Mary L. Beilman

Chairman of the board,The Princeton Packet Inc.

   VERO BEACH, Fla. — Mary Louise Beilman, chairman of the board of The Princeton Packet Inc., including the Hopewell Valley News, died Sunday. She was 93.
   Born in Greencastle, Ind., she was a Princeton resident since 1942.
   Mrs. Beilman was the widow of Bernard Kilgore, one-time chairman of the board of Dow Jones & Company and the noted architect of The Wall Street Journal’s transformation from a little-known Wall Street financial sheet to a national business daily.
   Mr. Kilgore purchased The Princeton Packet in 1955 and added five newspapers to that group before he died in 1967 at age 59. The Packet group, which now includes 18 publications, remains in the Kilgore family.
   Mrs. Beilman, an active Packet board member who was involved in many Princeton community organizations, married Robert D. Beilman, a retired Pan American World Airways pilot, on Dec. 29, 1973. With many flying club awards and honors, he remained active, with his wife, in many flying groups.
   Mrs. Beilman was a former member of the board of trustees of Princeton HealthCare System and was a former board member of the Friends of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. She was a former president of the Women’s Auxiliary of the University Medical Center at Princeton and served as co-chair of the Princeton Hospital Fete in 1960.
   She was a member of the Nassau Presbyterian Church.
   She was a member and former president of The Present Day Club and was a charter member of the Bedens Brook Club in Montgomery. She was a former member of The Springdale Golf Club and Pretty Brook Tennis Club. She once also was active in the Princeton area chapter of the American Red Cross.
   Mrs. Beilman and her husband maintained residences in Princeton, Nantucket, Mass., Vero Beach and Coral Gables, Fla., and Twin Lakes, Pa.
   She was active in the Nantucket Garden Club, a member with her husband of the Nantucket Yacht Club, a member of the Wharf Rats and a former member of the Sankety Golf Club. She was also active in the Coral Gables Garden Club.
   She was a 1929 graduate of Greencastle High School and received a bachelor’s degree with a major in English from DePauw University in 1933. At DePauw, she was a member of Alpha Phi and Kappa Kappa Kappa sororities.
   After college, she was a high school teacher of English and public speaking in the Greencastle public school system until her 1938 marriage to Mr. Kilgore.
   Daughter of the late Kathryn and Dr. James A. Throop, she is survived by her husband, Robert D. Beilman; daughter Kathryn Kilgore of Key West, Fla.; sons John Harvey Kilgore of Tuxedo Park, N.Y., and James Bernard Kilgore of Princeton; grandchildren India Lake Kilgore, Matthew Tecumseh Kilgore and Michael Bernard Kilgore; stepdaughters Roberta Francesconi and Marina Beilman; eight stepgrandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.
   Funeral arrangements, under the direction of the Strunk Funeral Home in Vero Beach, will be private. A memorial service will be held at a later date at the convenience of the family.
   In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions be made to The Princeton HealthCare System Foundation, 253 Witherspoon Street, Princeton, 08540.