11/01/2025
Donald R. Kurtz
Donald R. Kurtz, a Stamford resident for nearly 53 years, passed away peacefully at home on the afternoon of October 20, 2025. Born in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania in 1930, Donald moved with his family to Great Neck, New York, before settling in Portland, Maine.
There, he attended Deering High School graduating at the tender age of 16. After attending Phillips Exeter Academy as a postgraduate student, he became a member of the Bowdoin College class of 1952. At Bowdoin, he majored in economics and was a member of the Zeta Psi fraternity. He also ran track and played the violin, which later afforded him the honor of playing with the Portland Symphony Orchestra.
Donald began his service in the U.S. Navy after graduating from Bowdoin, attending Navy Officer Candidate School in Rhode Island. He toured the world on the destroyer, the USS Wadleigh, during the Korean War, and this journey took him to seaports all over the globe. Before being discharged in 1956, he achieved the rank of Lieutenant, and that December, Don married Barbara Biggs of Scarsdale, New York. When asked what qualities attracted him to Barbara, his answer was simple: “her purity.” The next year, Donald began what would be a lifelong career in the world of finance, joining the securities investment department at Equitable Life Assurance Society. In 1959, while working as a securities analyst, he completed the MBA graduate program at Columbia University. He subsequently became Executive Vice President and then Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Equitable Investment Management Company, a separate division within the corporation. Donald left Equitable in 1986, and the following year, he joined General Motors Investment Management Corporation where he worked as Managing Director of the Pension Fund until 1995.
Desiring to keep busy during and after his business career, Donald stayed active as a trustee, board member or consultant for a number of organizations, including the Daycroft School in Connecticut and Camps Newfound/Owatonna in Maine. He also served on the investment committees of the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, the Adventure Unlimited camp in Colorado, and, for twenty years, was an overseer/trustee at his alma mater, Bowdoin College. For eight years starting in 1992, Don served as an equities specialist on the board of the Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO). In addition, he and Barbara formed enduring friendships with members of “The Group of IX,” a group of investment professionals who convened twice a year in various parts of the country to discuss investment opportunities and strategies. In his service to Bowdoin College, he was elected chair of Bowdoin’s Investment Committee and then served as the chair of the Trustee Financial Planning Committee from 1994 to 1996, a time of great growth for Bowdoin’s endowment. Donald served as chair of the board of trustees from 1999 to 2002 and was elected trustee emeritus when he stepped off the board in 2004. One of Donald’s greatest contributions to Bowdoin was as chair of a commission which was established to reevaluate the organization of residential life on campus. Ultimately, the 16-member committee recommended phasing out fraternities by 2000, the construction of new residence halls, and expanded dining facilities. The board affirmed the Commission’s recommendation with its own unanimous vote.
When Donald was awarded the Alumni Service Award in 1997, he was lauded for his unparalleled leadership, wisdom, integrity, determination, and sensitivity, and in 2005, he received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree, which he playfully referred to as “getting the third degree.” Don was an original season ticket holder and lifelong fan of the N.Y. Jets team, and he generously entertained many of his friends at football games, first at Shea Stadium and then the Meadowlands. Donald and Barbara had three children, Robin, David, and Mary Pat, and lived in Hartsdale and Scarsdale, New York, before settling in Stamford, Connecticut. He took great interest in his children’s pursuits, which included attending as many of Mary Pat’s lacrosse or field hockey games as possible. He greatly enjoyed his many deep discussions with his son David, his daughter, Robin, and grandson, Paul Acello, on far-ranging topics of the day. He sometimes boasted that he’d met in person seven U.S. Presidents (before, during or after their terms) starting with Dwight D. Eisenhower at Columbia University.
An avid boatsman, Don, enjoyed competing in sailing races in Casco Bay with his brothers Dick and Ted, an activity which continued into adulthood. In more recent years, the three brothers relished their annual summer cruises up and down the coast of Maine and Canada. A gentle and generous soul, Donald took personal interest in the lives of so many, always treating them as equals. He worked to empower his business colleagues, and especially women in the workforce whose careers he championed in what traditionally has been a male-dominated field.
Donald is survived by his children Robin L. Kurtz and David L. Kurtz, sonin-law, Frank Acello, grandson, Paul F. Acello, his brother, Theodore H. Kurtz. His daughter Mary Pat Kurtz-Acello in 2004, his beloved wife, Barbara, in 2010, and his brother, Richard W. Kurtz in 2023, predeceased him.
Gifts in his honor may be made to the Mary Pat Kurtz-Acello Scholarship Fund, Greenwich Academy, 200 North Maple Avenue, Greenwich, CT 06830, or to the Donald R. Kurtz and Barbara B. Kurtz Residential Life Fund at Bowdoin College. https://give.bowdoin.edu/campaigns/71744/ donations/new A memorial service will be held at a date and location to be announced.
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