Richard Kingsley Bird ’46 died on January 31, 2006, in Hartford, Connecticut.
He was born on November 1, 1924, in New York City, prepared for college at Montclair High School in New Jersey, and became a member of Delta Upsilon Fraternity at Bowdoin. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific theater from 1943 to 1946, attaining the rank of lieutenant junior grade. Following the war, he returned to Bowdoin and graduated in 1947 as a member of the Class of 1946. He was a salesman for Schering Corporation in Bloomfield, NJ, from 1949 to 1950, when he joined the firm of Tingue Brown & Co., where he worked for 55 years. Beginning in 1950 as a salesman in Detroit, MI, he served as sales manager in Chicago, IL, from 1957 to 1967, vice president in New York City from 1968 to 1974, president in Englewood, NJ, in 1974, and then Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. He was a member of the board of directors at Tingue Brown & Co., Hemlock Farms Company, and Professional Sales Company. He was vice president of the Hemlock Farms Community Association and a member of the Sanibel Congregational Church in Sanibel, FL, the Community Church at Upper Ridgewood, NJ, and the First Church of Christ in Simsbury, CT. He is survived by his wife, Nancy Foster Bird, whom he married in 1948; three daughters, Carolyn Kucharski of Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ, Cynthia Carey of Simsbury, CT, and Barbara Schneider, also of Simsbury; a brother, Frederick S. Bird of Bedford, MA; and five grandchildren.