Roy A. Herbert ’51

Roy died of a heart attack on Mar. 8, 1996. He joined Reader's Digest after graduation, and from 1974 until he retired in 1973 was managing editor. As an assistant managing editor in the late 1960s, Roy had growing doubts about US involvement in Vietnam. He influenced the magazine to abandon its support of the war and of the Nixon administration. As a result, the Digest commissioned Theodore H. White to write Breach of Faith: The Fall of Richard Nixon.

Roy prepped at Taft. At Princeton he was editorial chairman of the Prince and a member of WhigClio and of Dial Lodge. He roomed with Bill Netto and the late Tom McClure '52. He was an English major and wrote his thesis on James Joyce. He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

Roy lived in Pound Ridge, N.Y, for 37 years, where he was a trustee of the library and a leader of its literary discussion groups. He also collaborated with his wife, April, a welder, on a prizewinning steel sculpture. He was writing poetry the day he died.

In addition to April, his wife of 43 years, Roy is survived by his son, Michael '81, and two daughters, Lauren and Robin, three brothers, a sister, and two grandchildren.

The class extends to all of them its sorrow on the death of an outstanding member.

The Class of 1951