David J. Elliott David John Elliott,
Dartington Hall School,
September 1940-July 1950

Following an unexpected departure from the School at age 15 at the close of the summer term, I drifted around a bit - including several weeks working in a garage - and then went to a school in Holland Park, passed 5 "O" levels in two different stages and worked as an Audit Clerk for a firm of Chartered Accountants in the City. In December 1952 I emigrated to the United States, living for a few months in Louisville, Kentucky and then moving to Hartford Connecticut. There I attended Trinity College, graduating with a BA in History in 1957. While working at a local bank to pay for college, I met Sallie Johnson (who had completed her degree) and we got married in 1958. We have two children. Gwen, who was born in 1962, is married to Don Farwick of Cincinnati, Ohio and has two sons; she graduated from Xavier University in Cincinnati and works for a medium-sized business as a sales executive. Jeffrey, who was born in 1966, is married to Susannah Rolfs of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; he has a degree in History from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana and did his work for a Master's in landscape architecture at Louisiana State University and now works for a land use and planning firm in Charleston, South Carolina. Following graduation, I started working for The Procter & Gamble Company, where I spent my career. Following five years at its factory in Quincy, Massachusetts, we were transferred to Cincinnati, Ohio, where the company was founded in 1837 by two immigrants from the British Isles and still has its headquarters. The first decade there was spent purchasing all of the raw materials used to make the perfumes in its products - which fascinating, since they come from all over the world and range from the products of exotic flowers and plants to the latest developments in organic chemistry. This was followed by an assignment to prevent any recurrence of problems the company had encountered with the US Customs Service. This included successful efforts to modernize US Customs laws, some of which had not been amended since the Revolutionary War, with the most deficient being a still-retained Civil War emergency measure. This led to my becoming Deputy Assistant Secretary for the US Department of Commerce in 1980-81 on a leave of absence in both the Carter and Reagan Administrations. Returning to P&G, I became increasingly involved in removing government-imposed barriers to the company's ability to do business around the world. This involved major trade agreements, (such as the Uruguay Round, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the Central European Free Trade Agreement), as well less lofty stuff, such as six visits to Budapest to solve problems with an import quota which, on my first visit I had been assured would never be permitted to become a problem. Following retirement in 1994, we moved to the semitropical coast of South Carolina, near the historic and beautiful city of Charleston. Most of my time is now spent developing the Kiawah Island Natural Habitat Conservancy, which works to ensure that we do not lose the incredible diversity of wildlife we have here at Kiawah Island as it continues to be developed. [If interested, you can visit and click on Kiawah Conservancy in the Organizations column] Sender: DElli14816@aol.com