Marcus Perrin Knowlton ’51 *58

Born in the Boston area, Marc graduated from Hotchkiss. At Princeton he majored in aeronautical engineering and was active in the Flying Club, World Federalists Club, and the Institute of Aeronautical Science. He was a member of Tiger Inn, and his roommates included classmates Farrell Bushing and Ralph Condit. 

Upon graduation he remained at Princeton to earn a master’s degree and work for the Department of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering as a lecturer and research associate at its Forrestal facility that specialized in the study of hovercraft vehicles. 

In 1958 Marc married Meredith “Merry” McLaughlin, a Bryn Mawr graduate who was the daughter of Roland McLaughlin, dean of the School of Architecture. Marc and Merry bought an old farmhouse on a 100-acre property along the D&R canal and they were very much a “faculty couple,” their home serving as a social center for students and friends. They traveled widely and were active on the local tennis circuit as well as in several community organizations. They also built a vacation cottage amid a colony of Princetonians on the Caribbean island of Culebra and, on Marc’s retirement, they moved to a family home in Newagen, Maine. Marc died there March 20, 2020.