Vincent L. Gregory ’45

Vince was born in Oil City, Pa., and he was class president at Oil City High School. He obtained a scholarship to Princeton, where he boxed, ran track, and was in Whig-Clio, the band, and Gateway Club. He majored in economics and graduated cum laude with election to Phi Beta Kappa in 1949, the same year he earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.

During the war he was a first lieutenant fighter pilot in the 8th Army Air Force in England and Germany. 

In 1949 he joined Rohm & Haas as a junior accountant. He was sent to France to start up their first plant abroad and to England to manage the company’s agricultural-chemical operations before becoming director of European operations.

Vince moved back to Philadelphia, assumed control of operations in Latin America and the Pacific, and became head of Rohm & Haas. He instituted a 10 percent across-the-board downsizing and revamped the firm’s management system. He tightened the company’s environmental controls, participating in hearings that led to the passage of the Toxic Substances Control Act in 1976. 

He received many awards over the years, and created a post at Harvard, the Vincent L. Gregory Chair of Cancer Research.

Vince died June 3, 2019. He is survived by his wife, Marjorie; son Vincent III ’69 and his wife, Jacqueline; granddaughters Melanie and Emma; and four great-grandchildren.