Monford Daniel Custer Jr. ’36

MON DIED of cancer on Thanksgiving day, Nov. 23, 1989. He was born Dec. 5, 1914 in Coshocton, Ohio.

After graduation from Lawrenceville, he majored in biology at Princeton, where he was on the freshman track team and a member of Campus Club. He received his medical degree in 1940 from Columbia Univ. and served a four-year residency in general surgery at the Mayo Clinic. He received his M.S. degree in 1948 from the Univ. of Minnesota. He spent two years in the U.S. Army Medical Corps during WWII and left service as a captain in 1946. Mon was a co-founder in 1956 of the Winchester (Virginia) Surgical Clinic. He retired from surgical practice in 1981.

In 1972 he served for two months in Brazil as a surgical volunteer on the hospital ship Hope. He was honored in 1968 as Citizen of the Year of Winchester. Mon was a member of the American College of Surgeons and was president of both the Lewis P. Gallagher Charitable Foundation and the Virginia Surgical Society. He enjoyed golf, especially at his second home at Hilton Head, S.C. He also liked fishing, traveling and playing bridge.

Mon is survived by his widow Lucy Ellen Lamb Custer, whom he married in 1938, son Monford D. III, M.D., daughters Ellen C. Morgan, Susan C. Sanders, Linda C. Russell, and seven grandchildren. Mon had great devotion to Princeton, his Class, and Lawrenceville. He led a life dedicated to his family, friends, and profession.

The Class of 1936