Page 60 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 94, No. 2 Winter 2014

60
1962
W. Sean O’Donoghue
of Manhattan
died on October 3,
2013, at the age
of 69.
Born on July 2,
1944, Mr. O’Don-
oghue attended
the Bedford-
Rippowam School
in Bedford, N.Y.,
before entering St. Paul’s as a Third
Former in 1958. He received a First
Dickey Prize in History and earned
Second Testimonials.
Mr. O’Donoghue played football and
hockey for Delphian and rowed with
Halcyon. He was a member of Le Cercle
Français and the John Winant Society.
Mr. O’Donoghue went on to Princeton
University and graduated with the Class
of 1966. He served in the U.S. Army in
Vietnam as a Lieutenant from 1966 to
1969. He was awarded the Bronze Star.
After his return from Vietnam, he
worked as a management consultant for
Brown Brothers Harriman & Company;
Booz, Allen and Hamilton; the New York
Stock Exchange; Chemical Bank; MJHS,
Inc.; and the Department of the Treasury,
Internal Revenue Service.
Mr. O’Donoghue was predeceased by
his parents, William and Rosemary, and
a brother, Peter ’65. He is survived by his
brother, Michael.
1967
James Hamilton Geer Jr.
of Tryon, S.C.,
died June 23,
2013. He was 64.
Born Novem-
ber 2, 1948, in
Spartanburg, S.C.,
he was the only
child of Josephine
Sessions and
James Hamilton
Geer, and great-grandson of James L.
Hamilton of the Form of 1878. Mr. Geer
prepared for St. Paul’s at Rye Country
Day School in Rye, N.Y.
He entered SPS as a Second Former
in the fall of 1962 and quickly became
involved in all that Millville had to offer.
He played soccer and basketball for
Isthmian, participated in SPS boxing,
and rowed with the first Shattuck crew.
Mr. Geer sang with the Choir and Glee
Club, acted in various dramatic perfor-
mances, wrote for the Horae Scholasti-
cae, was a member of the Propylean
Literary Society, and served as a Fifth
Form Proctor in Ford House.
Following his graduation from SPS,
Mr. Geer joined the Class of 1971 at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, eventually earning his M.B.A. at the
University of Georgia at Athens in 1977
and his J.D. from the University of South
Carolina at Columbia in 1980. His career
included a stint in prison programming
and counseling at the North Carolina
Department of Corrections. He was a
counselor in the Charlotte-Mecklenberg
School System and was an attorney and
counselor at law at the Geer Law Offices
on Long Island. Mr. Geer was a member
of the Florida and South Carolina Bar
Associations and the U.S. Supreme Court
Bar Association.
Mr. Geer was active in his community
as a volunteer at Thermal Belt Friendship
Council and at the Found-a-Friend Pro-
gram. He also enjoyed acting in many
productions at the Tryon Little Theater,
including performances of Cat on a Hot
Tin Roof, Kiss Me, Kate, Visit to a Small
Planet, The Fantasticks, and A Christmas
Carol.
Mr. Geer is survived by his father, James
Hamilton Geer; his brothers, Christopher
Potter Geer and Michael Danforth Geer;
and his sisters, Penelope Echo Reardanz
and Suzanne Delight Geer. He was pre-
deceased by his mother, Josephine Ses-
sions Geer, who instilled in him a love
for the South.
1968
David Alexander Tait
beloved father, husband, son, brother,
professor, friend, and devoted member of
St. Elijah Antiochian Orthodox Christian
Church in Oklahoma City, Okla., died
tragically on November 19, 2013. Mr. Tait,
62, was struck by a car while walking
across a rural highway to deliver food as
part of his ministering to a community
of friends residing near Chandler, Okla.
Mr. Tait was born on March 13, 1951,
in Washington, D.C., the oldest of five
children born to the Rev. Charles W. Tait
and Dr. Katharine Russell Tait. He spent
his childhood between the United States,
England, and Uganda, where his parents
were missionaries, before coming to St.
Paul’s School in 1963.
Mr. Tait was known to be an activist
on campus and was appreciated by both
students and faculty for his concerns, his
ability to express himself, and his willing-
ness to stand independently. He served
as president of the Acolyte Guild in 1968.
He also served on the Chapel Advisory
Committee and was vice president of the
Press Club that year. He was a reporter
for the Concord Monitor. In addition,
Mr. Tait was a member of the Student
Council, the John Winant Society, Le
Cercle Franç ais, the Missionary Society,
the Library Association, the Palamedean
Society, and the Parnassian Classics
Society. He sang in the Choir. Mr. Tait
managed the SPS basketball team as a
Sixth Former.
DECEASED