Peter J. Carril

Coach Peter J. Carril passed away peacefully at The University of Pennsylvania Hospital, on August 15, 2022, where he was recuperating from a stroke. He was 92 years old.

Carril grew up on the southside of Bethlehem, Pa., where his father worked in the steel mills. The Bethlehem Boys Club helped the young Carril stay on track as he became a promising basketball player at Liberty High School, graduating in 1948. After high school, Carril went to nearby Lafayette College. He graduated in 1952 with a BA in Spanish and it is at Lafayette where he began his lifelong basketball friendship with the late Butch vanBredaKolff.

Carril went on to coach at Easton Area High School for three years while earning his M.A. degree from Lehigh University. From 1958 to 1966 he coached at Reading High School where he had many winning seasons and trips to the state finals. After Reading, he made the move into college coaching, going back to Lehigh for one year (1966 to1967) where he compiled the first winning record in basketball in 50 years, at a school where wrestling was the premiere sport.

In 1967 vanBredaKolff was leaving Princeton and recommended his protégé Carril for the job of Head Basketball Coach. Carril accepted the job and stayed at Princeton, building a basketball dynasty with numerous accomplishments that would also earn him many honors. Carril spent 29 years at Princeton, racking up 514 wins. His teams won 13 Ivy League titles, one NIT Championship (1975), and made 11 NCAA tournament appearances. Along with coaching the Olympic teams of Spain and Argentina, Carril made a name for himself by perfecting the Princeton offense and relying on his famous “backdoor play.” After Princeton, Carril spent time as an assistant coach with the Sacramento Kings, from 1994 to 2004. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 1998.

In the words of Jerry Price, Senior Communications Advisor/Historian for Princeton Athletics, Carril was “a very simple man, and the more the world around him grew complex, the simpler he became. Make shots. Guard your guy. Be honest with people. And above all, work hard. No shortcuts.”

Carril is predeceased by his father, José Carril of Léon, Spain, his mother, Angelina Rodriguez Carril of Argentina, his sister, Anita Carril Amigo of Bethlehem, Pa., and his former wife, Dolores L. “Dilly” Carril, of Bethlehem, Pa., and Princeton, NJ. He leaves behind a daughter, Lisa D. Carril, of Hopewell, NJ, and a son, Peter J. Carril of Princeton, NJ; grandchildren, Peter B. Carril and Zoe Carril, of New York City; and two grand dogs, Rock and Dolores of Hopewell.

There will be a private viewing for family and close friends only at Kimble Funeral Home in Princeton. A memorial service honoring the Coach will be held at Jadwin Gymnasium on Princeton University’s campus, at a date to be determined.

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John Madison Cooper

John Madison Cooper, 82, of Princeton, New Jersey, died on August 8, 2022, after a short illness.

John was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on November 29, 1939, the second of seven children of Bernardine (Sheehan) and Armon Cooper. He left Memphis in 1953 when he was awarded a scholarship to attend Phillips Exeter Academy. It was at Exeter that he began his study of ancient Greek, earning the Haig-Ramage Classical Scholarship and graduating first in his class in 1957. He continued his studies at Harvard University (B.A., 1961, Ph.D., 1967) and was a Marshall Scholar at Corpus Christi College, Oxford (B.Phil., 1963). He taught at Harvard, the University of Pittsburgh, and Princeton, from which he retired in 2016. He was President of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association in 1999-2000 and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was predeceased by his parents, his sister, Stephanie Cooper, and two brothers, Farrell Cooper and Jerome Cooper.

He is survived by his beloved wife Marcia (Coleman), his daughters, Stephanie and Katherine, Katherine’s husband Bryan Foster, and his grandchildren Amos and Louisa. He is also survived by his brothers and sisters-in-law Armon Cooper and Karen Schoenberg, Gail Cooper, Richard and Charlotte Cooper, Robert and Sue Cooper, sister-in-law Dora (Coleman) DeGeorge, cousins Brainard Cooper and Sarah Forrest Schwartz, many nieces and nephews, and valued friends.

John was Princeton’s Henry Putnam University Professor of Philosophy emeritus and one of the world’s leading scholars of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. On the basis of the John Locke Lectures, which he gave at Oxford in 2011, he wrote his final book, Pursuits of Wisdom, a historical and philosophical account of the Greeks’ views on the good life. His first book, Reason and Human Good in Aristotle, won the American Philosophical Association’s Matchette Prize in 1977. His essays have appeared in two volumes, and he edited a selection of Seneca’s essays on moral philosophy. He edited the Complete Works of Plato (1997), now used as the standard throughout the English-speaking world. Although he dedicated a significant effort to his writings, he felt strongly that his most important responsibility was to his students, and in response was deeply appreciated by generations of them.

As erudite as he was sharp, John set a standard of intellectual rigor and honesty for colleagues and especially his students. He was widely admired for his scholarship, his humanity, his generosity, and his wit. John was a fiercely loyal friend, relentless competitor, crossword aficionado, opera lover, and devoted father and grandfather. He was determined that his life would not be limited by the type I diabetes diagnosis he received as a young man nearly 60 years ago, and it was not.

A memorial service will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Civil Liberties Union (aclu.org) or Southern Poverty Law Center (splcenter.org).

Arrangements are under the direction of the Mather Hodge Funeral Home.