A. Slade Mills Jr. ’56

Slade, our class vice president, died Dec. 8, 2023, in New York, of a metastatic cancer.

He came to Princeton from Phillips Exeter Academy, following his brother Edward Mills ’55. Slade joined Cottage Club, where he was elected president. He majored in modern languages, an ideal grounding for his international business career with Rheem and Epic, which included living in Santiago, Milan, and Mexico City. Along the journey, he served for three years in the Navy and attended the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program.

Slade’s community contributions were equally impressive. His service as co-chair of the New York Youth Symphony was lauded for his unreserved enthusiasm for 22 years — always in the audience to cheer on the student musicians. Slade was equally invested in the work of 1956 ReachOut, where he was tireless in the effort to give less privileged youth a guide to higher education. A young colleague praised him as “an authentic, deeply driven gentleman in all the best senses of that bygone word.”

Slade is survived by his wife and partner in charity, Phyllis; children: Sally Gebbie, Alfred III, and Alison LeMaire ’86; and eight grandchildren.