Edward N. Odell ’37

Ed Odell died Aug. 24, 1996, after a brief illness. Survivors include Mary, his wife of 52 years, daughters Barbara, Deborah, and Kathleen, son Lawrence, and a grandchild.

Ed prepared at Montclair [N.J.] H.S. and West Nottingham Academy. At Princeton he majored in economics and English, was on the championship class baseball team two years and ran various agencies.

Before beginning his armed services career, he was treasurer of Polytechnic Institute of Puerto Rico and accountant for Sharpe & Dohme in Philadelphia. In the Air Force he rose to lt. colonel and received the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with four oak leaf clusters, Bronze Star with one oak leaf cluster, Croix de Guerre with Palm, and a Presidential Group Citation. He did antisubmarine work in the Atlantic and flew combat missions over Europe during WWII and the Korean War; he was group lead navigator in the Liberator "Silly Filly" of the 490th Bomb Group. He was v.p. of Intercontinental Enterprises, Flamingo Airlines Air Cargo (194647) before being recalled to the Air Force doing procurement and audit in the Office of the Inspector General.

He retired from the Air Force in 1962 and became director of materie with Martin Marietta and later was assistant secretary of Transportation. From 197081 he worked for the Small Business Administration, for which he received the Distinguished Service Award. He retired in 1981.

The Class of 1937