Robert S. Applegate ’53

Bob, or “Oz” as he was fondly called, arrived at Princeton with the large contingent from Lawrenceville and died peacefully of Alzheimer’s disease June 29, 2013, in Greenville, Del., while his son was reading him the sports pages.

A native of Newburgh, N.Y., Bob majored in chemical engineering, belonged to the Republican Club, and took his meals at Ivy. He was a member of the 21 Club and Right Wing Club, not a political organization but a social group founded in 1894 honoring L. Stuart Wing and consisting of 16 seniors and whose 1952–53 president was Mike Donohue, one of Bob’s senior-year roommates.

Others rooming with Bob in Blair Tower were Al Dowds, Jerv Finney, Lew Rawlings, Sid Staunton, and John Spencer.

After graduation Bob spent 16 years with DuPont and was transferred so many times he joked that he got the feeling he couldn’t hold a job. He was a partner in the Wind Rose Co. (which had interests in engineering consulting, office management, and tavern ownership) in Delaware.

He is survived by his wife, the former Caroline (“Carol”) Stabler, sister of Laird Stabler ’52; daughters Cornelia Bowen and Jane Gallup; son Robert R.; and seven grandchildren. Speaking of Bob, John Spencer said: “He was his own man — which was his strength and charm.”