Captain Warren G. Leback

Captain Warren G. Leback of Skillman, NJ, passed away on November 21, 2019 at the age of 95. Warren had a 65-year career in the maritime industry starting at the age of 18 as a cadet midshipman on the liberty ship Joseph McKenna during World War II.

Warren was the son of the late Captain Vernon and June Leback of Astoria, Oregon. He and his twin brother, Calvin, were born on St. Patrick’s Day in 1924, and were nicknamed Pat and Mike, respectively. Warren was predeceased by his wife, Dorothy Jewel Leback, his twin brother, Captain Calvin C. Leback, his sister, Mary Leback Shook, and his son-in-law, Simon Sitwell.

He is survived by his children: Warren Thomas Leback and his wife Chloe, Christine Leback Sitwell, and Karen Frances Leback.  He is also survived by his grandchildren: Todd Leback and his wife Lisa Grové, Emily Leback Achin and her husband John, Peter Leback, and Sergey Sitwell.  His surviving great-grandchildren are Miles, Maude, Henry, Clover, and Violet.

Warren met his wife, Jewel, during World War II in San Francisco where she was serving in the United States Coast Guard as a SPAR. They were married in New Paris, Indiana, in 1947, and began their 67-year marriage in New York City. They also lived in Barranquilla and Cartagena, Colombia; Wyckoff, Franklin Lakes, Chatham, Princeton, and Skillman, New Jersey; New Orleans, Louisiana; Houston, Texas; and Washington, DC. Warren was an active member of numerous maritime organizations including serving as National President of the United States Merchant Marine Academy Alumni Association and National President of the Council of American Master Mariners. He also served as deacon of the Wyckoff Reformed Church and elder of the Nassau Presbyterian Church, Princeton, NJ.

After graduating from Astoria High School in January 1942, Warren completed training at the Cadet Basic Training School on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay in June, 1942, and reported for duty on the McKenna, which was operated by Grace Line. He spent seven months at sea. During his first voyage, his ship brought back from Pearl Harbor the stern section of the destroyer USS Cassin, which had been bombed on December 7, 1941. On a second voyage, the McKenna delivered military supplies to the American troops on Guadalcanal; on this voyage, he was awarded a Merchant Marine Combat medal. After being discharged from the McKenna, Warren reported to the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, NY, to complete his studies and graduated in January, 1944. He then he returned to Grace Line to sail in the South Pacific Theater. In 1947, Warren received his Master’s (Captain’s) License, which he maintained until his death.

Warren worked for Grace Line until 1960 serving as third, second, and chief mate on several vessels and Master of the passenger cargo ship Santa Monica. He also held managerial positions in Barranquilla and Cartagena, Colombia; and in New York City. Warren subsequently held positions with Central Gulf Steamship Corporation, Sea-Land Service, Inc., Interstate Oil Transport Company, El Paso LNG Company, and Puerto Rico Marine Management, Inc.  He was appointed Deputy Maritime Administrator in the Department of Transportation by President Ronald Reagan. He later served President George H. W. Bush as Maritime Administrator. He retired as President of First American Bulk Carrier Corporation.

Warren received the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy’s Outstanding Professional Achievement Award in 1964, the Alumnus of the Year Award in 1978, the Distinguished Service Award in 1984, and the Meritorious Alumni Service Award in 1989. In 1997, he was elected to the Academy’s Hall of Distinguished Graduates. A classroom in Bowditch Hall at the Academy is named in his honor. In 1991, he was honored with the Admiral of the Ocean Sea Award by the United Seamen’s Service. He received Honorary Doctorates from the Maine Maritime Academy and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

A memorial service will be held in Princeton at a later date. Warren’s wish was for donations to be made to United States Merchant Marine Academy Alumni Association and Foundation, Kings Points, NY, or American Merchant Marine Museum at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, NY, in his memory. Warren’s ashes will be buried with his wife’s ashes in the cemetery at New Paris, Indiana, and spread over the Columbia River bar in Oregon.

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Joseph Francis Gigliotti

November 21, 1970 – November 21, 2019

Joseph Francis Gigliotti, 49, of Boston, Massachusetts, was lost at sea on November 21, 2019, after being washed overboard during the offshore passage of his sailing vessel Volare from Newport, RI, to Antigua.    

Joe was raised in Princeton, New Jersey, attended Princeton Day School, and later Portsmouth Abbey School in Middletown, Rhode Island. He was a Dean’s list student who played lacrosse and was Captain of Portsmouth Abbey’s varsity hockey team. He graduated from St. Lawrence University with a BS in Economics and English and was a brother of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.

Following his University graduation, Joe attended his brother John’s wedding on St. John, USVI, and became so enchanted with the islands he remained there for ten years. He formed a financial service company to write business plans for local entrepreneurs and eventually acquired and developed several local construction services companies. In 2002, he moved to New York where he joined the investment and merchant banking firm Dominick & Dominick in the wealth management division. Joe transitioned to the hedge fund industry as a Chief Financial Officer for Orin Kramer’s Boston Provident LP and later became a founding partner and CFO of Halogen Asset Management. In 2014 Joe moved to Boston and served as CFO for Three Bays Capital until May of 2019.

Joe loved hockey and played in adult leagues located in New York and later in Boston. He was also a passionate windsurfer and avid sailor. He sailed his first vessel Alba throughout the Caribbean as far south as Venezuela and eventually back home to New England. With almost 30 years of open ocean sailing experience, Joe earned a U.S. Coast Guard 100 ton Master Captain’s license. He was also an accomplished offshore navigator racing for a decade aboard Tribe, a 62’ Gunboat catamaran, with his father and brothers, most recently winning second place in the Newport-Bermuda Race.

Joe leaves behind his father and mother, Joseph and Sandy of Winter Park, FL; his beloved brothers, Gregory (Kristine) of Stamford, CT, and John (Day) of Winter Park, FL; three nieces, Annie, Gracie, Sydney, and nephew, Griffin; his longtime girlfriend, Ceci Cleary; as well as many uncles, aunts, and cousins who grieve his passing.

A conversation with Joe was always warm and engaging. He always left one with a clear sense that nothing mattered more to him in the world than the very moment he was sharing with you. The passion of his presence will be missed as he rests right where he always wanted to be … at sea.

Services will be held on Saturday, December 7 at 10 a.m. at St Catherine of Siena (4 Riverside Avenue, Riverside, Connecticut) directly followed by a reception at Stamford Yacht Club (97 Ocean Drive West, Stamford, CT).

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James Wilson Clark

James Wilson Clark passed away on August 6, 2019 at the age of 95. He was married to his wife Margaret Custis Archer Clark for 62 years. He is survived by his three daughters, Margaret Custis Clark, Susan Clark Randaccio, Archer Griffith; his brother, John Hunter Clark, 92; and his five grandchildren, Ted and Casey Trozinski, and James, Lauren, and Alexander Randaccio.

His integrity and his commitment to service and to the nation were an inspiration to many, and he was beloved for his wonderful nature and his sense of humor. His presence in our lives will be deeply missed.

Jim Clark was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on December 21, 1923 the oldest of three boys. He attended Oberlin College, where his college career was interrupted by the U.S. entry into World War II. Eager to enlist, he joined the U.S Army Infantry, first serving in the U.S. training troops, and later in combat in France and Germany. As part of Patton’s 3rd Army, Company I, 319th Infantry Regiment, 80th Division, he moved through France and into Germany in the spring of 1945 as part of the Rhineland and Central Europe Campaigns, liberating Buchenwald, and pushing toward Berlin. On April 13, 1945 while securing a bridge in Gera, Germany, he was wounded in the chest and arm. He was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for heroic and meritorious achievement in combat.

He left his commission as a First Lieutenant, and after a long rehabilitation, he returned to Oberlin where he completed his degree in History in 1948. He earned his Master’s in Public Affairs as a member of the first Master’s class at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School in 1950, and he moved to Washington D.C. committed to public service, to shaping the life of the nation, and to addressing the challenges of a world he had experienced so personally at a young age.

In his 20-year career serving five U.S. presidents in the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, he was responsible for financial management, planning, development and coordination of policy proposals, and administrative oversight for a variety of national priorities, including the FCC, the Atomic Energy Commission, the Merchant Marine, the Airforce, and Defense R&D programs. He served for five years as Director of International Programs responsible for all U.S. economic and military programs overseas, including U.S. foreign aid and oversight of the intelligence and national security services.

In 1970, continuing a long career specializing in strategic planning, program review, and management, he was named Director of Strategic Planning and Product Development for Chase Manhattan Bank and Chase Holding Company. While there, he shaped the future of the bank, expanding both international operations, as well as domestic banking services. He served on the Chase Monetary Mission Team developing international ties for U.S. businesses in OPEC Countries, and he expanded national consumer financial services, launching the bank’s new initiative, Chase Home Mortgage Corp. in 1978. He continued to serve the nation while in the private sector, serving on the Board of the Asia Foundation and as Staff Director of the Murphy Commission, the President’s Commission on the Organization of the Government for the Conduct of Foreign Policy.

In 1982, he returned to Princeton University as Deputy Director at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory where he served for eight years managing the administrative operations of the largest nuclear fusion research laboratory in the U.S. Following his retirement from the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, Jim joined Mathtech, Inc. as a Senior Associate where he led a team overseeing U.S. Agency for International Development financed projects in the energy sector in Pakistan.

A firm believer in community service, Jim served the communities where he lived in numerous ways. In Washington D.C, in the 1950s and 60s, he organized and directed the Youth Recreation Program under the auspices of the YWCA serving the neighborhoods of South East Washington. In Princeton, he was active in Nassau Presbyterian Church, serving as everything from Sunday School teacher, to program and financial manager. He was a founding member of the Princeton Adult School, where he served on the Board and taught several classes.  Committed to the next generation of public servants, Jim also served on the Board of the Robertson Foundation for the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton for over a decade.

A life of significant accomplishment was marked by a commitment to building personal relationships both close to home and abroad. Our lives were filled with his friends and with many who sought his wisdom, counsel, humor, and love. The cousins and young people who shared our home, the lifelong friends from across the nation and the globe, from Germany to Pakistan, were a tribute to his spirit.

He will be most remembered for the love and joy he brought to his family. Not a day went by where he did not express heartfelt appreciation for both the simple and the grand of what this world has to offer — the clouds in the sky, the night stars, the twinkling lights of Christmas, the drama of a Nantucket sleighride, the mysteries of particle physics, the lives of those who tread before us, the majesty of the great ideas of history, and most frequently, his appreciation and gratitude for the people he loved. This appreciation of life’s gifts is his enduring gift to us.

A memorial celebration of his life will be held in Princeton, N.J., on December 21, at 1 p.m. at Nassau Presbyterian Church.

Memorial Contributions may be made in his honor to the following causes which he held dear:

The Wounded Warrior Project, Honor and Memorial Donation, James W. Clark, https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/donate, or P.O. Box 758517, Topeka, Kansas 66675-8517.

James W. Clark 50 Memorial Fund to further the development of future leaders committed to good governance in domestic and international affairs, directed to students at the Woodrow Wilson School. By mail: Princeton University, Alumni and Donor Records, Attn. Helen Hardy, P.O. Box 5357, Princeton, NJ 08543-5357. Online: https://makeagift.princeton.edu/MainSite/MakeAGift. (Click on the “in honor/memory of” box, and indicate in the “special instructions and comments field” that the gift is for the James W. Clark 50 Memorial Fund).

Arrangements are under the direction of Mather-Hodge Funeral Home, Princeton.

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Dudley Allen Eppel

Dudley Allen Eppel, of Vero Beach, FL, and West Tisbury, MA, passed peacefully on November 21, 2019, with Nancy, his cherished wife of 63 years, and their four children by his side.

Born in Newark, NJ, on July 20, 1929, Dudley grew up in South Orange and Maplewood. He was a 1947 graduate of Columbia High School, where he was known as “Deadly Duds,” for his “leadership on the basketball court and play behind the baseball plate.” As captain of the Varsity basketball team, he was known as a “hard worker who never quit” — a truism for how he lived his life. Dudley received many athletic awards, also contributing to his baseball team’s win of the NJ Sectional State Championship in 1946. He was recruited for a post-graduate year at Carteret Prep School in West Orange where he played Varsity Basketball.

Dudley graduated from Rutgers University in 1954, where he was a Business Administration major and member of Chi Psi Fraternity. He continued to play basketball and also played semi-pro summer baseball for the Farmington Flyers (ME). His college career was interrupted by his service in the Air Force from which he received an honorable discharge to support his family when his father passed.

Dudley had an illustrious career on Wall Street having led four block trading desks over 42 years at leading firms, including Blyth & Co., Weeden & Company, Loeb Rhodes, and Donaldson, Lufkin, & Jenrette (DLJ). He retired as Managing Director of DLJ’s Institutional Equities Division in 1995. At his retirement party in Boston, he was presented with a certificate of recognition from Mayor Thomas M. Menino. According to his peers, he was known as a patient mentor and excellent practitioner of the art and science of block trading. His colleagues recognized him as Dudley “Warbucks” Eppel, with a cigar in one hand and a phone in the other, retiring as the “oldest living block trader on Wall Street.” He provided commentary on the financial markets for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Institutional Investor, CNBC, and other news outlets.

Dudley was a loving father and raised his family in Princeton, NJ, where they resided for 45 years. With a passion for the beach, Dudley and his family spent many summers on the Jersey shore and later in Martha’s Vineyard, beginning in 1972. He shared his love of the ocean with his children, teaching them to body surf and enjoy a competitive surfside game of backgammon, making for beautiful memories. He also loved the mountains of Colorado and spent family ski vacations in Vail and Aspen. He had a special affection for the horse-drawn sleigh to the Pine Creek Cookhouse in Ashcroft. Dudley shared his love of the Big Apple with his family, exposing them to Broadway musicals and sporting events. He was a loyal fan of many teams, including the (now San Francisco) Giants, the Knicks, the Rangers, and the New York Giants.

Dudley had a keen interest in befriending many and was a mentor to people of all ages and backgrounds. He was an avid golfer and over his lifetime was a member of the Bedens Brook Club (Skillman, NJ), Rolling Rock Club (Ligonier, PA), Edgartown Yacht Club, the Vineyard Golf Club (Edgartown, MA), and the John’s Island and Red Stick Golf clubs (Vero Beach, FL).

He is survived by his wife, Nancy; his children Cheryl and her husband John Segar of Watertown, MA, Lynne of West Tisbury, MA, Dudley, Jr. (Lee) of Vero Beach, FL, and Meredith and her husband Chris Jylkka of Weston, MA; and his four grandchildren: Anna Lee and Charles Allen Segar, and Lila Grace and Alexander Dudley Jylkka.

His family, colleagues, and many friends deeply mourn his loss and celebrate his generous and loving spirit. He was predeceased by his mother Mildred Nauman Eppel, his father William Eppel, his sister Dianne Schryber, and his brother William Eppel. A celebration of Dudley’s life will take place on Martha’s Vineyard in July 2020. In lieu of flowers, please consider a gift in his memory to the Alzheimer’s Association (www.alz.org/help-support) or the West Tisbury Public Library Foundation (www.wtlibraryfoundation.org/donate-2).

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Margaret McGurty Keenan

Margaret McGurty Keenan died on November 16 surrounded by family. Born November 8, 1935, in Pittsburgh, Margaret moved to Princeton in 1964 with her husband Patrick Joseph Keenan, Sr. Together they raised their four children, Patrick, Sean, Kate, and Elizabeth, at 17 Random Road.

Margaret earned a B.A. from Carlow University (formerly Mount Mercy College) in Pittsburgh and a Master’s in Education from Rutgers University. She wrote short stories and essays, including Incident at Ponte Tressa. She served as an editor for the Princeton Alumni Weekly (PAW) from 1978-1987, a position she truly loved for the breadth and depth of the content and her intelligent, witty, and slightly irreverent colleagues. She wrote and edited in Newark at the University of Medicine and Dentistry Alumni Magazine from 1987-1997. She produced feature articles covering the university’s research and clinical treatment programs, such as AIDS clinical trials and therapies, autoimmune disorders, health risks associated with electromagnetic fields, use of computers in medicine, growing antibiotic resistance, and a firsthand report on a liver transplant, for which she observed the entire 12-hour surgery.

She read broadly and voraciously; she and Patrick traveled the world, often with friends; and she continued to expand her fund of knowledge and circle of friends until her death. Margaret’s combined kindness, wisdom, and equanimity, reached many people. She is treasured by her husband Patrick, to whom she was married for 60 years; her children and their spouses; her grandchildren; her sister Suzanne; many, many nieces and nephews; and, of course, the Bridge and Book Groups.

An open house to celebrate Margaret’s life and share memories will be held at the Morven Museum and Garden, 55 Stockton Street, Princeton, NJ, on Sunday, December 15th from 2-4 p.m. If you would like to make a donation honoring Margaret’s life, please consider the Scleroderma Foundation (www.scleroderma.org) or an organization meaningful to you.