Neil Fremont Lebhar ’35

Neil died at his winter home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., Feb. 11, 2002.

He prepared for Princeton at Blair Academy in Blairstown, N.J., where he played baseball, was in the school band, and was a member of the Literary Society. He also played baseball at Princeton, joined Charter Club, and was a cast member of Triangle Club junior year. What Princeton classmates may remember best about Neil, though, was his determination to become a doctor like his father.

Neil did just that, graduating from Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, followed by a four-year hitch as a flight surgeon in the Army Air Force. In 1945 he opened his first office as a pediatrician in the Westport, Conn., area. "He was the dynamic force behind establishment of the Pediatrics Department at Norwalk [Conn.] Hospital," recalls a colleague. For years he was an assistant pediatrics professor at NYU and taught at Bellevue Hospital.

Neil's first marriage, in 1942, ended with the untimely death of his wife in 1948. Two years later he married B. Eleanor Herbert Finnegan, his partner for the next 52 years. They added three children to Eleanor's son from a previous marriage.

Neil retired in 1985. When he died, he left not only Eleanor and their sons Neil '72, Brett, and Clay Lebhar and Richard Finnegan, but also seven grandchildren, including Sarah G. Lebhar '96, and three great-grandchildren.

The Class of 1935