Necrology

Louis Andrew “Drew” Sisler, Jr. '74

Feb. 2, 1952-Jul. 4, 2024

Louis Andrew “Drew” Sisler, Jr. ’74 died at his home in Manasquan, N.J., on July 4, 2024. Born in Paterson, N.J., on Feb. 2, 1952, he grew up in Glen Rock, N.J., and came to Hamilton from the Hun School in Princeton, N.J.

On the Hill, he was in Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, majored in economics, and was on both the lacrosse and soccer teams. In the spring of his senior year he met Sophie DeVennish K’76, who had transferred to the Hill at the start of that semester. 

After Hamilton, Drew took a semester off to work a series of jobs on Fire Island. Beginning in January 1975, he started taking master’s degree courses in business administration at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He completed the program in 1977. 

By then Sophie was living in Reston, Va., and working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Following his graduation, Drew proposed that they take a driving trip out west, but when Sophie informed him that if they were not married before departing, her father would come after Drew, he amended the proposal to something more permanent and nuptials-based. In June of that year, they tied the knot in her hometown of Columbus, Ohio. They would have three daughters. 

Upon their return to the Washington area, Drew accepted a job as systems analyst with the accounting firm of Arthur Andersen. Later, Andersen sent him to St. Charles, Ill. He traveled to Dallas and Virginia Beach to assist clients in making the transition to computer-based systems. In 1982, he went to Louisiana: he first was transferred to New Orleans and, a year later, went to Lafayette and Baton Rouge before returning to New Orleans in 1984 while working as a management consultant.

Wanting to return to New Jersey to be near family, Drew, Sophie, and Deven, the first of their children, returned to Glen Rock, where Drew became director of management information services for the Church Charity Foundation of Long Island, based in Brooklyn. In her eulogy to her father, Deven noted that he commuted by car and, “if he left before 6 a.m., it was under an hour; if he left after 6, it was two.”

In 1988, he moved on to work for the accounting firm of Ernst & Whinney in Newark, N.J., (a much shorter commute) and, following its merger with Arthur Young to form Ernst & Young, he stayed for several years, after which he worked for Monterrey Media and Smart City Network, companies providing support services for conferences, including the necessary media for presentations and related events.

In 2006, Drew retired, and the family moved to the Jersey Shore town of Manasquan where he had summered as a child and his own family had vacationed. In retirement, he continued to pursue his interest in golf, fishing, and bird hunting. He frequented the Spring Lake Golf Club and hunted at the Woodland Plantation Hunt Club as well as the Woodland Plantation Conservancy. He played a major role in the establishment and development of the conservancy, a 900-acre preserve located in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, overseeing its restoration to promote biodiversity and sustainability. He often fished on the beach at Manasquan, a cooler of beer close at hand, along with a friend with whom to share it.

For Drew, as much as anything else, Hamilton was where he learned to write and to think. Among his mentors were Sidney Wertimer, David Ellis, and Kirkland President Samuel Babbitt, who was also a member of the English Department.

Louis Andrew Sisler, Jr. is survived by his wife, three daughters, and four grandchildren. 

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