Wallace H. Rowe III ’53

Wally died Sept. 21, 2024.

He was born in Pittsburgh, moved to Pasadena, and came to Princeton after graduating from Fountain Valley School in Colorado. He was a member of Elm Club and majored in English, writing his thesis on “Three Elizabethan Dramatists: Webster, Tourneur, and Forel.”

After graduation he spent two years working with the foreign intelligence branch of the Sixth Army, stationed in San Francisco. At the end of that time, he enrolled in the Harvard Advanced Management Program and, after graduating a year later, began a career as an English teacher at the Gunnery School in Connecticut. He taught there and at Gov. Dummer Academy until retirement. Students said of him, “He inspired generations of us to think, speak, and laugh. He reveled in the ribald, the malaprop, the incongruous. He transformed Shakespeare from boring to pure joy.”

Wally retired from teaching after 41 years and moved to Rockport, Mass., where he sang in choral groups and volunteered teaching and tutoring. He and his wife, Carol, enjoyed many cycling tours in Europe.

Wally is survived by his wife of 67 years, Carol; two sons; one daughter; three granddaughters; and three step-grandsons.