Robert Lippincott Searles ’40

Bob, of Waysata, Minn., and Boca Grande, Fla., died May 26, 2004, in Venice, Fla., of complications from cancer.

The Star Tribune noted that "this former Minnesota legislator and grain trader appeared on the cover of the May 1943 Life magazine with a couple of other PT boat skippers from his squadron" having "scattered 12 [Japanese] warships that were heading toward Marine positions on Guadalcanal Island." Later, Bob helped cover the landings in Normandy on D-Day. He left the Navy as a captain.

He prepared at Englewood [N.J.] High School and after Princeton he joined Cargill Inc. of Minneapolis in 1946. After four years, Bob became an independent grain-futures trader. He was elected president of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange and was board chairman of the National Grain Traders Council.

While in that area, Bob was elected vice president of the Princeton Alumni Association of the Northwest. In 1976 he was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives, serving for six years. He enjoyed tennis, chess, and sailing with his wife of 60 years, Jesse, from Savannah, Ga., to Panama.

To Jesse; daughters Judith Deane, Margaret Franchot, and Elizabeth Gronland; brother Jack; eight grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren, his classmates extend their heartfelt sympathies.

The Class of 1940