Daniel Levin Shimshoni ’41

After graduating from the English independent school of Dulwich College in London, Dan came to Princeton, where he majored in mechanical engineering, joined Gateway Club, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.  

In 1942, he earned a master’s degree at Cal Tech before joining General Dynamics, where he helped design the B-32 and B-36 bombers.

When Israel declared independence in 1948, Dan went to Israel, and as Col. Shimshoni, was one of the founders of the Israeli Air Force, establishing its technical training school and pilot-training program.  

In 1966, Dan earned a Ph.D. in economics and public policy at Harvard. Subsequently he established the Israeli National Council for Research and Development. He helped found TEKEM, one of the first IT startups, helped establish the political science department at Tel Aviv University, and spent 18 months as a fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford.

From 1977 until retiring in 1982, he was director of the National Urban Rehabilitation Program.

Dan is survived by his wife of 63 years, Rose Freeman Shimshoni; their children, Yoni ’78 *86, Michal ’82, Abigail, and Gideon; and nine grandchildren, including Oren ’13.