Reynolds W. Thompson ’64

Renny died Feb. 28, 2017, in Mystic, Conn., after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 74.

He grew up in Englewood, N.J., and Southport, Conn. Renny attended Mount Hermon School, where he competed in football, swimming, and lacrosse and edited the school’s yearbook. An architecture major at Princeton, he was a member of Tower Club, competed in varsity swimming and lacrosse, and was a solicitor for the Campus Fund Drive. He went on to earn graduate degrees in architecture and urban planning at MIT and Harvard.

Renny and his wife, Nancy, lived in Princeton from 1983 to 2001, during which time his work in strategic development planning at Princeton and then for the University of Pennsylvania’s hospitals and the Newark public schools was genuinely beneficial for all. He was the recipient of the New Jersey Governor’s Award for the redesign of the Newark public schools system. In addition to working at Princeton, he was later a vice president of Durell & Son Builders in North Hills, Pa., and a vice president of design and construction at the University of Medicine & Dentistry in Newark.

Living in New England later on, he was an avid fly fisherman and bird watcher, and was very supportive of his three children and their sporting endeavors. His good friend Vic Woolley reported that their sons, Ren Thompson and Clark Woolley, had great fun playing together on the Colorado College lacrosse team.

He is survived by Nancy; his three children, Ashley, Jenifer, and Reynolds; and six grandchildren.