Jerome B. Gracey ’55 died on April 3, 2008.

Born in Needham, Mass., on July 14, 1933, he prepared for college at Needham High School.At Bowdoin, he became a member of the Alpha Rho Upsilon Fraternity, and he played baseball and was a member of the concert band. A magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the London School of Economics after Bowdoin. He was a reserve 1st lieutenant in the U.S. Army and a graduate of Harvard Law School. As a partner with the law firm of Reid & Reige in Hartford, he was a prime mover behind Connecticut’s Professional Corporation Act, which permitted professionals to practice in corporate form and improved the method by which retirement plans could be funded.A resident of Granby for 45 years, he served as a founding member of the Granby Ambulance Association, a director of the Granby Community Fund, a member of the Granby Planning and Zoning Commission, and baseball coach in the Little League and the Babe Ruth Association. He is survived by his wife of 47 years, Marjorie Bacon Gracey; four sons, Ian Gracey of Groton, Mass, Daniel Gracey of Cornwall, Conn., Michael Gracey of Newburyport, Mass., and Dr. Ewart Skinner of Bowling Green, Ohio; two brothers, Adm. James Gracey of Arlington,Va., and Rev. Colin Gracey of Brookline, Mass.; and nine grandchildren.