Richard Blackwood Plumer ’41

THE CLASS LOST a devoted member when Dick Plumer died of lymphoma Nov. 15, 1990.

After high school in Miami, Dick spent a year at Exeter, not for academic reasons but to acclimate himself to tweeds. He had enrolled at Harvard but switched when his adviser warned him he "was not the Harvard type." At Princeton Dick was summa cum laude in romance languages and won six varsity letters in soccer and baseball. He played thud base on the championship team which beat Columbia 21 on May 17, 1939, in the first outdoor sporting event ever televised.

In the summer of 1940, Dick went on a Navy cruise, then directly from graduation to V7 training and North Atlantic duty aboard the U.S.S. PC 617, where he became her C.O. He won a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.

Back home in Miami he joined his father's business, Richard Plumer Design, which grew under Dick's guidance to be one of the preeminent interior firms in Florida. Although he never thought of himself as a designer, he was made a lifetime member of the American Society of interior Designers. Dick served as a trustee of the Univ. of Miami and Barry College, on the Orange Bowl Committee, and as president of the Crippled Children's Society. His superb athleticism remained a hallmark, and he won numerous doubles tournaments at the Royal Palm Tennis Club and elsewhere.

The Class's deepest sympathy and love go out to Dick's wife of 45 years, Mary; their children, Richard II and Patience Flick; and their Flick grandchildren, Penny Blackwood, Bonnie Love and Willis Plumer.

The Class of 1941