Robert E. Waite ’28 *29

Born July 4, 1907, in Elizabeth, N.J., Bob was a man with a passion for learning. He was valedictorian of his high school class at age 15, and continued his pursuit of education through three degrees, earning a BS with our class and an MA (1929) at Princeton and another BS at the Columbia School of Engineering. He also studied politics as a Class of 1885 Fellow at Princeton; philosophy at Oxford and Heidelberg Universities; German federalism as a Carl Schurz Fellow at the U. of Kiel; economics at Harvard and Yale Graduate Schools; and history at Columbia Graduate School.

He was a teacher, mechanical engineer, inventor, and consultant. He retired in 1974 and moved to Santa Fe, N.Mex., where he was a public affairs radio commentator and an investigator for the New Mexico Bar Assn. He did considerable volunteer work. Bob died Nov. 12, 1997. As his wife wrote, "Robert was an 'Old World' gentleman: a gentle man who was first a Princetonian -- as well as a citizen of the world."

The Class of 1928