Nicolas A. Clifford ’82

Nick spread warmth, wit, and stimulating conversation everywhere a train or a bicycle could take him. During college, he worked for Amtrak in the summers, and he regularly stopped by the Dinky station on his way to class from Princeton Inn College to check for new train schedules, which he memorized immediately and in full.

An iconoclast possessed of both intellect and humor, Nick had an exuberance about food, wine, travel, politics, and art in its many forms. He made friends wherever he went, and he went everywhere.

Nick grew up in Greenwich Village and England, majored in economics, and studied in Paris during college; he then earned an MBA at Wharton, specializing in transportation management. By 1986, he was living in Paris full time, where he co-founded the Blue Marble Travel company, offering bicycle tours throughout Europe. Nick and his family traveled extensively, taking advantage of breaks in their bicycling schedule for transcontinental train journeys and to do whatever was necessary to get to his polling place in time to vote.

Nick died Nov. 25, 2021. He is survived by his wife, Laura Malone; and their daughters Mathilde and Elise. He was predeceased by his father, William Carl Clifford ’48; and his brother Ben Clifford ’88.