Notable Ritchie Boys

These short portraits come from Dan Gross’s Notable Ritchie Boys Google Slides (both decks), adapted here as a single gallery. Where a roster page exists, the name links to that soldier article.

Sources: source and source.

Werner T. Angress

Class 11

• Historian, SUNY Professor
• Author, "Between Fear and Hope"

Rex Applegate (1914-1998)

• Instructor; manual combat specialist
• Author, "Kill or Be Killed"

Ralph H. Baer

Class 10

• “Father of Video Games”; Odyssey; Pong

Gardner Botsford (1917-2004)

Class 10

• Editor, New Yorker
• Author, "Life of Privilege, Mostly"

Frank M. Brandstetter

Class 6

• International hotelier
• Subject of "Brandy, Our Man in Acapulco"

Victor H. Brombert

Class 11

• Professor Emeritus, Princeton
• Author, "Trains of Thought"

Igor L. Cassini

Class 18

• “Cholly Knickerbocker” columnist for Hearst newspapers
• Slide photo: Igor (left) with brother Oleg

John H. Chafee

Class 23

• USMC officer; Okinawa, Korea
• Governor and Senator, Rhode Island; Secretary of the Navy

David Chavchavadze

Class 10

• Romanov prince
• Author, "Crowns and Trenchcoats: A Russian Prince in the CIA"

Frank Forrester III Church

Class 15

• Idaho Senator; opposed Vietnam War
• Church Committee (Intelligence)

William Sloane Jr Coffin

Class 13

• Peace activist; Yale Chaplain

Joseph Leon Edel

Class 13

• Henry James scholar
• Author, "The Visitable Past"

Eugene Fodor

• 1st Mobile Radio Broadcasting Company
• OSS/CIA intelligence officer; Fodor’s travel guides

Philip J. W. Glaessner

Class 15

• Alliance for Progress; World Bank economist

Robert F. Goheen

• President, Princeton University; Ambassador to India
• Notable Ritchie Boys slide lists Class 15 (roster currently shows Class 5)

Hans Habe-Bekessy

• 1st Mobile Radio Broadcasting Company
• Editor; author, "A Thousand Shall Fall"

Stefan Heym

Class 9

• Author, "The Wandering Jew", "The Crusaders"

Fred Howard

Class 17

• Display company owner; invented L’Eggs pantyhose

George Jellinek

Class 16

• WQXR radio host, "The Vocal Scene"

Philip C. Johnson

Class 10

• Architect; modern glass and steel towers

John W. Kluge

Class 7

• Metromedia owner; billionaire philanthropist

Frank S. Leavitt / Man Mountain Dean (1891-1953)

• First Sergeant; known as “Man Mountain Dean”

Simon J. Lewen

Class 16

• Artist of the Holocaust; Si Lewen Museum

Arno J. Mayer

Class 29

• Professor Emeritus, Princeton; Marxist historian
• Author, "Why Did the Heavens Not Darken?"

Ib J. Melchior

Class 10

• Science fiction films
• Novelist, "Order of Battle"

Rudolf H. Michaels

Class 16

• Law school professor; judge

John B. Oakes

Class 4

• Editor, New York Times; created Op-Ed page; environmentalist

Morris B. Parloff

Class 16

• Clinical psychologist; NIH administrator

William R. Perl

Class 6

• Rescued an estimated 40,000 Jews
• Author, "Operation Action"

Laughlin Phillips

Class 17

• The Phillips Collection (modern art); The Washingtonian magazine

Eric R. Pleskow

Class 27

• Film producer; President, United Artists; three Oscar awards

David Rockefeller

Class 7

• Chairman, Chase Manhattan Bank; philanthropist

Eric F. Ross

Class 10

• Chemical and plastics pioneer; philanthropist

Jerome D. Salinger

• CIC Short Course
• Novelist, "The Catcher in the Rye"

Richard Schifter

Class 17

• Assistant Secretary of State
• Ambassador and Representative to the United Nations

David Robert Seymour

Class 5

• Famous photographer known as "Chim"

Hans N. Spear

Class 14

• Painting company owner
• Notable Ritchie Boys slide lists as Hans J. Spear

Guy Stern

Class 8

• German literature scholar; Professor Emeritus, Wayne State University

Vernon A. Walters

Class 4

• Career intelligence officer; Ambassador to the UN and Germany

William C Warfield

• Entertainment Director
• Bass-baritone; "Porgy and Bess"