Tonu Parming ’64
Tonu Parming died Oct. 30, 1998, in Toronto, as a result of a stroke during heart surgery. He was 57.
Tonu was born in Parnu, Estonia; his family fled the war in 1944 and came to the U.S. He prepared at Hackensack [N.J.] H.S. Tonu interrupted his Princeton career to spend five years in the Green Berets, serving in Vietnam and rising to captain. He graduated in 1969, majoring in sociology.
After a year at the U. of Helsinki he earned his PhD in sociology at Yale in 1976. He taught at the U. of Maryland, focusing on Soviet nationality issues and American public policy with regard to ethnicity. Tonu was a visiting professor at the U. of Toronto in 1988 when he met and married his wife, Asta Lokk, and moved to Toronto. He was president of the Estonian Publishing Co. there and editor of the weekly Estonian newspaper Meie Elu. Tonu was elected to the Estonian Natl. Council in the U.S. and the Estonian Central Council in Canada. In 1997 he received the Order of the White Star, one of Estonia's highest honors. Tonu attended Princeton's Canadawide 250th Anniversary celebration in Toronto in May 1997.
To Asta, their children Veiko and Talvi, and his parents and other relatives, the class extends its deepest sympathy.
The Class of 1964
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December 2025
Judge Michael Park ’98; shifts in DEI initiatives; a night at the new art museum.
1 Response
Comments
George Chang ’63
1 Month AgoWorking Together on Campus
I am sorry to hear of Tonu’s death. An obituary in the latest Princeton Alumni Weekly made me think of him.
Tonu and I were part of a small team of students that Professor Arthur Bigelow assembled to haul bells into Cleveland Tower when he updated Princeton’s carillon. Bigelow could have hired a hoist company, but he chose to create some student jobs. I’m glad that he did.
Even though our project was brief, I remember three things about Tonu:
a) He said that he had hauled sacks of animal feed (or maybe flour?). That gave him the muscles he used for hauling the newly cast Belgian bells.
b) He said that he hated the Russians.
c) One night after finishing work (it got dark early in Princeton), we heard Professor Bigelow banging the new bells with a metal object. “He’s gone mad,” Tonu joked.