Stanley Maddox Rumbough Jr. (April 25, 1920 – September 27, 2017) was an American businessman, entrepreneur, distinguished veteran, philanthropist, activist, longtime civic leader, and a member of

Colgate-Palmolive Colgate-Palmolive Company is an American multinational consumer products company headquartered on Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company specializes in the production, distribution, and provision of household, health ca ...

. As a businessman and investor, he was a founder, chief executive officer or director of more than 40 companies in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Great ...

, and

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

Life and career

Rumbough was born in

Manhattan, New York City Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. stat ...

on April 25, 1920 and attended

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

, where he was an editor of campus humor magazine ''

The Yale Record ''The Yale Record'' is the campus humor magazine of Yale University. Founded in 1872, it became the oldest humor magazine in the world when ''Punch'' folded in 2002."History", The Yale Record, March 10, 2010. http://www.yalerecord.com/about/histo ...

''. His parents were Lieutenant Colonel Stanley Maddox Rumbough Sr. (1886–1961) and Elizabeth Morse Colgate (1889–1962), daughter of Gilbert Colgate, granddaughter of Samuel Colgate and great-granddaughter of

William Colgate William Colgate (January 25, 1783 – March 25, 1857) was an English-American soap industrialist who founded in 1806 what became the Colgate-Palmolive company. Early life William Colgate was born in Hollingbourne, Kent, England, on January 25, ...

, founder of

. He had one sister, Elizabeth Colgate Rumbough. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he served in the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through ...

as a decorated

fighter pilot A fighter pilot is a military aviator trained to engage in air-to-air combat, air-to-ground combat and sometimes electronic warfare while in the cockpit of a fighter aircraft. Fighter pilots undergo specialized training in aerial warfare an ...

in the

Pacific Theater The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, and flew more than 50

combat mission ''Combat Mission'' is the name of a successful series of computer wargames simulating tactical battles. The series has progressed through two distinct game engines. The original game engine, referred to as 'CMx1' by the developer, Battlefront.co ...

s, receiving two awards of the Distinguished Flying Cross and eight

Air Medal The Air Medal (AM) is a military decoration of the United States Armed Forces. It was created in 1942 and is awarded for single acts of heroism or meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight. Criteria The Air Medal was establish ...

s. For many years, he worked for a variety of manufacturing companies. Rumbough also had an interest in Republican politics. In 1951, he was co-founder (with

Charles F. Willis Charles Fountain Willis, Jr. (July 23, 1918 – March 16, 1993) was an American political campaigner and low level government official. Willis was born in Beaumont, Texas, and earned a B.A. from the University of Florida in 1939. During World ...

) of the

Citizens for Eisenhower The 1952 United States presidential election was the 42nd quadrennial presidential election and was held on Tuesday, November 4, 1952. Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower won a landslide victory over Democrat Adlai Stevenson II, which ended 20 ye ...

movement, which helped develop grassroots support for the presidential campaign of

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

. Branches of Citizens for Eisenhower were established in each state and helped plan local campaign activities. At the height of the 1952 campaign the national headquarters of Citizens for Eisenhower in New York City had over 700 volunteers and an extensive administrative staff. After Eisenhower became president, Rumbough became a special assistant in the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, D.C., NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. preside ...

where he helped organize the Executive Branch Liaison Office.Herbert S. Parmet. ''Eisenhower and the American Crusades''. 1998. Transaction Publishers. p. 337. This office compiled newsletters, known as Fact Papers, analyzing statements by the president and

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

officers on a variety of issues, and explaining major administration programs and accomplishments. The newsletters were circulated to members of the administration who had been appointed by the president, which enabled political appointees to follow the evolution of administration policy. The office staff also helped coordinate public speeches made by administration officials to ensure that the officials would appear in venues that would be most beneficial to the administration. Stanley Rumbough died on September 27, 2017 at the age of 97, only four months after his first wife Dina Merrill.

Personal life

He was married first to heiress, socialite and actress Dina Merrill from 1946 to 1966; the couple had three children: Stanley Hutton Rumbough, David Post Rumbough (1950–1973) and Nedenia Colgate Rumbough. He is survived by his second wife, Margaretha Wagstrom Rumbough, and his third wife Janne Herlow Rumbough, a champion dressage rider.

References

External links

Papers of Stanley M. Rumbough Jr., Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rumbough, Stanley M. 1920 births 2017 deaths Eisenhower administration personnel New York (state) Republicans American socialites United States Marine Corps pilots of World War II Military personnel from New York City Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) American World War II fighter pilots Recipients of the Air Medal