Robert C. Johnston ’52

Bob joined us after Deerfield, majored in the Woodrow Wilson School, and joined Prospect. He served on several of our publications, including The Nassau Sovereign and The Nassau Lit, as well as on Whig-Clio, the debate panel, the senate, and the Committee on Student Government. He roomed with Bob Finken.

After Navy service, he graduated from Harvard Law School with the Class of 1958. His first job was at Dewey Ballantine. In 1968, he opened his own firm in New York. Next, he began a career at Squibb Pharmaceutical Co. that endured until 1989, when he joined Smith, Stratton Wise, Heher and Brennan, in Princeton.

Bob had a lively interest in a number of community organizations: his church, public schools, the Democratic Party, and several environmental organizations, especially the D&R Greenway Land Trust, of which he was co-founder and chairman.

Bob died June 1, 2014, leaving his wife, Grace Previty Johnston; four children from his marriage to Nancy Bakken, who predeceased him, Kathryn, Barbara, Kenneth, and Carol; four children of Grace’s, Adrienne, Richard, Marigrace, and Krista; and his brother, the Rev. David K. Johnston. The class offers sympathy to all the family.