Obituaries 9/30/15
E. Alden Dunham III
E. Alden Dunham III, 84, of Ewing, New Jersey passed away on September 26, 2015 at Capitol Health Medical Center from complications resulting from a broken hip and Parkinson’s disease. He fell while doing what he loved best: playing tennis and being with family. Nationally ranked at 16 in tennis and later as a senior, he was perpetually, in his own words and in all things, “on the verge of greatness.”
After graduating from Princeton (Phi Beta Kappa) in 1953, Dunham served as an officer in the Navy before receiving his Masters of Arts in teaching and doctorate of education degrees from Harvard and Columbia Universities.
He became a leader in the transformation of American education during and
following the civil rights era. In turn reviled and revered, as director of admissions at Princeton from 1962-66 he upended prep school pipelines, advanced use of the SATs, and expanded admission of the best minority and public school students in pursuit of “the well-rounded class” instead of just the “well-rounded individual.”
Dunham continued to support educational reform and public policy through strategic grant making over a 25-year career with Carnegie Corporation of New York. He played a major role in conceiving and establishing the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education and wrote the second book in its groundbreaking series of studies. Colleges of the Forgotten Americans: A Profile of State Colleges and Regional Universities won the 1970 American Council on Education Borden Book of the Year award. The book was pioneering in its focus on the growing impact of state and community colleges on American higher education. Dunham supported innovative programs to address this issue and others throughout his career, including establishment of the prestigious National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. In 1976, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by the California State University and College system.
Like his mentor, James Bryant Conant, former president of Harvard, for whom he worked from 1957-1961, Dunham believed strongly in the equal value to the nation of intellectual and vocational labor and the importance of equal opportunity. In 1992 he wrote a prescient paper on broadening access entitled “Educational Reform: The Critical Role of Information Technology.” Upon Dunham’s retirement in 1992, David Riesman, sociologist at Harvard, wrote to him, “Alden: you have been someone who has made the invisible become visible.”
He was a longtime resident of Princeton and returned to his native state in 2013 after 25 years away in order to be closer to family.
Alden is survived by his wife, Laura Dunham of Ewing; his brother, David H. Dunham of Lincoln, Mass.; his children: Edgar Alden Dunham IV (spouse Wendy) of Ewing; Ellen Dunham-Jones (spouse Philip) of Atlanta, Ga.; V. Carroll Dunham (spouse Thomas) of Katmandu, Nepal; Robert G. Dunham (spouse Catherine) of Medford; and stepson Thomas C. Adams of Los Angeles, Calif.; six grandchildren: Katherine Dunham Eskowitz, Elizabeth Dunham, Liam Kelly, Galen Kelly, Kacie Dunham, and Alden Dunham; one great-grandchild; Maxwell Eskowitz; and his first wife, Louise Dunham.
Dunham’s memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on October 3 at Abiding Presence Lutheran Church in Ewing. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to: The Laura and Alden Dunham fund at the New Mexico Community Foundation, 502 W Cordova Road #1, Santa Fe, NM 87505 or Abiding Presence Lutheran Church, 2220 Pennington Roadd, Ewing Township, NJ 08638.
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Mary Lisbeth D’Amico
Mary Lisbeth (Marybeth) D’Amico, 53, daughter of John and Marge D’Amico died peacefully on September 27, 2015 in her home in Jersey City.
Marybeth was born in Williamstown, Mass. and spent her young years in Montgomery and Princeton. She graduated from Bucknell University in 1983. She began her career as a business writer in New York City and continued as a free-lance journalist in Munich, Germany for 22 years. She began a second career as a singer-songwriter. She toured in the U.K. and the Netherlands and recorded two albums in Austin, Texas. Three years ago she moved back to the United States and continued her journalism and her music with remarkable success.
She is survived by her two daughters, Francesca Pick who lives and works in Paris, and Bianca Pick, working in Amsterdam; her sister, Suzanne D’Amico-Sharp of Plainsboro; her brother Mark D’Amico of Hopewell; and a wonderful network of friends from her school days and her professional life.
Her final wish was to have a small garden to brighten the view from the bay window of her living room. A remembrance gathering will be held in the spring when the garden is in bloom. The family requests no flowers.
Arrangements are under the direction of The Mather-Hodge Funeral Home, 40 Vandeventer Avenue, Princeton.