Marilyn Dawson, who had worked for the United Nations throughout the world and at U.N. headquarters in New York City, died Feb. 2, 2019, of cancer. She was 65.

After graduating from Brown University, Dawson earned an MPA degree in 1977 from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School. She then moved to Washington, D.C., and worked for an international aid and development organization.

After a few years she joined the U.N. and began a career that took her around the world. Fluent in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French, she had multi-year assignments in Brazil, Jamaica, the Philippines, and parts of Africa.

After years abroad Dawson was assigned to U.N. headquarters, where she worked with the U.N. Secretariat, U.N. Women, and UNICEF. When she reached the U.N.’s mandatory retirement age, she stayed in the city and devoted herself to volunteer work with the Calvary Baptist Church and later Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, where she became an elder. For Princeton, she was an ABPA member.

Dawson is survived by her life partner, Marvin Dutton; two brothers; her mother, Barbara Dawson; and a host of family members.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.

Class Year: 
Graduate Class of 1977