Thomas Herndon ’43

Tom died peacefully July 31, 2016.

He prepared at Tulsa (Okla.) Central High School, where he was on the editorial board of the school paper. At Princeton, Tom majored in English. He won the Francis Biddle Prize for the best essay of the sophomore class and was a contributor to the Nassau Lit.

After Army officer training he eventually was assigned to the 34th Infantry Regimental Headquarters as a communications officer. After the United States dropped atomic bombs in Japan, Tom led 250 troops into Nagasaki to rebuild the country’s communications systems.

In 1950, Tom married Jane Coulter and they moved to Michigan, where Tom earned a master’s degree from the University of Michigan. This was the start of a career in oil exploration that eventually took him back to Tulsa, where he joined Apache Oil Co. He then became exploration manager for Cotton Petroleum Co. In 1973, Tom formed his own company as an independent geologist.

Tom’s survivors include his wife, Jane; daughters Mary Davis, Carol Klenda (Tom), and Julia Reynolds ’82 (Steve); eight grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.