Lunsford Richardson Preyer ’41

The Honorable L. Richardson Preyer died Apr. 3, 2001. A lifelong resident of Greensboro, N.C., he graduated from Woodberry Forest.

At Princeton, Rich majored in English, was on the 150-lb football team, the golf team, and was vice president of Tower.

During WWII, he served four years as gunnery officer and executive officer on the destroyer Duty in the Atlantic and Pacific, earning the Bronze Star for action at Okinawa.

After Harvard Law School, he became a Greensboro City judge, then a North Carolina Superior Court judge, before he was appointed federal judge of the Middle District Court.

Elected to Congress in 1968, Rich served six terms, including chairing the Select Committee on Ethics, and the Committee on Assassination of Pres. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Again in Greensboro, he involved himself in community life, serving on and chairing countless civil and charitable organizations. The Greensboro Federal Courthouse and Post Office are named in his honor, the L. Richardson Preyer Federal Building.

He was preceded in death recently by his wife of 53 years, Emily Harris Preyer, and his brother William Yost Preyer Jr.

He is survived by his sons, Richardson Jr. '70 and Britt; daughters Mary Norris, Emily '81, and Jane; three brothers and 12 grandchildren.

The Class of 1941