Gene W. McGrew ’51

Gene was born June 27, 1929, in Massilon, Ohio, the son of Elmer and Margaret Duitch McGrew.

A graduate of West View High School in Pittsburgh, he majored in economics at Princeton, where he was ROTC battery commander, manager of varsity track and the Student News Agency, and a member of Terrace and Orange Key. He roomed with Sandy Lyman, Bill McKim, and Edwin Shutt.

Gene served in the Army Artillery in Korea. In 1953 he went to work for IBM in data-processing marketing, a career that lasted 34 happy years — years when the computer industry was evolving and IBM was at the heart of it. More than half of Gene’s time was spent at the Pentagon working with Air Force information-management systems.

On March 22, 1957, he married Joan Clarey. They raised their two daughters both in the United States and Europe. They were a close-knit family for 20 years until Joan died of lung cancer in 1978.

Eleven years later Gene married Kathleen (“Katie”) Rollins, and they retired to Hilton Head Island. Katie McGrew died in 2010, and Gene never fully recovered from his loss.

Gene died March 16, 2012, of heart failure. He is survived by his daughters, Gail and Lynn.