David Church Eaton, 90, of Stuart, FL and Orleans, MA died Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at Arden Courts in Avon, CT after a brief illness. He was born on July 23, 1919 in Cambridge, MA to Henry Charles and Lesley Church Eaton of Waltham, MA. He graduated from the Belmont Hill School (1936) and Harvard College in 1940 as an aeronautical engineer. In school and college he played varsity baseball and hockey in all four years of matriculation, and with his older brother, Frank, who died in 2009, was twice doubles champion of New Hampshire in tennis. He first worked with Curtis Wright Aircraft on Long Island but lived in Ridgewood, NJ where he met and married is wife of 57 years, Ruth Fielder, in 1943. During WW II he served in the US Army Air Force as a Lt Col stationed in London, England as Curtis Wright’s technical representative and advisor to the Royal Air Force. After the war he lived in Glen Rock and Pines Lake, NJ and worked in engineering and management positions in the aerospace industry for Kearfott Corp., Reaction Motors, Inc. and Thiokol Corp. before moving with his family to West Simsbury, Connecticut in 1964 to take a an executive position with the Chandler Evans Division of Colt Industries. In 1970 he became President of Colt Firearms from which he retired in the late 1970’s. After retirement he and Ruth traveled between homes on Cape Cod and Mariner Sands in Florida where they enjoyed golf and tennis together until her death in 2001. Mr. Eaton is survived by three sons, David and his wife Carroll of Wilmington, DE, Christopher and his wife Barbara of Barkhamsted, CT and Brian of Cheshire, CT, as well as five grandchildren, Bethany and her husband Luca Iacusso of West Haven, CT, Gregory, Timothy and Brett of Barkhamsted and Melissa Nieman of Florida.
Interment will be private. Memorial contributions in his name can be made to Vitas Hospice Charitable Fund, 255 Pitkin Street, East Hartford, CT 06108. For online condolences please visit www.vincentfuneralhome.com.