N. Pike Johnson Jr. ’59

Born in Olean, N.Y., “on a snowy Christmas Day in 1937,” Pike left us in midsummer, July 9, 2011.

Pike attended Olean High School before coming to Princeton. Once arrived, he majored in philosophy, joined Key and Seal, excelled at billiards, and was a varsity fencer for three years. He received a law degree from Columbia in 1962, and, following six months of Army life at Fort Dix, immediately set out for Phoenix, Ariz.

Pike plied his legal skills for nine years in private practice. In 1973 he was appointed a judge of the Phoenix City Court, a position he held and enjoyed for 27 years. He married for the first time in 2001, to Connie Kolden, and, savoring the freedom of retirement, they traveled extensively.

Displaying the wry sense of humor for which he was noted and loved, Pike wrote in our 25th-reunion yearbook that he had acquired licenses to scuba, parachute, and fly, but that he used only the first, “having discovered that there are an unacceptable number of idiots in the air.”

Pike is survived by Connie. We have sent condolences.