Samuel James Elliott IV ’72

Jim died March 27, 2019, in Palm Springs, Calif., from a massive heart attack, while practicing bridge on his computer.
Jim passed away from a massive heart attack March 27, 2019, in Palm Springs, Calif., while practicing bridge on his computer after a day of tournament play.
Jim (Jimmylein) came to us first from the Kiski School near Pittsburgh. Never one to suffer fools, he was, as the family described it “expelled with high honors” after a particularly dramatic run-in with the headmaster. The Lawrenceville School was smart enough to accept him for his senior year, where, after only one year in residence, he graduated “top boy” and walked off with nearly every academic prize the school had to offer.
Jim entered Princeton with the Class of ’73, becoming a sophomore within weeks. During his second year he helped found the Gay Alliance at Princeton (GAP). He majored in German and upon graduation he won a Fullbright scholarship to Germany before entering a Ph.D. program at the University of Wisconsin. With the warning that he was too “gay” to get a good academic job, he decided to switch to a master’s program in computer science and after a year was working with GTE outside Washington, D.C. Through consulting work with the young Intel company, he was persuaded to leave GTE for Intel in the early 1980s and soon became an invaluable member of their management team. He became active in the bridge scene in Portland, Ore., as well, having become a life master at the age of 26.
In 1984 he was diagnosed with AIDS and given a prognosis of two years to live. An amateur pilot, he made a “farewell” tour to visit all his friends in the fall of 1987. Fortunately, he was on an early program with experimental AIDS treatment and retired from Intel on disability a few years later.
He met the love of his life, Frank Teschen, an ex-East German ballet dancer in 1995. The two were legally partnered in Berlin in 2002, where they made their home, and married in Portland in 2015. Jim also continued to spend much time in Portland practicing his dual passions of cycling and bridge.
The classes of ’72 and ’73 will miss Jimmylein’s unique spirit and intellect, his courage, his unwavering intellectual honesty, and even his gleefully wicked smile that often accompanied his sardonic wit. A celebration of life service was held in Portland May 11, 2019, and his ashes were scattered off the coast of Maui. Jim leaves his loving husband, Frank, a sister Jenny, and three nephews. The classes extend their condolences to them.
(A version of this memorial was published Oct. 2, 2019. Previously unknown information has been provided by The Class of ’73 and included here.)
Paw in print

July 2025
On the cover: Wilton Virgo ’00 and his classmates celebrate during the P-rade.

1 Response
Comments
John W. Van Cleve
2 Years AgoRemembrance from a Grad School Classmate
It was wonderful to have Jim as a fellow grad student in German at Madison. He could be counted on for a read of text that was both thoughtful and quick. His jaunty “Hey, Johnny!” always startled this shy student — but it was so welcome! If I was OK by Jim, I was OK period.
When last I saw him, Jim was sitting in the office of one of the German department’s best-known professors and looking nervously glum. I had heard there were problems with the dissertation, or maybe with the proposed topic.
If someone on the eighth floor of Van Hise Hall told Jim that he would have a hard time getting a tenure-track job because he was gay, that person did Jim no favor. Every one of us had a hard time: There were so few good jobs! And the assertion that homosexuality would be a problem for any languages/German department that was hiring around 1980 was ridiculous. Arts and sciences faculties have had gay faculty members forever; some places more openly than others, yes. But still, forever. What a loss for German studies!
It does sound as though a really good man died happy — playing bridge with a computer and, I’ll bet, winning.