Peter R. Oxenham ’56

    Pete died March 12, 2023, with his family at his side in Switzerland.

He was born in England in 1934 and moved at a young age to Front Royal, Va. After a year boarding in Champéry in the Swiss Alps, he attended Woodberry Forest School in Orange, Va. At Princeton, he majored in mechanical engineering, lettered in track, played lightweight football, and dined at Cap & Gown. He remained a loyal alum and friend to his senior-year roommates Collins Denny, Stewart “Tooie” Knower, and lifelong friend C. Carter Walker Jr. 

After becoming diabetic while serving as an officer in the Navy in Bermuda, he joined DuPont de Nemours, applying his engineering and later his sales and marketing skills to a fulfilling career out of the Geneva Swiss European Headquarters.

Having met his wife, Jennifer, in Washington, D.C., and moving to Switzerland, Pete proposed “long-distance,” wed in 1962 in Montreal, and established their home together in Geneva, with a brief posting in Paris, until his early retirement in 1991. During this time, Pete was also president of the Princeton Club of Switzerland, coordinating the interviews of candidates and future younger alums.

His love of the mountains brought him to Morgins, where he and Jenny guided many ski groups across the broad international ski area, and notably Champéry.

Pete is survived by his wife of 60 years, Jennifer; their two children, Elisabeth Grunwald and John ’91; and their six grandchildren.