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