Samuel S. Walstrum II ’51

Sam was born May 4, 1929, in Paterson, N.J., to Eleanor Peckworth Walstrum and S. William Walstrum ’26. He came to us from Peddie and Ridgewood High School.

At Princeton, Sam was active in baseball and football and belonged to Cannon. He roomed with Ed Davis, Bill Webb, and Joe Zawadsky. He left before graduation, entering the Navy Air Cadet School in Pensacola, and received his wings in 1953. While he was stationed aboard the carrier USS Essex in the South China Sea in February 1955, his tailhook broke while making a routine landing and he suffered severe head injuries in the ensuing crash. He was medically retired later that year.

Following a long recovery, he joined his father’s firm in Ridgewood as a real-estate broker and remained there for 20 years. He then joined the Valley Hospital transport staff, where he worked until 1994. His 1953 marriage to Virginia Anderson ended in divorce in 1964.

Sam was a trustee of The First Presbyterian Church in Ridgewood and a longtime member of the Ridgewood Kiwanis Club, serving as its president from 1964 to 1965.

He died March 24, 2013, and is survived by his children, S. William II, Mary Jane Kearns, and James; six grandchildren; and his sister, Sallie Bailey.