William Larimer Mellon Jr. ’32

An extraordinary life ended when William Mellon died in Deschapelles, Haiti, on Aug. 3, 1989, a victim of can¬cer and Parkinson's disease. A member of one of Amer¬ica's wealthiest families, he spent only one year at Prince¬ton with us before he moved to Arizona and became a large-scale cattle rancher. Married and divorced as a young man, William was married again in 1946—to Gwen Grant Rawson, a riding instructor whom he had met in Arizona.

In 1947, he read an article in Life magazine about Albert Schweitzer and his work in Africa. He wrote to Schweitzer for advice on how to set up a similar medical mission, and months later he received a long and de¬tailed reply that propelled him and Gwen into their life's work. After studying at Tulane Medical School, they toured the world, seeking a likely spot to establish them¬selves. They finally settled in a remote, densely inhab¬ited, and desperately poor valley in Haiti. There they converted an abandoned fruit plantation into a modem hospital, trained Haitian doctors and nurses, dug wells, built roads, and over the years treated tens of thousands of Haitians. It is difficult in this short memorial to do justice to the enormous infusion of aid and hope he brought to an utterly forlorn people.

Besides Gwen, William is survived by a brother, Mat¬thew '22; two sisters, Margaret Hitchcock and Rachel Walton; three stepchildren; and five grandchildren. Gwen has remained in Haiti to carry on their work.

The Class of 1932