Michael D. Debevec ’73

Michael Debevec died suddenly Dec. 30, 2012, of a heart attack.

At Princeton he was a member of the Triangle Club tech crew and played clarinet in the marching band. The band’s 75th-anniversary celebration was a perfect day. Bunny hop into the Fountain of Freedom, priceless!

He taught science for a total of 10 years at Pascack Valley High School in Hillsdale, N.J., and in Sierra Leone as a Peace Corps volunteer. The Peace Corps altered the course of his life and inspired a love of spicy food, an anomaly in his hometown of Cleveland in the 1960s.

Ron Fondiller arranged an interview for Michael at Colgate-Palmolive in 1985. Mike left Colgate five years later, went to Unilever, and then to SAP America.

Consulting for SAP allowed him to teach willing students and be respected and well paid. He became the go-to guy for pricing and variant configuration as well as a technical adviser for CRM Expert. In 2004, Colgate sought Michael’s services and Debevec Consulting was born.

Michael spent 10 years on the Princeton Schools Committee in Bergen County, N.J., seven as chair.

Michael was kind, generous, and forever curious. After 32 years he still bought his wife, Aleta, flowers “just because my honey should have flowers.”