Alexander “Whip” Buck, 80, died peacefully Oct. 24, surrounded by his family at Capital Healthcare Hospital in Trenton, N.J. He was born Sept. 1, 1930.
Mr. Buck was a gentle man, humble, kind, wise, thoughtful, generous, and was devoted to his family and fiercely loyal to his friends. He attended Haverford School, graduated from The Hun School, and attended Lafayette College before joining the U.S. Marine Corps in 1952, where he served with distinction. He was a business leader and entrepreneur, working for years as a Vice President at SmithKline and French in Trenton, and later founding TDH, Inc., a venture capital firm, with his brothers. His service to a myriad of non-profit organizations helped leave the world a better place. He is an Emeritus trustee of The Hun School of Princeton, The Medical Center at Princeton, Princeton Bank and Trust Company, Kieve Affective Education, Inc., and the YMCA of Princeton, and was a member of Trinity Church of Princeton. In 1996, he and Sally and their children founded Horizon Foundation, Inc, the family foundation now based in Portland. Alexander Buck believed in the power of community, and was widely loved and admired by a host of friends and citizens in Princeton, N.J.; Nobleboro; Hobe Sound, Fla., and Osterville, Mass.
In 1981, Mr. Buck and his two brothers became partners of the Philadelphia Phillies, a team he had cheered since his earliest boyhood. Over the course of their involvement with the Phillies, the team has been to the World Series four times, winning the championship in 2008.
Whip had music in his soul. He sang with the Palmer Squares and enjoyed pounding out hymns and boogie-woogie on the piano. Also an accomplished athlete, he loved playing golf at Beden’s Brook Club, where he was a charter member; played spirited tennis at Pretty Brook Club; and was inducted into the Hun School Athletic Hall of Fame in 1996, recognizing his contributions to the school football and baseball teams in the late-1940s. He sailed, swam, canoed and fished in Maine, where he spent many happy summers since the 1930s. He worked to conserve the land he loved in Nobleboro and Princeton, N.J., deeply believing in the importance of land stewardship.
Mr. Buck is survived by his loving and devoted wife of 56 years, Sara Long Buck; brothers, James Mahlon and William Clifton and their wives and children; sons, Alexander Jr. and Norman Harrison, and their wives, Sissy and Nancy; five grandchildren; and one great-grandson.
In lieu of flowers, please send contributions to Trinity Church in Princeton, where a memorial service will celebrate his life 11 a.m., Thurs., Oct. 28.
Arrangements are under the direction of The Mather-Hodge Funeral Home, Princeton, N.J.
