Name Joseph Frelinghuysen, Died January 8, 2005 Grandparents Victoria Sherman | Role Author Education Princeton University | |
Parents Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen, Sr. Books Keep Your Heart Running: A Graduated Total Health and Fitness Program for People of All Ages, Passages to Freedom Great-grandparents Richard M. Sherman, Elizabeth Gluck | ||
Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen Jr. (August 11, 1912 – January 8, 2005) was the author of Passages to Freedom, about his escape from a prison camp in Italy during World War II.
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Early life
Frelinghuysen was born in East Hampton, New York, the son of Emily Brewster Frelinghuysen and Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen Sr., a New Jersey state senator and later U.S. senator. In 1916, he was painted as a young boy, with his mother in a full length portrait by the Swiss-born American artist Adolfo Müller-Ury, which was later donated to the Newark Museum in New Jersey. He graduated from Princeton University in 1934.
Service and career
During World War II, he served as an artillery captain in the First Infantry Division in North Africa. Members of his family had served in the military since the Revolutionary War. On November 23, 1942 he was captured by German troops and taken to a prison camp in Italy. He and another American POW, Richard M. Rossbach, escaped on September 23, 1943 by crawling through the camp's wire fences. The British Eighth Army, which they had hoped to join, was stationed on the other side of the Apennines. Though the Germans briefly recaptured Rossbach, they both succeeded in rejoining the Allied forces.
After the war, Frelinghuysen worked in insurance and later managed the family dairy business in Somerville, New Jersey.
Personal life
Frelinghuysen married Emily Lawrance (1911-2004), the daughter of Charles Lawrance (1882–1950) and Emily Margaret Gordon Dix. Dix was the daughter of Rev. Morgan Dix (1827–1908), the rector of Trinity Parish. Together, they had:
At the end of his life, Frelinghuysen was living in Far Hills, New Jersey and died of pneumonia on January 8, 2005 in Morristown, New Jersey.