Donald S. Gilpatric ’31

Don Gilpatric died of emphysema on Jan. 30, 1989, in St. Augustine, Fla. Few classmates can match Don in the number and variety of assignments he capably fulfilled in an international career in business and foreign service. In the 1930s, he was connected successively with the National City Bank of New York, the Sun Oil Co., and the Fox River Paper Corp. In 1942, he was made chief of the North African Section of the Board of Economic Welfare. He later served stints as economic adviser to our embassies in Nanking and Shanghai, as president of the Taiwan Trading Corp., and as administrative director of the international division of the Olin Matheson Chemical Corp. He also was an economic adviser to the American Mission to China. Prior to his retirement in 1981, he worked for 20 years as director of the Office of Foreign Commercial Services in the Dept. of Commerce.

That Don found so many outlets for his talents is not surprising when one considers the range of activities in which he engaged at Princeton. He won the Junior German Prize and was a member of the freshman and class football teams, the freshman crew, the boxing team (he was intracollegiate middleweight champ), musical and instrumental clubs, and Whig-Clio.

Don is survived by his widow, Marjorie; a daughter, Dudley; a son, Kenneth B.; and a brother, Roswell. The sorrow we share with them is eased by the memory of a life of service so fully lived.