Thomas Robert Tifft ’56

Tom Tifft of Washington, D.C., was in Cairo on a consulting assignment when he died Feb. 10, 1999, of a heart attack while swimming.

At Princeton, Tom joined Tower Club, majored in English, was president and treasurer of the mountaineering club, and played I.A.A. hockey and football. Following graduation he served in the Marine Corps as a combat correspondent. Next he was a newsman with the Lowell Sun and a foreign trade business analyst for the Dept. of Commerce; he then joined Time magazine, the Agency for Intl. Development (AID), Bank of America, and then returned to AID. After retirement he joined the Intl. Science and Technology Institute, working principally in Sri Lanka. Tom earned an MA in international relations (Georgetown), an MBA (NYU), and in 1996 became a C.F.P., leading to a new career as a financial planner and international development consultant. Tom's son Robert commented that at the time of his death, Tom was the happiest he'd ever been. He had held his first grandchild, his marriage was successful, and he was doing work he loved.

Tom was inurned Feb. 25, 1999, at the Columbarium in Arlington Natl. Cemetery. He is survived by his wife, Dorothy, children John, Robert, and Isabel, one grandson, sister Jane, and brother Peter '58. The class extends its sympathy to each of them.

The Class of 1956