Timothy M. Empkie ’71

We lost our respected classmate Tim to esophageal cancer Dec. 31, 2023, in Providence, R.I.

Tim came to Princeton from New Canaan, Conn., majored in biology, was a proud member of Tower Club, and enjoyed JV and Dillon pickup basketball. He lived with Ellis, O’Hern, Milhaupt, and Logsdon off-campus senior year. 

Tim graduated from UConn Medical School in 1976 and embarked on a career of teaching and community service. After family medicine residency, he practiced in rural North Dakota, earned an MPH at Harvard, and joined the faculty of Brown Medical School in 1984. His 40-year career at Brown was marked by a commitment to teaching about and service to underserved populations. Tim led Project HOPE, the global humanitarian relief organization, in Central and Eastern Europe from 1993 to 2002. 

Back at Brown, he taught medical students about health care in the Caribbean and Eastern Europe and promoted telehealth. He resumed his love affair with basketball by mentoring Brown’s varsity team starting in 2017 and was recognized with a named outdoor bench and ceremonies at a Princeton-Brown basketball game in 2024. Tim was active in the class, in the Princeton Alumni Association of Rhode Island, and in community-enhancement causes. 

His modesty, steadfastness, warmth, and wisdom were appreciated as a force for good by all who knew him. To his many friends and colleagues, the class extends its deepest sympathies.