Richard Bull ’54

Dick died Nov. 15, 2016, after a fall that led to a brief illness in Santa Rosa, Calif.

Born in St. Louis, he graduated from the St. Louis Country Day School. At Princeton, he majored in English and was a member of Tiger Inn. A talented linguist, he spoke German, Russian, Polish, and French.

After graduation, Dick enlisted in the Army. He served in counterintelligence and was stationed in Berlin. He ultimately entered the Central Intelligence Agency, where he served for 31 years with postings in Vienna, Dahomey (Benin), Libya, Belgium, London, and Washington, D.C. In 1958, he married Katherine Stark, and she joined the CIA to become one of its early female field officers.

When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, he wept for joy seeing countless East Germans reunited, a goal he and his wife had worked toward for 28 years.

Dick also spent two years as the liaison between the CIA and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, capping a career that had taken him across an era and several continents. He had a deep and abiding interest in people. An avid ski enthusiast and a lover of jazz, he also had an endless passion for golden retrievers.

The class is honored by his lifelong service to our country and extends its condolences to his wife, Katherine; son Winston; two grandchildren; and friends and family too numerous to mention.