GOHEEN, RICHARD R. P.

With deepest sorrow we report to his classmates and friends the death of Dick Goheen by his own hand on March 17 [1946] in New York.

Dick was born in Venguria, India, in 1914, and lived in that country until he came to Lawrenceville to prepare for Princeton. Dick’s contribution to our class and college life will be remembered warmly by all of us who were touched by his lively and quickening spirit. He was captain of freshman interclass soccer and was a member of the boxing and rugby teams. In sophomore year he became a news editor of the Princetonian and later contributed a weekly column. Under his editorship as a senior the Nassau Lit took on a new format and a new significance in campus life. He was elected secretary of Whig-Clio and was chairman of the intramural sports program. Dick loved good fellowship, and the charm and sincerity of his manner made him the center of loyalties in all his undertakings.

For several years following graduation Dick was engaged in newspaper work and worked for the Bennington Banner in Bennington, Vt., the N.Y. Sun, the Paris edition of the N.Y. Herald Tribune, and the Chicago City News Service. In 1939 he returned to India to manage a vegetable oil extracting plant for General Foods Corp. at Goa.

After the outbreak of the war he came back home to enlist in the Marines in October 1942 and was commissioned early in the next year and assigned to the 4th Raider Battalion. He led a platoon in the last important operation of the Raiders, the landing at Emirau. When the famous 4th Marine Regiment was reactivated, Dick was assigned to it, and in the assault on Guam he was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action. In the Okinawa campaign Dick was wounded three times and was again cited for bravery when, in the face of a strong enemy attack, he led a small company of Marines in a counter-attack which recaptured three ridges and halted a dangerous enemy threat to our positions. A description of the exploit received wide circulation in the papers at home. After a long hospitalization Dick was able to rejoin his regiment which was honored in being chosen the first Marines ashore on Tokyo Bay after the surrender, and Company E which he then commanded planted the regimental colors on the summit of Fujiyama. Dick’s military record was outstanding and in the highest tradition of the Marine Corps. He was a daring and able officer.

Dick returned to inactive duty in October of last year and resumed his employment with the General Foods Corp. in New York. Dick was suffering from a deep combat fatigue and under medical care he appeared to be improving. Shortly before he died, Dick had resigned his position to seek a new field where he might more directly serve God and his fellow man. Always sensitive, generous and kind, Dick brought to all who knew him a greatness of spirit and a winning warm heart that we shall sorely miss.

To his parents, Dr. and Mrs. Robert R. H. Goheen of New York, his sisters, Mrs. J. Kendall Wallis of Princeton and Mrs. Otis C. Goss of Northampton, Mass., and to his brother, Robert H. Goheen of Princeton, we express our deep-felt sympathy.