Donald F. Herbst ’46

If your mind dates back to the 1940s, you probably remember when the shops in your town included “the five-and-ten,” a wide-ranging supplier of diversity where you could find (and buy cheaply) any small item you thought you just couldn’t live without.

Don Herbst understood that, for he spent his career in, as he put it, “the financial side of the chain-store business.” His first 18 years were with the Woolworth Co. in St. Louis and Philadelphia, followed by his move in 1956 to the executive office in New York.

Don then transferred to the J.C. Penney Co. in New York, where he handled finances until he retired in 1984. Home in those years was in Summit, N.J., with his wife, the former Barbara Ayers, and their three daughters and one son. In 1974, Don and Barbara bought an Angus cattle farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, which they owned and operated for 30 years.

Surviving Don when he died Jan. 22, 2015, were Barbara, their children, and four grandchildren. To them all, ’46 expresses sincere condolences and good wishes.