Thurston Merrell Egbert Jr. ’52

Thurston Merrell Egbert Jr. ’52 died on July 18. Thurston was born on May 15, 1930, in New Haven, Connecticut. He was a graduate of Passaic (New Jersey) High School and Dartmouth. He was an English major and a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. He and Barbara Decker Egbert—his high school sweetheart, graduate of Colby Junior College, and wife of 67 years—wed right after he was commissioned in the Navy. He was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, during the Korean War. After the Navy he was a reporter for the Passaic Herald News until 1960, when he went to work for General Electric for almost three decades. In 1967 he moved with his family to Paris, France, to serve as chief press and public relations officer for General Electric’s computer subsidiary, Machines Bull. In 1970 he was promoted to public relations manager for all of GE’s European operations, based in Geneva, Switzerland, and subsequently Brussels, Belgium. He returned to the United States in 1979 to serve on GE’s corporate public relations staff with company-wide responsibility. He retired to New Hampshire in 1987 and spent summers in Maine. Skiing and sailing were two lifelong pleasures. Barbara, children Susan and Rogers, and grandchildren Karolyn, Merrell, Kadie, Nataliya, Lauren, and Matt survive him. His son, Thurston III, predeceased him.