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 in the movement to promote the health benefits and culinary appeal of the Mediterranean diet.
His father was a Republican, but Mr. Gifford became a Democrat when he graduated from Harvard University in 1960. After a year at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Mr. Gifford became Legislative aide to Senator Edward M. Kennedy. , before joining Robert Kennedy’s presidential bid as national campaign coordinator.
The Boston Globe reported: “Mr. Gifford was walking behind Kennedy at a Los Angeles hotel when Sirhan Sirhan opened fire. He was one of those who accosted Sirhan, telling the Providence Journal in 1998 that ‘people were piling up I hit him, I hit him. … I went to law school and I wanted to have him alive and not dead.”
The following summer, Mr. Gifford was at his family’s summer home on Nantucket when he was called to Martha’s Vineyard to assist the Kennedys after Edward Kennedy drove his car over a bridge at Chappaquiddick. A female passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, was killed in the accident and Mr. Gifford escorted her body to his family’s home in Pennsylvania.
Leaving politics in 1970, Mr. Gifford worked on major development projects for several years at Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, a Boston real estate firm, then went on to build his own businesses.
Although Dun’s family is proud of all of his business and political achievements, their son sums up what he will be remembered for: “The most important thing to me about Dad was his commitment to public service, which was such a part of him that it was inseparable from him.” of his everyday life in which he found himself… He was also a master of the small kind gesture”.
Mr. Gifford began to display his humanitarian ways, even as a teenager, at the very time he should have been concerned about his own humanity. His sister Bambi recalls, “Dun didn’t have his life jacket on (after the collision). So he went back to his cabin. He noticed the odd angle at which he was hanging his clothes in the closet; being a sailor, he knew that the ship was in trouble. He grabbed two vests, thinking his two friends might not have one. When he met us, he saw that they both had life jackets. Then he walked over to find someone who didn’t have one. He turned to be a member of the crew”.
The Andrea Doria tragedy did not prevent Dun from fully enjoying the sea. In fact, he was the Constellation’s navigator in the 1964 America’s Cup. 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 face 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. He lived in Cambridge. In addition to his son, brother and companion to him Baer-Sinnott, Mr. Gifford leaves behind two other sons, Porter of Cambridge and Clarence of New York City; a daughter, Caroline of Newfane, Vt., known as Apple; another brother, John of Brookline; a sister, Priscilla (Bambi) Mleczko of 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 sister Priscilla (Bambi). They were returning from a trip to London, Paris, Brussels, Holland, Switzerland, Austria, Venice, Rome and finally Naples. For a complete account of family history written by Bambi Mleczko, http://www.PieretteSimpson.com/blog.