Phil died March 9, 2017, after a 24-year battle with multiple sclerosis, recently complicated by the discovery of cancer in both hip bones.

Phil came to Princeton from St. Louis Lutheran High School, an honors graduate active in the school Thespian Society, newspaper, Honor Society, and track and football.

At Princeton Phil lived in 1903 Hall and majored in chemical engineering, writing his thesis under Professor Gillham on “Stress Patterns in Composite Fiber Polymers.” He was a member of the varsity rifle team and president of the campus Lutheran Concordia Society, and participated in IAA sports for Dial Lodge, where he was a universally admired, quiet, and popular member.

After graduation Phil worked for several companies in St. Louis and New Jersey before moving to California. He formed a construction company in the Sacramento area with the brothers of his wife, Linda Findley Reitz.

Struck by multiple sclerosis in his 40s, Phil found a way to contribute and serve his community in less physical ways. He moved to Gainesville, Fla., near the university there and mentored youth and trained unskilled young adults in alignment with his religious and political values. As his disease progressed he moved in 2012 to an assisted-living facility in Cincinnati nearer his older brother, Bartley L. Reitz ’57. His sister Sarah Westenberg of Florida also survives him. The Class of ’67 is grateful for having known this quiet, gentle, thoughtful classmate.

Undergraduate Class of 1967