Timothy W. Krebs ’79

The child of Foreign Service officers, Tim grew up in Central and South America and the Philippines before arriving at Princeton to live in the United States for the first time.

Initially a member of the Class of  ’78, Tim studied politics and graduated cum laude. A talented musician, he played piano in Ismism, a campus jazz-fusion group. 

After completing his first year of law school at UNC-Chapel Hill, Tim withdrew due to the onset of schizoaffective disorder. After leaving law school, Tim worked as a reporter for UPI in Raleigh, N.C., and for various publications. He described his mental-health struggles in an article published in PAW in 1998. Reflecting on his ordeals with institutionalization, Tim recounted how Princeton saved him from giving up hope. “If I could make it at Princeton for four years,” he told himself, “surely I can make it here.”

In 2001, he moved to Greenfield, Mass., to be near his sister, Marlynn Clayton, and her husband, Garry Krinsky.  Tim died there on March 13, 2021, of complications of Parkinson’s disease.

The class extends heartfelt condolences to Tim’s sister, Marlynn; her husband, Garry; his nephew, Sasha; Sasha’s wife, Sara; and their son, Joshua.