Gary Bernard Mount (1944-2025)

Gary died December 29, 2025, just weeks after the Class presented him with The Locomotive Award, in recognition of his considerable contributions to the Class, the Princeton community, and the State of New Jersey. The cause was glioblastoma brain cancer.

 
Born in Princeton, Gary grew up on Mount Farms, an apple and peach farm in Lawrence Township, outside Princeton. He graduated from Princeton High School, where he lettered in football and track and where he met Pam Hazenhal, who would become his wife and life-long partner.
 
At Princeton, he majored in psychology, belonged to Tiger Inn, played rugby, and ran track. Senior year he roomed with Tim Smith, John Hamilton, and Jon Waage. He graduated magna com laude.
 

In 1967, Gary and Pam married. They spent three transformative years working together as Peace Corps volunteers in Micronesia, in the South Pacific.

 

 

Returning to the Princeton area, the couple determined to devote their lives to farming. They bought 55-acre Terhune Orchards, on Cold Soil Road, Princeton. Through hard work and commitment to a vision, they grew the farm into a thriving 250-acre enterprise retail farming operation producing apples and 44 other crops. In addition to its crops, the farm includes a winery, farm animal zoo, performance venue, and farm products store.

 

 
In the early 1980s, through New Jersey Future, Gary spearheaded the grassroots effort that led to passage of the Farmland Preservation Act of 1982, enabling farmers to sell their development rights to state or local governments or conservation groups with restrictions dedicating the land to farming. Today, a third of New Jersey farmland, including Terhune Orchards, is preserved under the act.
 

Gary was active in securing funding for preservation of the Watershed Organic Farm and served on the board of the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association. He was a commissioner of the New Jersey Water Supply Authority, led several New jersey agricultural organizations, and was a trustee of the International Fruit Tree Association. In 2005, American Fruit Grower Magazine named him to its Hall of Fame.

 

Gary and Pam hosted numerous '66 class dinners at Terhune Orchards after the P-rade. These dinners, a highlight of off-year reunions, included presentation of the class Locomotive Award on several occasions as well as singing performances by the Tigerlillies. Gary also enjoyed hosting a tour of Terhune by hitching one of his many tractors to a large wagon loaded with '66 classmates, spouses, and friends.

 

After 35 years of writing articles for the quarterly Terhune Orchards newsletter, Gary compiled his work in a book titled A Farmer’s Life: Notes from Terhune Orchards.

 

Gary was active in the local rowing association, serving as captain, then treasurer of the Carnegie Lake Rowing Association.

 

Gary and Pam’s two daughters, Reuwai Hanewald ‘94 and Tannwen Mount ’98, along with their spouses, now manage and operate the farm. They have continued the tradition of hosting the Class of 1966 at alumni gatherings. Gary recently shared his experiences with the Class in a Tiger Talk.

The Mount Family in 2016

Anyone seeking an example of a life well lived should consider Gary Mount.

Gary and Tractors

Gary wrote an essay in the 45th Reunion Book about farmers and their tractors, reprinted in his book mentioned above, A Farmer’s Life: Notes from Terhune Orchards. The essay is titled Tractors and the Farmers Who Love Them. A tractor tribute to Gary was spotted at Terhune Orchards.

More About Gary's Life

Nassau Herald

Memories and Tributes

Jim Merritt:

With Gary’s passing our class lost a dear old friend.
 
I didn’t know Gary as an undergraduate but knew of him — he was a big guy and hard to miss. He and I took the two-term behavioral psychology class in freshman year, which for nonscience types like myself fulfilled the university’s laboratory science requirement. In the weekly lab we divided into teams and performed experiments on rats in a Skinner box; Gary’s team was next to mine. (Gary went on to major in psychology, graduating with high honors.)
 
Nancy and I met Gary and Pam in 1976 — their daughter Reuwai and our daughter Melissa were enrolled in the same nursery school. I’d recently started work in Princeton’s communications office and the Mounts had recently purchased Terhune Orchards, borrowing to the hilt and maxing out on their credit card to do so. Gary had grown up on an apple farm a few miles from campus and came from a long line of Central New Jersey farmers stretching back nine generations, to the 1700s.
 
Gary knew lots about growing apples but next to nothing about the business of farming, and the first few years were a struggle. Once, in the mid-1980s, the Mounts invited us to an informal dinner party. It happened to be Super Bowl Sunday, and I assumed it would be a Super Bowl party, but nobody even mentioned the Super Bowl and there was no TV in sight. Later, Gary told me they owned a TV but he’d become addicted to it — watching in six-hour blitzes as an escape from financial anxieties — so he’d stashed it in a closet.
 
But the Mounts prevailed, and their business grew ... and grew. Today, Terhune Orchards is a community asset enjoyed by 700,000 visitors a year. What started out as a 55-acre property is now 250 acres growing more than 50 varieties of crops, with a winery and a host of family activities. For years now it’s also been the venue for our class gatherings following the P-rade. We’re deeply grateful to Pam and Gary for making it so.
 
On November 5, the class honored Gary with a Locomotive Award for his role in farmland preservation. The presentation was made in the airy, sunlit space of Terhune winery, with classmates, children and grandchildren, and farming friends in attendance. Fourteen months earlier, Gary had been diagnosed with a brain tumor, and by this point he was confined to a wheelchair and could no longer easily communicate. In accepting the award, his daughters, Reuwai and Tannwen (’94 and ’98, respectively), spoke eloquently on his behalf.
 
I had the privilege of presenting the award. I noted that in honoring Gary we were also honoring Pam, his partner in life and work for 60-plus years. Pam and Gary started dating as students at Princeton High School. They dated throughout Gary’s four years at Princeton, married in 1967, and spent three transformative years as Peace Corps volunteers in Micronesia, in the South
Pacific.
 
In those last few months, Nancy and I routinely visited with Pam and Gary for a Sunday lunch of Terhune cider and mac-and-cheese. The Locomotive Award held pride of place in the center of their kitchen table. Gary would gesture to his home-health aide (a huge, amiable Ghanan named Godwin) to hand it to him so he could admire it up close. He regarded it as the greatest honor of his life.
 

We miss you, Gary. Our hearts go out to your dear Pam and wonderful family.

 

Ned Groth (added Jan 10):

Gary and I were good but not close friends. We took a couple of courses together; as a biology major interested in animal behavior I took several psychology courses and he was in some of them. He was an easy guy to get to know and like. When we'd run into each other on campus we'd always stop to exchange greetings and catch up.
 
Fast forward to 1989. A controversy developed over a chemical called Alar, sprayed on apples. It (actually a chemical it broke down into) posed a cancer risk. The EPA wanted to ban it, and Ralph Nader was promoting a boycott of apples. The apple growers association pledged that they were no longer using it. But Consumers Union (my own little test program) had been testing apples and apple juice for Alar, and they were using it, more than half the samples contained Alar.
 
I was invited to appear on 60 Minutes to present our test data. The country went bonkers for a couple of weeks in a major "food scare." There's a whole lot of nuances I don't have time to talk about, but suffice it to say that everyone made mistakes and we all -- apple growers, consumer advocates, government regulators, reporters -- learned the hard way about how to handle such "risk communication" issues better "next time."
 
A few months after the craziness, I was invited to be part of a panel discussion at the meeting of the International Apple Association in San Diego, on "Lessons learned from the Alar Controversy." I gave a candid and probably insightful account from my perspective. Afterwards, a few members of the audience came up to chat, and there was Gary, who greeted me warmly and said words to the effect of "I am so glad you were involved in this and did what you did. It was a real wakeup call for the industry, and boy, did we need it."
 
In fact the controversy had positive long term effects on apple growers, leading them to be far more diverse in the varieties grown (and thus more resistant to market disruptions) and also instilling in growers a greater sensitivity to the legitimate consumer concerns about pesticide residues. Gary was ahead of the curve in seeing the need for the industry to grow in those ways.
 
When Sharon and I lived in the NYC suburbs, we took the kids to pick apples at Terhune Orchards a few times, and it was always a treat to see Gary and Pam at reunions. He was an incredibly solid citizen, one of our many great ones, and I will miss him a lot.

 

Bruce Furie (Written in 2025, before Bruce's death in November):

I first properly met Gary at his farm when the class gave me the Locomotive Award at our 51st reunion. After dinner I walked with him from the barn and told him, although we had never previously spoken, I remembered him as the nude model in a Creative Drawing class that I took at Princeton. Probably sophomore year. He remembered—anything to make a little money! I didn’t know at the time that he was a classmate.

 

David Williams:

I know many of you know Gary Mount and most likely have attended functions at Terhune Orchards during Reunions. Gary sent the email below to the eight sophomore year Henry Hall roommates (see routing on email).  The Spring 2025 issue of Princeton Magazine is attached (click here - Cover below). It tells the remarkable story of how Gary and Pam became farmers.

We have Gary and Pam to thank for championing legislation in NJ that has resulted in farmland preservation. A version was adopted in Wisconsin which benefited us greatly at our farm. Previously farmland was property taxed at its highest and best use. So that meant that it was taxed at the value of land that would be developed for subdivisions. Pursuant to the legislation  our 100 acres was taxed as farmland therefore we could afford to lease it at favorable rent to our neighbor farmer. Subsequently this past fall we sold the land to the neighbor farmer. It will continue to be farmed and has been saved from suburban sprawl.

Tim Smith:

I roomed with Gary in the Class of 1939 Hall during our senior year along with Andy Zimmerman, John Hamilton, Jon Waage, and our two absentee roommates Glenn Goltz (already married!) and Gib Hentschke (living at Terrace Club as its president and soon to be married!). I remember almost every night watching Gary running out of our suite to feed and observe the mice that were part of his psychology professor’s research and his senior year thesis. I remember his romance with Pam and raucous but jovial party week-ends with him and Pam.
 
After graduation he and I had little contact except when he and Pam would host class dinners at Terhune Orchards and on one occasion several years after graduation when I was visiting Andy Zimmerman in his apartment on Washington Heights in Manhattan while Andy was enrolled at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. Gary and Pam were visiting Andy at the same time and when they arrived they looked like straight out of central casting as South Sea Islanders with tank tops, shorts, no shoes, brown as berries, etc. They had just returned from serving as Peace Corp volunteers somewhere in the South Sea Islands. I remember thinking at the time that he and Pam would likely be happiest if their next stop in life would be to discover the equivalent of a South Sea Island here in the US! They seemed called to an agricultural life working the land as they had helped South Sea islanders to do. As we now know, the South Sea Island where they served in the Peace Corps. was transformed into Terhune Orchards, a green agricultural island unto itself not in the middle of an ocean but in the middle of a densely populated, highly developed area of New Jersey! 
 
In 2020 all of the former roommates including David Williams decided that the best way to keep our sanity and provide group support during what would likely be an arduous and scary pandemic was to have a monthly roommate call on Zoom. This monthly “roommate roundup” still continues five years later. Gary occasionally joined us In spite of the demands of Terhune Orchards and family and later of the illness which resulted in his recent death. 
 
I remember arriving early virtually to one of our monthly roommate roundups on Zoom and he was there as well. In those few minutes before other former roommates arrived, he and I had an unforgettable conversation. I could have asked him many questions about Terhune Orchards, and he could have told me about all of his impressive achievements and accomplishments. Instead, he asked me questions about my family, my role in the church where I served as parish deacon, and life in San Francisco. He congratulated me on receiving the class Locomotive Award. 
 

This experience reaffirmed to me that in addition to Pam, the other members of his family, and Terhune Orchards his passions in life included taking a profound and sustaining interest in the lives of roommates, friends, and others whose paths he had crossed. I am proud to have been a friend, classmate, roommate, and member of a monthly roommate Zoom group for more than five years with our beloved Gary. His life blessed the lives of all of us roommates and many, many others. To Pam, daughters Tannwen and Reuwai, and all of their loved ones I offer my deepest condolences.

 

Guy Woelk:

It isn’t until the heart of a community passes that we begin to reflect on the importance of the very few individuals who through hard work, dedication and constant good will have shaped the town in which we live. Gary was the heart of Terhune Orchards; he and his family created it, nurtured it, and made it thrive, and his legacy will live very long in our hearts and in our town’s memory.

 

Nancy Woelk s'66:

Gary’s presence will never be lost on the farm.
 
Apples may fall, corn harvested & pies and wine for all to enjoy will remain.
 
We will remember him on his tractor proudly carrying visitors about to tour & learn about Terhune Orchards.
 
His good will, his smile and generosity to the Princeton Class of’66 and the wider community will be etched in our memories.
 
Teach them how to grow acres of Orchards up there, Gary !

 

Jon Waage:

There is little I can add to what has already been said about Gary. I roomed with the group Tim mentioned during junior year and remember talking with Gary on a number of occasions about his psychology senior thesis work. I got to see Gary and Pam a few times in the summer between JR and Sr year when I stayed in Princeton to do work on my thesis. Thanks to Tim Smith’s efforts to have roommate Zoom meetings these past years, I have learned so much more about Gary. His wonderful book, "A Farmer’s Life,” has filled in a lot of blanks, and as others have mentioned, clearly showed how great his contributions have been to the world through the Peace Corps and to the farmers and people of New Jersey through the roles he has played in promoting sound agricultural practices and legislation. As an educator, I am in awe of how he and Pam have produced not only an amazing farm but also the educational environment for young and old that is so essential for helping them understand where their food actually comes from.
 

Perhaps what stands out to me most about Gary is how he has transformed his education at Princeton and his energy into so many areas that have had such a positive impact on others. So many students go through college so focused on grades and majors that will “get them somewhere” that they miss getting an education that enables them to meet and deal with a broad range of things they never “studied in college”. Gary is a perfect example of what you can do with an education and a fearless desire to make something out of nothing and help others do the same.

 

Andy Zimmerman:

Gary Mount was exceptional in many ways. Foremost to me was that he was truly "down home" from Princeton H.S. and close to nature, having grown up on his family farm close by. He was good at anything he chose .... most notably perhaps, his major in psychology and graduation with high honors (?magna cum laude). He felt obliged to go to grad school, to become a "professional" like many of his classmates. As I recall, his father died suddenly in the fall of our first year after graduation and he returned to help out at home. Soon after marriage with Pam, they decided to serve in the Peace Corps, on the island of Satawal in the South Pacific (I took over their VW bug). They immersed themselves and gave their best to the people and loved the land and customs.  I recall they realized the connection people can have to the land and each other, a culture they later fostered for many years at their own farm. On their return from their service on Satawal, Gary tried dealing in real estate with his brother, but it became clear that both he and Pam wanted to have their own farm.....not just any farm, but one that would reflect their own values.  From the outset, they sought to engage others on the farm, with open house "apple days" from the start, with fun activities for children and families. They fostered their own family and engaged many in caring for the farm and orchards. Gary was active in the agricultural community and he and Pam gave a lot back in support of Princeton over the years, as our Class well knows. Many felt Gary's good nature and outgoing personality. He was a true friend and admired by many, perhaps most for his devotion to his family, farming, and the land.

 

John Hamilton:

Gary and Pam together were able to make extraordinary things happen because both were highly intelligent, endlessly creative farmers who were fearless in scaling it up both on the farm and ultimately across New Jersey. They kept adding and adding to Terhune, expanding the number of crops he grew, how people picked them, how to make wine from some of them, how to store them (100% nitrogen works best), and how to create a Disneyland feel to the property that kids loved while still managing the liability issues, and finally making it a wonderful experience for his daughters and their children. But wait! It was also the country music and rock and roll site of choice for many bands and their fans. I also remember his mentioning that Joyce Carol Oates used to come out to Terhune regularly and that she had a special interest in the cats. He described her as rather quiet and often by herself. I have always loved the fact that Terhune seemed to be a comfort and balm to the creator of such horrifying stories. 
 
And did he ever take care of his tractors! I asked him once at dinner how many tractors he had. He only told me a bit later and then in a whisper when Pam was talking to someone else. "Twenty seven." He never to my knowledge sold one or gave one away. Instead, he was adept at keeping then running as a challenging hobby. 
 

When he was made a lifetime member of the Princeton Varsity Club, he said it was about time something like that happened since he had been finish line announcer for Princeton rowing for over twenty years.

 

Glenn Goltz:

1. “We Need Lots of Beer”
 
In the beginning of our sophomore year all the roommates were pulling together to furnish our new suite at 232 Henry which we named the “Harriman Suite” because we were all optimistic democrats.
 
On that early Saturday morning Gary asked if I would go with him to his uncle’s farm on Route 1 to pick up an old refrigerator we needed in our bar “just for lots beer”.  Gary had an ancient, rusty, beat-up Chevy farm pick up truck, with no plates, he kept hidden near-by at the Seminary.
 
After checking that the bulky refrigerator  was still working we loaded it in the bed of the truck with some uncertainty for our safety and and headed from Route 1 up Alexander Street and down Nassau street then took a short cut around the First Presbyterian Church.  Gary abruptly, but carefully, edged to the steps descending from Blair Arch and in a masterful display of wide diagonal sweeps getting safely to the base of the steps.  Quickly speeding around the U-Store and University Place he calmly drove up two sets of outside steps to our Henry Hall suite exclaiming  “That was sure fun”.
 
I called out to our roommates for help, but Gary insisted he could do this himself.  After a little positioning attention Gary lifted the heavy burden sherpa style on his back and after negotiating the steps, several narrow hallways and three outer rooms set down the refrigerator in the bar, plugged it in and said “now lets drive back to Stewarts Liquor Store on Nassau, get some cases of “Ballentine”  “We gotta fill this puppy up”.  We did.
 
By sun down the suite was lightly furnished and the beer was icy cold.
 
From that moment on each of us have spent over sixty years being constantly and continually in awe of Gary and mindful that his requests would be adventures and fun.
 
 
2. “Something Better Will Come Along”
 
Shortly after Pam and Gary turned  the management of Terhune Orchards to their daughters they were able to spend some summer time canal cruising with us in France.  Our ease was interrupted by a frantic call from New Jersey that armies of beetles had attached their new “pick your own” stone fruit trees.  Three years of work and expense was now seriously endangered.
 
Gary and Pam sprung into action and the next thirty-six hours were spent calling and emailing beetle control experts in different part of the world. All to no avail.
 
The next morning I tried to commiserate with Gary and comfort him for their loss, but he wouldn’t have it.  “No”, he said “something better is going to come along. It wasn’t the right thing or the the right time to do this”.
 
About three years later I was walking with Gary on the farm after dinner and he said “Go over there an twist off one of those peaches.  Get one that has lots of red on it.”  I took one bite and sweet juice ran down from my wrist to my elbow. The flesh was firm and sweet.  “That’s our secret weapon. It’s bug resistant and we can store them in Nitrogen with the apples.  After anyone has on they never buy another stone fruit in the supermarket.  They keep coming back to the farm.”
 
Then , Gary stopped and smiled, “Didn’t I tell you in France that “Something Better Will Come Along”?
 
This thinking is what I will miss most in being with Gary.

 

Henry Von Kohorn:

The way to measure a life is the impact one has on others. Gary’s life was truly consequential. He will be greatly missed.

Gary with Henry Von Kohorn, Alumni Day 2020

Gib Hentschke:

Each of Gary’s friends will have a personal, even unique, take on Gary depending on the specifics of the time that each of us enjoyed with him. When I try to sum it up Gary over 60 years, from our early times together as undergraduates up until now, three dimensions of Gary rise to the top of my brain and stay there throughout our years of friendship.

 

Gary was a “regular guy”. He was one of us, even when some of us weren’t entirely sure who “we” and “they” were. He loved having a good time, including the near fiasco of moving a giant old upright piano plus a few beers to the second floor of Henry Hall. While deeply thoughtful, he was at the same time plain spoken and to the point. His views made great sense to me.

 

Gary was an “adventurer”. Life for Gary was always an exhilarating work in progress, whether it was marrying Pam, joining the Peace Corps, buying a farm, moving further into organic farming, building a community-supportive business, raising a family, building another barn, rowing, tackling regional geopolitics, and so on. He was always propelled forward, drawn more to the possibilities than fearful of the obstacles that likely lay ahead.

 

Gary was a “storm anchor”. Even in the midst of those many initiatives, evolving circumstances, and the passage of time, Gary kept an “even keel” in all that he loved and pursued. He had a true north, and his take on life was to me as wise and worthy as that of anyone I have had the privilege of knowing.

 

Yes, I and many others will miss him greatly. His departure leaves a big hole in my heart.

 

Carl Corey:

As it happens, my nephew [almost little brother] Ken and his Brazilian wife, Rosana live adjacent to Washington Crossing State Park. In recent years they have become frequent visitors/customers at Terhune Orchards. Once, they even engaged Gary in conversation to mention that they knew me, only to find out he didn't have any idea who I was [though he emphasized his open invitation for me to visit, especially for class gatherings].
 
However, my nephew and his bride went on at length to say how much they admired what he and Pam had done, beyond setting up a successful business, for both the local and wider communities; specifically citing their community mindedness, their conservation efforts and general leadership including, apparently, Pam's considerable work in local government.
 
He is certainly one classmate I wish I had gotten to know better.

 

Jon Holman:

I am not one of those classmates who has known Gary forever. But in my role as Co-Chair of Reunions for '66 (with Frank Nuessle), I've gotten to know Gary and Pam quite well because of our many dinners at Terhune.
 
It's trite to say that someone is a nice guy. Many of us try to be nice. But Gary was incredibly nice. No one could miss it.
 
He also was incredibly serious about his chosen career. He never planned to be a farmer, but having made that life choice with Pam, they really dove into it. He cared deeply about the science. He cared deeply about preserving varieties, and using innovative methods, and caring for the land and preserving land for farming. He was deeply admired by his farming peers. And he really cared about the environment. My enduring image of him will be from one night a few years ago, as classmates were arriving for our dinner at Terhune, when the Tigerlilies arrived in one of the University's brand new electric buses. I truly thought that Gary was going to levitate. He went all around the room telling everyone how important it was and how great it was. His excitement was palpable.
 

No one is replaceable. But Gary is near the top of the list of the irreplaceable.

 

 

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.