Ernest Elijah Ball II ’43

Ernest Elijah Ball II ’43, Tu’44, died December 3, 2013, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Ernie grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, and graduated from Suffield Academy, where he was on the honor roll, school paper and swim team and played football. At Dartmouth he managed the freshman football team, was a member of Zeta Psi and attended Tuck School. In 1943 Ernie was commissioned in the Navy and served on destroyers in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and the Pacific theaters. Later he participated in mine sweeping along the China Coast. Back in the States in 1946 he worked for W.R. Grace and Co. until called back to the Navy during the Korean War. Out of the Navy in 1954, Ernie worked in the stevedoring and marine terminal industry in the operation, management and planning of port facilities. He eventually became president of Elizabeth Terminals Inc., and was also chairman of the local association of Marine Terminal Operators. In 1971 Ernie became a port operation and planning consultant, a job that took him all over the world—including several years in Iran and Egypt. He retired in 1982 and worked, successfully, to revive the family oyster business in Connecticut. Loyal to Dartmouth, Ernie was a class agent and founder and first president of the Dartmouth Club of Hampton Roads. Nancy Scribner Neill, whom he met in 1946 and married shortly thereafter, predeceased him, as did stepson Peter Neill ’66. He is survived by children Sara, Betsy and David and nine grandchildren.