David H. Ibbeken ’63

Dave died June 27, 2022, in hospice in Charlottesville, Va., of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Soft-spoken, solid, and unfailingly polite, he led the University of Virginia Law School Foundation for 28 years, then worked there 12 more as president emeritus.

A gifted athlete, Dave came to us from Haddon Heights (N.J.) High School, where he was on the football, basketball, and track teams. At Princeton, Dave majored in politics and was a member of Tiger Inn, the Chapel deacons, and the Army ROTC. He played on the freshman football team, then three years as a back on the varsity. He also played baseball for one year, track for one year, and lacrosse for still another. His senior-year roommates included Tony DiVincenzo, Dan Terpack, Bill Merlini, Pete Wardenburg, Don Fudge, and Ken Bordner.

After college, Dave served in the Army’s 77th Field Artillery Regiment at Fort Lewis, Wash. He then taught and coached at Mercersburg Academy in Mercersburg, Pa., worked in Princeton’s admissions office, and married and started a family with his childhood sweetheart, Sunny — all before attending the University of Virginia law school from 1968 to 1971.

After law school, Dave worked as general counsel for a title insurance company. Then in 1979, the UVA law school asked him to lead its still-new Law School Foundation. For the next 28 years, the foundation’s endowment grew from $5 million in 1979 to more than $300 million in 2007. Dave retired as president and CEO in 2007, but in all spent more than 40 years working at the foundation.

In addition to Sunny, his wife of 59 years, Dave is survived by their two children, G. David and Suzanne; and five grandchildren.