Robert George Jahn ’51 *55

Bob was born April 1, 1930, in Kearny, N.J., to George and Minnie Holroyd Jahn.

He came to us from Tower Hill School in Wilmington. At Princeton Bob played in the band and was manager of the baseball team. His was a brilliant academic career. As an undergraduate he was a mechanical engineering and physics major graduating with highest honors. He went on to Princeton’s graduate school, where he earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in physics.

In 1952 Bob married Catherine Seibert. He joined the Princeton aeronautical engineering faculty in 1962 and founded the Electric Propulsion and Plasma Dynamics Laboratory. In 1971 Bob was appointed dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Fifteen years later, he became dean emeritus and returned to research and teaching full time.

He was a published author, perhaps best known for his textbook Physics of Electric Propulsion. In 1979 he established the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Laboratory and was its director until 2007.

Bob died Nov. 15, 2017, and is survived by son Eric ’79; daughters Jill ’80 and Nina ’84; and several grandchildren, including Lief ’12. His wife, Catherine, and their daughter Dawn ’88 predeceased him.