Necrology

Prentiss Jay Hastings '70

Nov. 12, 1948-Apr. 15, 2024

Prentiss Jay Hastings ’70 died on April 15, 2024, in Troy, N.Y. Born in the same town on Nov. 12, 1948, he grew up in nearby Cohoes and came to Hamilton from Cohoes High School. On the Hill, he majored in English, with a particular interest in the Romantic poets of the early 19th century, thanks to courses he took with Dwight Newton Lindley. 

Following graduation, Prentiss spent two years in Buffalo, where he spent a brief period at law school. Returning to Troy in 1972 and subsequently residing in Schenectady and later Albany, he joined the firm of Paul G. Van Buskirk & Associates, whose work centered on city planning. Prentiss’s employment included acting as a federal grant coordinator for the company and traveling to Puerto Rico to assist towns, governmental agencies, and businesses apply for federal financial assistance.

The expertise he acquired at the Buskirk firm would constitute the foundation for his subsequent career as an auditor for the State of New York monitoring the use of state funds by local jurisdictions and companies to ensure compliance with the terms and conditions of the grants they received.

Prentiss did not regard his career as foundational to his life, but rather as a means to an end, and that end was continuing engagement with his personal interests: literature, philosophy, music, and his deep Christian faith. He accumulated a personal library of roughly 2,000 volumes, reading widely and voraciously works ranging from ancient Greek and Roman philosophers and histories to more recent authors including Robert Graves, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Hector Hugh Munro, known by his pen name “Saki.” He also immersed himself in the New Testament, with a particular interest in the letters of St. Paul. His musical tastes were also broad, ranging from classical composers such as Johannes Brahms to composers of film soundtracks including Franz Waxman and also Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones.

A zythophile, he enjoyed searching out exotic beers and ales from around the country and, indeed, the world, but never to the exclusion of those from Upstate New York breweries.

Never married, he led what many would consider a cerebral, solitary life. He did, however, have a few close friends to whom he was exceptionally loyal and with whom he was known to share lively and intellectually rigorous correspondence in the traditional, written way. 

Prentiss J. Hastings is survived by his brother, niece and nephew, two grand-nephews, and those few close friends. 

--Prepared in collaboration with Dudley Kimball ’69

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