Lawrence V. Worthington ’42

Lawrence Valentine "Val" Worthington died Feb. 10, 1995, of a heart attack, at his home in the Bahamas. A world-class oceanographer, he had spent his entire career with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He started there as a seagoing technician, after leaving Princeton in the middle of junior year. He became a research associate in 1950, a physical oceanographer in 1958, and a senior scientist in 1963. His greatest interest was the effect of climatic fluctuations on the Atlantic.

Val attended Westminster School in England, before coming to Princeton. He left in Apr. 1941 to engage in antisubmarine warfare work at Woods Hole. Continuing in this field, during a three-year enlistment in the Navy, he returned to the Institute in 1946. His wife, Ruth, whom he married in 1952, died in 1986.

Bill Burwell, who ushered at Val's funeral in Woods Hole, reported that Val and Dick Swinnerton had organized the first cricket team at Princeton, during his undergraduate years. He loved Princeton and found the 50th reunion warm and rewarding, entertaining classmates with his witty stories. He was a wildlife enthusiast, an avid fisherman, and a wit with an inexhaustible supply of quips and quotes.

To his daughter, Jill; his son, Lawrence Jr.; and his four grandchildren, the class extends its most heartfelt sympathies.