OBITS: Three U.S. Oxonians - Prentice, Darrow, Woodfield

William C. H, Prentice

PRENTICE, William C. H., d. July 28, 2013. Rhodes Scholar and college president. Died in Schenectady, NY. Obituary notice in the NY Times of August 4, 2012, p. 21. He is a 1937 graduate of Swarthmore and presumably matriculated at Oxford that fall. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard in psychology in1942.

He was recruited for the Clandestine National Defense Research Committee during WW2. He became chairman of the psychology dept at Swarthmore, then President of Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., 1962-1975.

Peter Darrow

DARROW, Peter V., d. May 19, 2013. Athlete and attorney, died in at NY Presbyterian Hospital New York City. He was a resident of NYC and Sag Harbor, NY. His obituary appears in the East Hampton Star of May 23, 2013 and notices were in the NY Times. He graduated from Columbia in 1972, attended Trinity College for the next two years, and then attended the University of Michigan Law School.

He was associated as an attorney with Mayer Brown and DLA Piper. Since 2008 he was married to Denise Seegal. With his first wife Leni he had two children, Meredith and Peter. He was President of the Trinity College, Oxford Society USA.

Denis B. Woodfield

WOODFIELD, Denis Buchanan, d. April 11, 2013. Formerly of Rye, N.Y., died in Princeton, New Jersey. He was born in New York City in 1933, the year that the New York City Oxford-Cambridge Dinner, which he chaired, started. His formative years were spent in Switzerland, where he attended The College de Vevey, and graduated from Harvard University, class of 1954, aged 20. Deferring his acceptance to Lincoln College, Oxford, he served in the U.S. military, attending the Army Language School in Monterey, California to learn Russian. 

He was then sent to the 513th Military Intelligence in Germany to be Chief US Army Interpreter, Armed Forces Central Europe for three years. Returning to civilian life, he attended Oxford, graduating with a D.Phil. in English bibliography. He was a life-long lover and buyer of rare books. His book Surreptitious Printing in England, 1550-1640, became a valuable commodity. Married in London, England, in 1963, to Rosemary Humphries, the couple moved to Rye. At this time, he was employed by the Chase Manhattan Bank. Three years later, he went to work for General Electric followed by six years with Pan American World Airways as director of Cash and Banking. 

Moving to Princeton, NJ, he joined Johnson & Johnson, where he spent 20 years in finance, including as Assistant Treasurer for Cash and Banking. He published four books and for many years was Chairman of the Executive Committee of the British Schools and Universities Foundation. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, in 2012. He was active in the Society of the Cincinnati of the State of New Jersey, the Society of Colonial Wars and the Mayflower Society, and the Baronial Order of the Magna Carta.