David B. Jackson ’41

Dave died June 11, 2004.

He prepared at the Gunnery School, where he was an avid baseball and ice-hockey player, as well as a music lover. The son of Dr. Arthur H. Jackson '12, he majored in music at Princeton but left after sophomore year to attend Colorado College in Colorado Springs. There he was a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and the ice-hockey team.

Joining the Marine Corps in 1941, he spent the early years of the war as a flight instructor. Dave then joined the 542nd Night Fighter Squadron, winning the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal with two Gold Stars. After the war he continued flying jets in the Marine Corps Reserve and retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1958.

Dave then started his own flight-training and aviation-sales business. As a result of selling Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's, his first private airplane, Dave joined the McDonald's real estate department. This led to his acquiring McDonald's franchises in Woodbury Heights, Glassboro, and Paulsboro, N.J. In 1990 he sold the business to his son and spent winters in Florida.

After his wife, Waldena, died in 2000, he moved to Maryland to be near his daughter, Sherill Specht. He is survived by her, son W. David, his good friend Edie, and five grandchildren.

The Class of 1941