in memoriam John F. Nielsen ’47, retired Regional General Manager for Sears Roebuck & Co.-Hawaii and community leader, passed away on October 15, 2016 in Honolulu. A Marine veteran of WWII, he was a graduate of Pepperdine University and of the first (1947) class of Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona. Activities in Hawaii included board of directorships for First Hawaiian Bank, Hawaiian Electric, Iolani School, Hawaii Visitors Bureau, Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, Hawaii Army Museum. Trustee for H.M. Dowsett Estate, past president of the Rotary Club of Honolulu, the Aloha Bowl and Co-Founder of the Annual Boy Scouts Aloha Council Golf Tourney. … Raymond Hagen ’50, of Coral Gables, FL succumbed to a lengthy illness on January 13 at the age of 92. A career with Goodyear International took the family to Akron, OH, New York City and Miami and entailed responsibilities for managing sales of aviation products in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. He was an active member and leader of the Lions Club, the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Board. … George Peckham ’52, passed away on Sunday, April 30, 2017 following some recent health challenges. He was a World War II veteran of the United States Marine Corps who saw combat operations in the Pacific Theatre. He was an accomplished agricultural nutritionist who specialized in the proper care and maintenance of livestock with a specialty in poultry. … Boye Lafayette De Mente ’53 passed away on May 12, 2017. As editor of The Importer magazine in Tokyo in the late 1950s and early 1960s and as the author of numerous pioneer books on the mindset and business practices of the Chinese, Japanese and South Koreans, he made major contributions to the initial rise of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China as economic superpowers. Boye’s
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relationships with individuals as Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, America’s ranking naval officer during World War II; Akio Morita, co-founder of the Sony empire; Toshio Karita, protocol officer for the Imperial Family of Japan; and Daisetzu Suzuki, Japan’s leading Zen master, were experiences he could not have even dreamed about before they happened. … Edward Campeau ’53, passed away on Sunday, June 4, 2017 at Mercy Medical Center in Canton, Ohio. He was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity. A veteran of the U.S. Army, he was stationed in Korea. Edward retired from IBM as a Senior Systems Engineer and was a member of St. Anne Catholic Church in Sebring. He enjoyed crossword puzzles and sudoku puzzles in his retirement. … Robert T. Mott ’57, passed away April 2, 2017. Bob was born in Berkeley, and grew up there and in Alameda. He attended San Jose State and graduated from Michigan State. He earned a BFT from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, and an M.A. in economics from UC Berkeley. Bob lived in the Bay Area most of his life. He was a long-time member of Tiburon Yacht Club, and took great pleasure in sailing on the bay. … Timothy S. Reed ’57, passed away August 14, 2017 in Traverse City, MI. From early days as a crew member aboard the Henry Ford II on the Great Lakes, hauling iron ore, driving a construction truck in Puerto Rico, and a summer cross country trip through Mexico, Tim’s course was set. His subsequent career as an international banker allowed him to live the life he dreamed-world travel and a dynamic career, with a large and loving family by his side. Tim joined Monsanto Chemical Company in St. Louis, and later an opening at Citibank in New York City offered the kind of job he had always hoped for, an assignment outside the United States, taking him to Valencia, Venezuela. That assignment eventually led to positions in Caracas and Maracaibo, and then a
posting to Quito, Ecuador. Tim continued to advance in his career with positions in Lagos, Nigeria, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and finally Miami, where he was in charge of Citibank’s Latin America corporate deposit business until his retirement. … Robert (Bob) Kohrs ’58, passed away on July 18, 2017, after a courageous battle with cancer. His career in banking began when he joined Chase Manhattan Bank in Panama. He and his family lived in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Lima, Peru and New Jersey, until he joined Indiana National Bank in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1973, where he was responsible for its international business until he retired. … Gerry Kangas ’60, passed away on April 25, 2015. Gerry was married in 1957 and after graduating from Thunderbird, he began his career as an international banker traveling to 108 countries. He lived in the U.S., Uruguay, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia Indonesia, Philippines, Fiji Islands, Kenya, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Spain. He and his wife returned to their hometown of Clatskanie in 1994 and retired. In 1996, Gerry received the Jonas Mayer Distinguished Alumnus Award from Thunderbird. … William (Bill) Hartley ’62, passed away November 29, 2016 in Inverness, FL of congestive heart failure. A Hofstra University graduate and U.S. Army veteran, he became a field geologist for Core Laboratories, Inc., living for five years in Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela. Later, following graduation from AIFT, he worked as a sales representative in the Far East and Indonesia for Celanese Corporation. In 1967 he began a 27-year career with Goulds Pumps Inc., serving first as International Sales Manager and later as Regional Sales Director for Central America and the Caribbean. His career with Goulds included spending two years in Sao Paulo, Brazil as sales manager for the company’s new manufacturing plant, Bombas Goulds. In retirement, he was a founder of the
Apalachicola Bay and Riverkeeper environmental organization, serving as the volunteer Riverkeeper and Board Chairman. He loved fishing, hunting and golf, according to his wife, Shirley Wood Hartley, also a 1962 AIFT graduate. … James Lyddon ’64, passed away on July 12, 2017 at his home on Tug Lake in Irma WI. After graduation from Thunderbird, Jim joined the Arizona Army National Guard in 1964, and served for several years. Jim was employed by Strasenburgh Laboratories, an American pharmaceutical company, from 1965 to 1970. He worked mostly in Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Venezuela where he was Regional Manager and eventually General Manager for Central America. He lived in Guayaquil and Cuenca, Ecuador; Medellin and Bogota, Colombia; and Caracas, Venezuela. After returning to the .U.S in 1970, Jim continued his education and worked two years as a corporate accountant for the Parker Pen Company in Janesville, WI. He then completed his MBA and CPA, and became a partner with Schweisberger & Lyddon, CPAs for 12 years. He married Karen Mahieu Lawson in 1990. … John Paul Lewis ’64, passed away on Sunday, February 19, 2017. He started his career in commercial banking, first focusing on loans to international markets in Asia and South America, and later transitioned to Oil & Gas financing. After travelling around the world, John eventually formed his own private equity fund, which invested in a variety of manufacturing and service companies throughout the United States. Prior to his banking career, John served in the United States Air Force as part of the Strategic Air Command. He was an avid golfer, loved music, and actively supported numerous charities. … Charles Friend ’65, passed away on February 20, 2017. He served two tours in the United States Air Force and subsequently attended the Marshall-Wythe School of Law of the winter 2018
