Truman S. Casner ’55

Truman, precise and focused throughout his life and right up to the end of it, died March 15, 2022, when he suffered a heart attack just a day after an enjoyable gathering with prep school friends near his home in Vero Beach, Fla. 

Truman was born Oct. 9, 1933, in Baltimore; grew up in Belmont, Mass., and graduated from Belmont Hill School before earning degrees at Princeton and Harvard Law School. At Princeton, he played freshman and varsity hockey and IAA bridge, billiards, football, and baseball and joined Elm Club. 

Truman spent his entire career with Ropes & Gray, where he rose to managing partner. 

He served as trustee on several civic, educational, and nonprofit boards, including chair of the Belmont Hill School board where he was recipient of its Distinguished Alumni Award in 2001. 

Truman’s chief outdoors engagement was with Astral, his Block Island 40 yawl. He loved to cruise the waters of Buzzards Bay and Maine, Northern Europe, and Scandinavia and crewed several Newport to Bermuda races. 

Truman is survived by his wife, Gaynor; daughters Abby Ackerman and Anne Casner; son Richard; 10 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.