus his senior year.

Following a two-year honeymoon at Fort Sill, Okla., he left Army life to join E.I. DuPont, where he assumed successive management positions. After several years with DuPont in Delaware and North Carolina, he was sent to Houston, from there moving to New Mexico in retirement.

Gene is survived by his wife, Patricia; children Whitney, Stacey, Alyssa, and Kristen; and many grandchildren. A fifth child, Tim, predeceased him.