Necrology

John Winthrop Judson '73

Dec. 5, 1951-Apr. 25, 2022

John Winthrop Judson ’73 died on April 25, 2022, in Greenwich, Conn. Born in Greenwich on Dec. 5, 1951, he came to Hamilton from Suffield (Conn.) Academy. On the Hill, he majored in political science and was both a member of Sigma Phi fraternity and an officer in it during his senior year.

He was a swimmer on the College team during his first two years and also played water polo as a sophomore and a junior. He was a member of the Block “H” Club and was on the staff of both The Spectator and The Hamiltonian. It was on the Hill that John met Majorie Oppenheimer K’75. They married in New York City in 1977 and, two years later, returned to John’s hometown of Greenwich where they resided thereafter.

By that time, John was an assistant treasurer and commercial lending officer at Chase Manhattan Bank, where he started following graduation and a nine-month period of travel. He started as a credit analyst after he joined the bank in late 1974. By the end of the 1970s, John was working as an investment banker for the Irving Trust Co. in New York and by 1980 had been promoted to vice president. Shortly thereafter, he accepted a position in the bond division of First Boston Corp., an investment bank and subsidiary of Credit Suisse, where he became a partner in 1990. He focused on raising capital for various bank clients and, by the summer of 1991, had a hand in raising over $80 billion. 

Late in the 1990s, he rejoined Chase Manhattan as an investment banker. In 2000, Chase Manhattan merged with J. P. Morgan & Co., becoming J.P. Morgan Chase. Following the merger and an internal reorganization, part of John’s investment banking unit was absorbed by a different department, and in 2002, he was let go after almost 30 years. Faced with a potential career roadblock, he chose to go in a completely new direction.

 Beginning in September of that year, John registered for his first classes in landscape design at the New York Botanical Garden. By the end of 2003, he had all of the courses he needed to start a second career in the field and established a landscape design business in Greenwich. Within three years he had more business than he could handle, with customers located throughout Fairfield County, Conn.

John was an avid golfer who could be seen regularly on the links of the Greenwich Country Club, where he was a lifelong member. He also enjoyed tennis, squash, and badminton, as well as running and swimming. In retirement, he worked in his home garden and spent time with his labrador retriever, Benny. He recalled in his 10th reunion yearbook that among his fond memories of his time on the Hill was raising labrador puppies in the Sigma Phi house. 

John regarded his time at the College as simply “the best four years of my life” and repaid Hamilton by serving on both the 175th Anniversary Campaign and the Campaign for the ’90s, for which he served as vice chair of the special gifts committee in the Fairfield County region. He was also a member of his class and reunion gift committees.

John W. Judson is survived by his wife, four children, and one grandson.

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