March 16, 2008 Gordon G. (Tim) MacVean

Gordon G. (Tim) MacVean died March 16, 2008 at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Shadyside of throat cancer. He was a leading executive in the mining equipment business, and prominent in Pittsburgh's social and philanthropic life through his adulthood.

Tim came to Dartmouth from the Governor Dummer Academy, and was known to his classmates for his conservative social views and dry sense of humor. A member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity, he decided to live in Lord Hall for his senior year. "He was not the usual hell-raising undergraduate," explained his friend and Junior roommate Duncan Gray. And another friend and classmate, Sam Parke, said, "He was not afraid of being somewhat eccentric."

After graduation, Tim attended Columbia University for a time and served two years in the Army as a weapons instructor at Ft. Knox, Kentucky. Then he joined the National Mine Service Co., a mining equipment business in which his father was also long active, and over the years served as its vice president and president of its international operations, later moving to the Eickhoff Corp., a similar firm, where he rose to president and CEO, while also becoming chair of the Manufacturers Board of Governors at the National Mining Congress and serving as a director of the National Coal Assn. and Shadyside Hospital..

In private life, he was known for his philanthropic work, supporting museums, colleges and universities in the Pittsburgh area. He was a member of the exclusive Duquesne Club.His hobbies included photography and skeet shooting. a sport which took him as far as Australia to shoot.

He is survived by his wife of 38 years, Kate Watson MacVean, his sister, Margaret Finn of Sea Island, Ga., his brother-in-law, James Watson of Tulsa, Okla, and his wife, Ann, and many nieces and nephews. Contributions in his memory may be sent to the Shadyside Hospital Foundation, 532 S. Aiken Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15232 or to the Governor Dummer Academy, Byfield, Mass., 01922.

Ken Reich