Peter D. Lips ’70

One of our great on-field heroes and a three-time Princeton parent, Pete died at his Virginia home Aug. 17, 2023.

Coming to us from Delaware via Lawrenceville, Pete was a stellar high school athlete who simply shifted into a higher gear with our Tigers. An All-Ivy defensive back on our 1969 championship football team, he held the school career interception record for 20 years. Our captain in lacrosse, he was third team All-American and received the Roper Trophy as the outstanding athlete in our class. He wrote his thesis on “Sociology in a Policymaking Role” for Professor Allen Kassof.

Pete continued on to business school at the University of Virginia, then to work with Sears and its new venture subsidiary with CBS and IBM, Prodigy. In 1993, he began a pitched battle with esophageal cancer that would endure for three decades. He built up an independent consulting practice, relocated to Virginia, and finished as COO/treasurer of the Independent Women’s Forum. Pete had pronounced weaknesses for family gatherings at Lake Hopatcong and (not alone among us) the woebegone Cubs; he was at Wrigley Field as they won the 2016 NLCS.

Pete is survived by his wife of 54 years, Dianne, whom many of us remember from our senior year; their three children and Reunions veterans Brad ’92, Carrie ’95, and Dan ’00; and their 12 grandchildren. His love for them all bursts from his essay for our 50th-reunion book, and we return that love to him with wonderful memories.