Magnus Lagercrantz
Died April 2000
Magnus entered Yale in September, 1961, having prepared at Sigtunaskolan Humanistiska Laroverket, one of Sweden’s leading boarding schools.
While at Yale, he resided in Stiles, majored in English, played freshman hockey and was tapped for Skull and Bones.
Classmates report that Magnus had a successful banking career in Europe and Asia at some of the world’s most prominent financial institutions but is mostly remembered for his larger-than-life personality, extraordinary and perceptive wit, adventurous spirit and zest for life.
Magnus passed away in April, 2000 in Stockholm, Sweden, survived by his wife, Helene, son, Carl, and daughter, Anna.
Jonathan Hall remembers:
I have a picture of Magnus on his motorcycle at East Rock. It is fall and the colors of the leaves are brilliant. I must have just met him because it was fall freshman year. He was a great spirit.
John Pinney remembers:
Whenever I’m asked where I was when President Kennedy was assassinated, I tell them on the back of Magnus’ motorcycle heading back to New Haven at a speed in excess of posted limits. He was letting me put my date up in his apartment for Harvard weekend, and when we got back to the campus we learned what had happened. Magnus was a good banker, and a hell of a motorcyclist, but he would have been a better poet or novelist.