Vol. 19, No. 14

Dec. 9, 1999

Memorial service Saturday
for G. Burton Pearson Jr.

G Burton Pearson Jr., 94, trustee emeritus, longtime friend and generous benefactor of the University, died Dec. 8 of complications after surgery to repair a broken hip. His funeral will be held at 11 a.m., Saturday, Dec. 11, at Christ Church, Christiana Hundred, Greenville. An active member of UD's Board of Trustees from 1951-93, Judge Pearson was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by the University at its 1988 Commencement. He was cited as an eminent jurist, esteemed business leader, generous benefactor and devoted son of Delaware. The citation concluded, "G. Burton Pearson Jr., for all you are and all you have done, the University of Delaware salutes you." In 1994, Pearson Hall was named in honor of him and his wife, Edith du Pont Pearson. A trustee of the Unidel Foundation Inc. since its organization in 1939, Judge Pearson served as its president since 1962. He recently announced a gift of $10 million from the Unidel Foundation, in support of endowed faculty chairs. A magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, he was a member of the bar of the state of Delaware and the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1939, he was appointed the first vice chancellor of Delaware. Later, he was appointed associate judge of Delaware, and, in that office, he was a member of the Superior Court, the Court of General Sessions and the Supreme Court of Delaware. Judge Pearson had served as executive director of the Wilmington Trust Co., as president of the Delaware Bar Association and as a member of the Preliminary Investigatory Committee of the Court on the Judiciary of Delaware. His other service included membership on the boards of the Newark, Del., Special School District, Tower Hill School and the Wilmington Institute Free Library. He also was a member of the Delaware Bank Advisory Board, a director of Mercantile Stores Inc. and a trustee and member of the executive committee of Memorial Hospital in Wilmington. Additionally, he was president of the Alliance Francaise of Wilmington.