Mr. Gifford began his many illustrious careers after graduating from Harvard Law School and serving three years in the Navy. He was an investment banker, real estate developer, restaurant owner, and for the past 20 years a driving force behind the movement to promote the health benefits and culinary appeal of the Mediterranean diet.
His father was a Republican, but Gifford became a Democrat when he graduated from Harvard University in 1960. After a year in the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Gifford became a legislative aide to Senator Edward M. Kennedy. , before joining Robert Kennedy’s presidential bid as a national campaign coordinator.
The Boston Globe reported: “Mr. Gifford was walking behind Kennedy at a Los Angeles hotel when Sirhan Sirhan started shooting. He was one of those who attacked Sirhan, and he told the Providence Journal in 1998 that ‘people were crowding , beat him, reprimanded him …. I went to law school and wanted to keep him alive and not dead. “
The following summer, Mr. Gifford was at his family’s summer home in Nantucket when he was called to Martha’s Vineyard to help the Kennedys after Edward Kennedy drove his car over a bridge in Chappaquiddick. A passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, was killed in the accident and Mr. Gifford escorted her body to her family’s home in Pennsylvania.
Leaving politics in 1970, Mr. Gifford worked on major development projects for several years at Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, a real estate company in Boston, then went on to forge his own business deals.
Although Dun’s family is proud of all of his business and political accomplishments, his son sums up why he will be remembered: “The most important thing to me about Dad was his commitment to public service, which was such an important part of him that it was inseparable. of his daily life in whom he was … He was also a master of the small and kind gesture “.
Mr. Gifford began to show his caring ways, even as a teenager, at the very moment when he should have been concerned for his own humanity. His sister Bambi recalls: “Dun did not have his life jacket (after the collision). So he returned to his cabin. He noticed the strange angle at which the clothes in the closet were hanging; since he was a sailor, he knew that the boat He was in trouble. He grabbed two vests, thinking his two friends might not have one. When he met with us, he saw that they both had life jackets. Then he walked until he found someone who didn’t have one. He was going to be a member of the crew “.
The tragedy of Andrea Doria did not prevent Dun from fully enjoying the sea. In fact, he was the Constellation’s navigator at the America’s Cup in 1964. He continued to sail until the end of his days.
We, your fellow survivors, thank you, Dun, for your humanitarian acts and your inspiration to meet life’s challenges with courage and dignity.
Postscript: Mr. Gifford died of a heart attack Sunday in Exeter, NH, after returning from a trip to France and Australia. Lived in Cambridge. In addition to his son, brother and partner Baer-Sinnott, Mr. Gifford leaves behind two other children, Porter from Cambridge and Clarence from New York City; a daughter, Caroline of Newfane, Vt., known as Apple; another brother, John from Brookline; a sister, Priscilla (Bambi) Mleczko from Nantucket; and five grandchildren.
NB: On the last voyage of the Andrea Doria, Mr. Gifford was traveling first class with his parents, brothers Jock and Chad, and his sister Priscilla (Bambi). They were returning from a trip to London, Paris, Brussels, Holland, Switzerland, Austria, Venice, Rome and finally Naples. For a complete description of family history written by Bambi Mleczko, http://www.PieretteSimpson.com/blog.
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