Robert Gregory Plimpton ’73

Greg died Dec. 4, 2023, after a short illness.

Born in Leominster, Mass., Greg grew up in North Palm Beach, Fla., graduating from Riviera Beach High School. At Princeton, he studied economics, dined at Cottage Club, partook in crew and sailing, was director of the Refreshment Agency, and was named to Esquire magazine’s 1970 list of Best Dressed College Men. He roomed with Fred Drake, Ed O’Lear, Brad Shingleton, Jim French, and Peter Randall, along with several other classmates over the four years. Greg earned a law degree from Georgetown School of Law in 1976. He acted as class secretary for 20 years.

During a life of adventure and volunteer service, he practiced law a bit, but mostly engaged in a wide variety of entrepreneurial enterprises and diversions including real estate, construction, software development, transportation, writing, flying, diving, sailing, yoga, and property management. He invented, patented, and manufactured Thermalbar thermometers. Married and divorced twice, he had two sons, Alden and Dawson.

In 2010, Greg entered the Peace Corps, spent mostly in Peru sanitizing wells and building solar water pumps and eventually becoming the coordinator for renewable energy. In 2014, a heart attack brought him back to the States. He settled in Fort Myers, Fla., working with migrant workers and Habitat for Humanity, living happily near one of his sons and five grandchildren.