Percy Crosby died on August 12, 2004 according to information received by the college. The circumstances of his death are not known.

He came to Dartmouth from the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. where he was valedictorian of his class. His nickname, Skip, came about because his father drew a popular comic strip - "Skippy" - which featured a happy-go-lucky little boy. But there was nothing happy-go-lucky about Skip at Dartmouth. An intense scholar, he majored in geology and was a junior year Phi Beta Kappa and a magna cum laude graduate with highest distinction in his field. Going on to Harvard, Skip got a masters and a doctorate following which he planned a teaching career.

Skip's interpersonal skills were clearly not on the same high level as his academic attainments. He obtained one year appointments as an associate professor at six successive universities, but he conceived his position to include that of whistle blower for what he described as his employers' incompetencies and malfeasances. His one year contracts were never renewed or extended.

In about 1975 Skip went off to live in a rural part of Colorado where he occupied himself by reading widely, listening to classical music and camping.

He did not keep in contact with members of his college class but he did write letters of extraordinary length to the Dartmouth Alumni Records Office. In these he told his life story and expressed his manifold disappointments with the nation, academia in general, and the Dartmouth administration in particular.

Skip never married and is thought to be survived by a sister.