Colin C. Carpi ’53

The following is an expanded version of a memorial published in the July 6, 2016, issue.

Colin died Dec. 10, 2015, in Penn Valley, Pa., after a prolonged struggle with progressive heart failure.

He was born Aug. 23, 1931, in suburban Philadelphia to Fred and Madeline Carpi. Colin was an honors graduate of the Haverford School, Princeton, and Harvard Business School and played soccer in high school and as an undergraduate. At Princeton, his entrepreneurial impulses became evident - as manager of the university’s radio station, he designed an automated seeding machine for farming application and obtained a U.S. patent with several classmates.

Immediately after graduating from Harvard, Colin enlisted in the Navy and completed officer candidate school in Newport. An avid pilot and aviation enthusiast, he was assigned to the staff of the Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics in Washington, where he spent the duration of his naval service. His support for a local Great Valley helicopter designer culminated when the new helicopter was used to whisk Colin and his first wife, Laura, away on honeymoon from their wedding reception in June 1957.

After Navy discharge, Colin joined the New York management-consulting firm of Booz Allen and Hamilton, later becoming the youngest-ever partner in that firm. His many consulting engagements brought him into contact with small, family-owned furniture companies in rural New York and Pennsylvania. After seeing that attractive furniture was out of reach for most people, Colin left Booz Allen created General Interiors Corp., which became the owner of the prestigious Pennsylvania House, Kittinger, Cushman, and Dunbar brands of fine furniture. General Interiors was a major force in the furniture business for nearly 10 years, at which point an acquisition made it the home furnishing division of General Mills.

Colin had always been interested in the technical aspects of evaluating stock prices. After leaving General Interiors, he founded Chartwell, an investment service that used highly detailed charts of stock price performance and trends for a subscriber customer base in the pre-Internet age. He was in the forefront of developments in computer graphics, a technology that he needed in order to move Chartwell into the digital world. At Chartwell, as at General Interiors, Colin dealt with technological gurus and financiers at the top of the business world.

As the son of a senior executive of the renowned Pennsylvania Railroad, Colin retained an interest in railroading throughout his entire life, which was manifested in an enduring hobby. Beginning in his teenage years, when he designed and built an elaborate model train layout using cardboard scraps, broomsticks and other mundane materials, he continued to build and assemble a large collection of locomotives and rolling stock representative of the grandeur of railroading’s heyday.

Colin pursued lifetime learning. He was equally conversant discussing history, philosophy, economics, mathematics, life and physical sciences, religion, engineering, architecture, music and numerous other realms of knowledge. He was especially interested in specific opportunities within these realms to improve the human condition.

An adventurous type, he spent one summer vacation riding the rails in Canada, seeking employment at various oil drilling sites in Saskatchewan and Alberta and progressing as far north as Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories.

Dedicated to his family, Colin spent much time raising his six children and eight grandchildren. He took equal pleasure in meaningfully helping other non-family members who crossed his path. He was a fervent believer in human potential and his greatest joy in life was helping others realize and further their potential. He was a supreme optimist who always had an engaging smile and kind words for everyone he encountered. Colin’s family dearly loved him. They will forever miss the man who loved them deeply and championed them all.

He is survived by Ruth Anne Dirkes, his wife of 39 years; daughters Jennifer Moller and Lisa Gorsch; sons Colin Jr., David, James, and Peter; and beloved grandchildren Austin, Spencer, Lindsay, Haley, Sophie, Christopher, Quinn, and Clayton. He was previously married to Laura Pleasants Miller of Gwynedd Valley, Pa.