LAWRENCE MCQUADE

1927 - 2020

MCQUADE--Lawrence C. The Hon. Lawrence C. McQuade died of pneumonia in Nantucket, Massachusetts on 21 December 2020. He was 93 and a resident of New York City and Nantucket. Born in New York on 12 August 1927 the second son of Edward Anthony and Thelma Keefe McQuade, Larry moved to Tucson, Arizona when he was two years old. He was an outstanding student and athlete during his school years, a combination that continued at Yale University where he was a football hero and graduated with distinction, having been elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He went on to New College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar, captaining his rugby team, and receiving an MA in Law. He then earned an LLB cum laude from Harvard Law School and became a member of the New York and Washington, D.C. Bar Associations. Larry worked as an associate at Sullivan and Cromwell until he joined the Kennedy Administration as assistant to Paul Nitze, then Deputy Secretary of Defense, who became a friend and mentor. Among their challenges in the early 1960s were the war in Viet Nam, the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War. During the Johnson Administration Larry served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Domestic and International Trade. After leaving government, Larry returned to the private sector, becoming president of ProCon, a builder of oil refineries worldwide. He then moved to W. R. Grace as vice-chairman and a member of that board. In the 1990s, Larry became vicechairman of Prudential Securities and then cofounded River Capital International, a venture capital firm focused on investment in Russia. Larry served as a director of Oxford Analytica, the Quixote Corporation, Prudential Securities, and the Bunzl Corporation, among others. As part of his volunteer work, Larry sat on the boards of the National Trade Council, the Atlantic Council, the Asian Programs Foundation, the Foreign Bond Holders Protective Council, the Czech-Slovak American Enterprise Fund and the Overseas Development Council. He was a lifelong member of the Council on Foreign Relations, The Century Association, and others. Larry's first wife, De Rossey Morrissey, died in 1978. Larry is survived by his wife, Margaret Osmer McQuade, their son, Andrew Parker McQuade, and their grandson Jack Roberts McQuade. He is lovingly remembered by numerous nieces, nephews and godchildren who happily share "Uncle Larry" stories. There was no finer gentleman than Larry McQuade. He was a person of brilliant intellect, unshakeable integrity, gentleness of heart, and infectious good humor. A memorial will be held post-Covid.