Arthur Ellsworth Osborne III (1944-2025)

Bud's wife, Marilyn, sent news of Bud's passing, surrounded by family, at his home in Boca Raton, FL on February 28. The obituary is here and provides time and location for the May 9th Celebration of Life in Boca Raton.

Bud came to Princeton from Evanston, IL and joined Cannon Club. Bud roomed with John DeLiberti, Phil Nicholson, and Richard Hogan (d) freshman year, and sophomore year the group expanded to Thacher, Lumpkin, Hodge, Cruikshank, Al Smith, Hurtubise, Osborne, Wolcott, & Cooper. While he left sophomore year and later graduated from Northwestern, many classmates have fond memories of Bud's time with us and also kept in touch over the ensuing years.

Tributes and Memories

John DiLiberti:

days of summer 1962 ... waiting and pondering the rapidly-nearing experience of college. A first hint arrives when a letter announces our room assignment - 133 Brown Hall and roommates:

Richard Hogan VA

Phillip Nicholson KS

Arthur E Osborne III IL

Looking over this list, my father, who had travelled widely in the U.S., surmised that Arthur, aka Bud, could possibly be a more compatible person to share a bedroom with because he and I had each grown up in suburbs of very large Northern cities - Chicago and NYC. “Father Knows Best” of course - so off went my scrawled letter to Bud asking whether he might be amenable to squeezing into one of our ridiculously tiny bedrooms. I soon received his less-legibly scrawled answer “yes”, and we began planning our “interior decorating”.

My father was either lucky or very prescient in his advice. While all 4 of us got along quite well, Bud and I were both engineering students and night-owls while Dick and Phil were up at dawn and asleep by 9 or 10. Very soon after we arrived, Bud got me addicted to playing Hearts with however many classmates we could round up late at night. Not infrequently we indulged in pizza deliveries, and occasionally beer if my father had filled our refrigerator recently. Dick and Phil, having slept well, enjoyed eating the cold leftover pizza for their early breakfast. While not exactly roommates, Al Smith and Barry Hurtubise occupied an adjacent minuscule double and often slummed in our spacious “den”. They even slept in later than Bud and I - late night studying?! Every so often Bud and I thought it best that they should arise for whatever classes they might otherwise have planned to skip. An automatic 33 rpm record player resided conveniently behind their unlocked and non-squeaking door - allowing us to tiptoe in, place their copy of Red River Rock on the spindle, turn the volume to maximum,

press start, and the first one out would quietly close the door after his sidekick exited. As Bud and I innocently prepared to get to our classes, one of them would come roaring into our room squawking at bull-horn decibel levels. Quite remarkably they learned very slowly, extending our morning entertainment well into the semester. All too soon, the NJ weather took its expected but unwanted turn for the worse - undoubtedly synchronized with our first physics exam, which also proved to be another turn for the worse. And there we were - enshrouded in NJ gloom: a pair of engineering students slogging through physics, calculus, chemistry, and lit - Bud in European and I in Shakespearean - looking forward to Thanksgiving break.

Unfortunately, a few days prior to our highly-anticipated release date, this closely shared [mere] misery turned into hell for Bud. He was called out of class to be told that his girlfriend, Pam, had been killed in an automobile crash the night before. Departing quickly, I’m not sure if he had time to tell any other classmates. Much to my horror, over the next few days, two letters arrived from Pam. I dutifully hid them until a few days after he returned, when I hoped he and I were somewhat more emotionally prepared.

Bud never seemed quite the same. The sparkle in his eyes, sense of humor, and ebullience all seemed to have faded. Looking back with the perspective gained from years of medical training and experience, I suspect the staccato pacing of coming back to campus for a few weeks, traveling home again for a few weeks, and then final exams, may have been detrimental to working through the difficult stages of grieving.

I lost touch with Bud after he left Princeton, but will always be thankful for having such a wonderful roommate and extend my condolences to his family.

Turk Thacher:

Old memories can be tough to “dig” up……..I first met Bud very early freshman year – he was this perpetually happy person from Chicago who lived in Pyne. A small group of us participated in the freshman/sophomore shenanigans leading up to the cane-spree match. He was just a really good all-around guy, fun to be around. When he smiled, which was almost all the time, his whole face would light up. We became very good friends. Sophomore year, a whole bunch of us roomed together in Henry – my feeble mind indicates that the group included: Thacher, Lumpkin, Hodge, Cruikshank, Al Smith, Hurtubise, Osborne, Wolcott, & Cooper…..we had three suites, one for partying (including a classic toga party!) and two for living – it was a fun time leading up to Bicker, when it sort of broke down along club lines. Bud and I joined Cannon together and thoroughly enjoyed our spring semester.

Unfortunately, Bud left Princeton after sophomore year. He returned home, graduated from Northwestern, and the married the love of his life, Marilyn. We stayed in touch for a while – the last time I saw him was at his wedding to Marilyn in 1967.

John Lumpkin:

Bud and I first met within days of arriving on campus our Freshman year. We were both recruited by none other than another new classmate, John Hoover ‘Turk’ Thacher to turn the tables on a number of Sophomores (Class of 1965). You see that-in addition to Cane Spree-there was yet another erstwhile Princeton ‘tradition’ of Sophomores ambushing unsuspecting Freshmen in the ‘dead of night’ to deftly cut their class numeral (in this case a roman ‘V’) in the back of one’s head of hair. Well, speaking of unsuspecting, and led by our fearless leader, Bud, I and a few other classmates surreptitiously entered a few entry ways in Holder (the bastion of the Sophomores) and did our own shearing-in this case it was a ‘VI’ in a few ’65 heads of hair! Thus began a friendship which later resulted in Bud, Turk and I deciding to room together with a few other characters our Sophomore year. I say characters because we each ended up with nicknames like Candy, Hopalong, Jersey Joe. Cuppa, Yaya Yumpkin and Olegani Osborne. Above all. a lasting memory of Bud during the time we were together at Princeton was that he was a true friend who cared. Always upbeat with a huge smile on his face.

Fast forward to maybe the last decade when I reconnected with Bud ‘just because’. Over the ensuing years he and I have spent our periodic phone visits continuing to ‘catch up’ with each other-with his spouse Marilyn (the love of his life) joining us from time to time. Our conversations were invariable centered on family. In Bud’s case, he and Marilyn saw to it that their family would always find time to have one or more family trips each year-be it Beaver Creek, Marathon or somewhere else. Bud had his priorities straight: Faith, family and friends. For those of our Classmates who have their 50^th Reunion jacket, I found the name of ‘Arthur E. Osborne III’ in the lining of mine this afternoon.

Frank Nuessle:

The last time I saw Bud was in October of 1966. I stopped at his place in Evanston, Il on my way across the U.S. to join the Navy and pick up my ship in Long Beach, CA. It was a long trip in an MG convertible. I remember Bud from Cannon Club because he was the guy that was always meticulously dressed. Down in the green room, most of us were dressed to throw beer at each other all night, but not Bud. He got wet but he never looked disheveled. He was also the guy with a perpetual smile. Bud always seemed like he was in a good mood; he had it handled. If memory serves, I think he left Princeton voluntarily after Sophomore year, but I never learned why. We were friends while he was at Princeton so it was really good to see him in October, once Lippincott let me graduate so that I could then join the Navy.

If you have photos or memories that you wish to share, please send them to the '66 Memorial Team (66_MemorialTeam@tiger1966.org). We will add them to this page.