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The David P. Hess and Lori V. Hess Scholarship

The David P. Hess and Lori V. Hess Scholarship was established by David Hess, Class of 1977, and his wife, Lori.

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This Fund was initiated in 2020 by David P. Hess ’77 and Lori V. Hess.

As a Hamilton student, Mr. Hess participated in intramural hockey, football, basketball, softball, and squash. In his sophomore year, he played junior varsity tennis. He was also a member of Delta Upsilon. After graduating from Hamilton with a degree in physics, Mr. Hess earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Awarded a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan Fellowship, he received a second master’s degree in management from MIT in 1990.

In 1979, Mr. Hess began his professional career with United Technologies Corporation’s Hamilton Standard aerospace systems subsidiary. Over the next 25 years, he went on to advance through increasingly higher levels of executive responsibility. In 2005, Mr. Hess was promoted to president of what had since become Hamilton Sundstrand. After four years at the helm of Hamilton Sundstrand, Mr. Hess became president of UTC’s Pratt & Whitney subsidiary. In 2012, he was named Chairman of the Aerospace Industries Association, serving as a voice for the industry during the challenging congressional budget sequestration of that year. After 5 years as President of Pratt & Whitney, Mr. Hess was again promoted to serve as the Chief Commercial Officer for UTC Aerospace until finally retiring after a 38-year career at UTC in 2017. Shortly after retiring from UTC, Mr. Hess joined the Board of Directors of Arconic Corporation and subsequently was asked to serve as CEO. Since retiring from his Arconic CEO role in 2018, Mr. Hess has served on numerous boards for public, privately held, and non-profit organizations including Arconic; Cytec Industries, Inc.; RTI International Metals; GKN Advanced Defense Systems; Hartford Healthcare and Allegheny Technologies, Inc. Mr. Hess has served as a Charter Trustee for Hamilton College since 2018.

Born in Princeton, NJ, Lori Van Slaars Hess received a BS in Electrical Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University. Upon graduation, she began working for Westinghouse Electric Corp. and spent 9 years there in a variety of sales and marketing roles before accepting a position at General Electric. After 14 years at General Electric in various positions in sales and human resources, Lori elected to leave in late 2008 to spend more time at home. Her final 6 years at General Electric were spent at the corporate headquarters in Fairfield, CT in roles that included Manager, Global Commercial Leadership Program, and Manager, University Relations. Since leaving the corporate world, Lori has spent her time volunteering with various non-profit organizations in the Greater Hartford area and currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Connecticut Science Center.

Lori and David live in Simsbury, CT full-time but also own a residence on the Cape in Wellfleet where they spend most of their summers.  They have 3 grown children and although none of them attended Hamilton, son Paul and daughter-in-law Shelby are both graduates of Williams College and are both professors at Middlebury College.