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Victor P. van der Sterre ’41

Victor P. van der Sterre ’41, March 10, 2009, in Millbrae, California. Dutch attended Reed for two and half years before, as he said it, his academic concentration was “done in” by football in fall 1939. (“Football at Reed? Yes!”) He resumed his studies at University of California, Berkeley, received a BA in chemistry in 1942, and was hired by DuPont to be a chemist at the company's South San Francisco finishes plant. The war draft initially enrolled him in chemical warfare training, but he switched to aviation training and became a pilot. In 1945, he married his high school sweetheart, Margaretha Schade; they had one daughter. Dutch returned to DuPont, where he worked as a developmental and technical supervisor and staff chemist until retirement in 1980. The couple built their own home, skied in the U.S. and abroad, boated, and took one-week cruises to a different location every year. Dutch's brother, Carl van der Sterre ’31, also attended Reed.

Appeared in Reed magazine: November 2009

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