Robert S. Ingersoll, a Chicago business leader, ambassador to Japan and Trustee Emeritus of the University of Chicago, died Aug. 22 at the Presbyterian Homes in Evanston. He was 96.
Ingersoll spent some 35 years in industry prior to his government service, the last 33 with Borg-Warner Corporation in Chicago. He was chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Borg-Warner at the time of his appointment as United States Ambassador to Japan in 1972. Prior to joining Borg-Warner, Ingersoll served with Armco Steel Corporation from 1937-39.
Ingersoll was appointed United States Ambassador to Japan by President Richard Nixon and served in that post from 1972 to 1973. He then served as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, 1974; and Deputy Secretary of State, 1974-76, serving under Henry Kissinger. Upon leaving the Foreign Service he served as vice chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago from 1976-81, and as chairman of The Japan Society, Inc. (N.Y.), from 1978-85.
In 1985, the University of Chicago established the Robert S. Ingersoll Professorship in Japanese Studies in his honor. The professorship was created with an endowment from the Borg-Warner Foundation.
He also had been vice president and a member of the board of directors of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and vice president and director of the Chicago Association of Commerce and Industry. In addition, he was a past member of several international business committees and councils, including the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission, the Advisory Council on Japan-U.S. Economic Relations, and the Emergency Committee for American Trade.
Ingersoll was a former member of the board of directors of the Benton Foundation and former vice chairman of the National Park Foundation. He served until 2004 as the first chairman of the board of directors of the Panasonic Foundation, Inc. He also served on the national advisory board of the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Ariz., and was a former member of the board of trustees of the Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, retiring in 2005.
Ingersoll formerly served as president of the board of education of Winnetka Elementary School District 36 in Winnetka. Ingersoll was a former president of the Commercial Club of Chicago, Economic Club of Chicago and the Chicago Commonwealth Club.
He was born in Galesburg, Ill., and graduated from Phillips Academy at Andover (Mass.) and from the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, where he received a B.S. degree in 1937.
He is survived by three daughters, Nancy Ingersoll Foster, Gail Ingersoll Ransom and Elizabeth Ingersoll Carroll; 11 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife, the former Coralyn Eleanor Reid; and two daughters, Coralyn Eleanor Ingersoll Walker and Joan Courtney Ingersoll.
A memorial service will be held at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 17 at the Winnetka Congregational Church, 725 Pine St., Winnetka. Donations in his honor may be made to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra or the University of Chicago.
—Prof. Jacqueline Stewart
