John G. Gebhard III ’50

Born in New Jersey, he graduated from Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, N.J. A member of Dial, he earned both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering.

Following employment with Gyrodyne Helicopter Co. and the Princeton Aeronautical Laboratory, he served two years in the Army Chemical Corps. He continued his 45-year career in the defense industry with short stints with Lockheed Martin and a long association with the Aerospace Corp., in California. His career embraced work on helicopters, a jet-powered seaplane, space programs, and missile development. He retired in 1996. In 2012, he moved from his longtime home in Manhattan Beach to a nearby senior-living facility, and then in 2015 to a Rancho Palos Verdes retirement community.

Despite two brain surgeries, COVID-19, and numerous bouts with pneumonia, John always enjoyed sports, movies, and especially jazz, having compiled a large CD library of ragtime, stride piano, and boogie-woogie piano. He was an Annual Giving agent and active member of the Princeton Club of Southern California.

John’s wife, Nancy, a Johns Hopkins nurse he met in Baltimore while in the Chemical Corps and married in 1956, died in 2012. His brother, David ’47 *49, died in 2018. His two children, Carolyn and Curt, survive him.