Max D. Habernickel III ’55

Max — known to everyone as Duke — died Jan. 3, 2026, following a stroke, in Plainfield, N.J., while visiting his daughter from his home in Vero Beach, Fla.  

The Reunions jackets with the plaid that Don Altmaier designed were produced by Duke’s family clothing company, Haband. It’s nice to know that some of Duke will continue for as long as there are classmates to wear our distinctive jackets. His working career was in that business, an important manufacturer and seller of comfortable clothes via catalog. He was considered “The Man who Dressed America by Mail.” 

Duke graduated from Montclair Academy. At Princeton, he majored in economics, graduated with honors, joined Dial Lodge, and roomed with Richard Brown. He wrestled freshman year and was active in many IAA sports and bridge. After graduation, he was an officer in the Army stationed at Fort Bliss for missile duty. In our 50th-reunion yearbook he said that the maturity gained in those military years made him think that he would have made much better use of his years at Princeton if he had first served in the Army. 

Subsequently he was involved in many community activities and was an artist, creating sculpture and paintings, and was an avid photographer. Haband Oaks, a perpetually endowed scholarship program that Duke ran for Ramapo College, was for experiential learning. 

Duke is survived by his wife of 67 years, Gael; and their four daughters, Gwenn Hauck, Lisa Baney, Dana Koenig, and Helen Bonzulak. To them we send our thoughts for a life well lived.