Robert Everett Hastings ’45

Bob Hastings died Oct. 22, 1996, of congestive heart failure in the hospital in Arlington, Va. He was 73. Bob entered Princeton from Roosevelt H.S. in the Crestwood section of Yonkers, N.Y. He served in the State Dept. as a courier, then took his degree from Princeton's School of Public and Intl. Affairs in 1947. The next year he married the former Audrey Kluczny.

Bob's career was completely devoted to the CIA, where he specialized in Soviet missile research, including some very important investigative work during the Cuban Missile Crisis of the early 1960s. In 1970 Bob joined the Earth Satellite Corp., visualizing potential to apply technology developed in the intelligence community for nonmilitary purposes. Unfortunately, he suffered a pulmonary embolism and a stroke, which forced him into early retirement.

One of his closest friends and CIA colleagues, his classmate Robert Porter, prepared a moving remembrance of Bob in which he noted that Bob was the "uncommon" man, a Renaissance figure who appreciated both logic and the absurd. Since Audrey predeceased Bob, he leaves no living relatives, but as Bob Porter noted, he left a residence full of fine books and fine old wines. Bob will be missed by many friends and former colleagues, and by those classmates fortunate enough to share his company over the years.

The Class of 1945