Robert Lee Cropper ’38

Bob died May 1, 2005. Born in Ocean City, Md., he came via Mercersburg Academy to Princeton, where he majored in mathematics but for family reasons left before graduating.

Bob spent five years in the Navy as an aviator. After early duty on an American battleship attached to the British Home Fleet, he transferred to the Pacific as a torpedo pilot on a carrier. There he saw fighting from the Aleutians through the Solomon Islands, Tarawa, and the Gilbert and Marshall Islands to Ceylon. In the course of these operations, Bob was involved in the sinking of several Japanese ships, including a heavy cruiser.

Bob returned to Ocean City a war hero but quickly settled into small-town life, running several local businesses and becoming active in city affairs, including serving as a city councilman.

In 1967 Bob married Renata Fuchs of Berlin, Germany, "after having proposed to her at their first meeting." In retirement the Croppers sailed in a houseboat down the Mississippi, across the Gulf of Mexico to Florida and the Intercoastal Waterway, finally settling in Vero Beach. The class extends its deep sympathy to the widow of this quiet hero.

The Class of 1938