DePauw Mourns the Passing of Former Board Chair Eugene Delves '50
August 5, 2011
August 5, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — Eugene "Gene" L. Delves, a 1950 graduate of DePauw University and a Life Trustee of his alma mater and former chair of DePauw's Board of Trustees, passed away in Chicago on August 3. He was 84 years old.
Born in 1927 in Chicago, Delves graduated as valedictorian from Fenger High School in 1945 but his college career was delayed when he entered the Army Air Corps. After the service he began his undergraduate studies at DePauw, where he met his future wife, the former Sue Howard, in 1947, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in economics in 1950. Two years later, Delves earned both an M.B.A. degree from Northwestern University and a CPA degree from the University of Illinois.
A computer pioneer, Gene Delves was one of five men who started the organization that is today known as Accenture. In 1954, the Univac computer processed the payroll for the new General Electric Appliance Park near Louisville, Kentucky, and the five men behind it were young employees of Arthur Andersen's administrative service division. The efforts of Delves and the other four marked the first successful installation and use of a computer in the industry. The Univac is now housed at the Smithsonian Institute. The breakthrough also spawned the consulting division of Arthur Andersen, then Andersen Consulting and today Accenture: a $22 billion corporation with 225,000 employees serving clients in 120 countries.
Delves was named a partner at Andersen in 1963. He retired from the 
company in 1987. He then served as chief operating officer of Saatchi Consulting for three years and consulted Unisys and AT&T. (at right: Delves, at right, at an Alumni Chapel in 1971)
Delves was active in the Illinois CPA Society and served as its president in 1983. Engaged in his community, he served as an officer on the boards of the Beverly Area Planning Association, Ridge Historical Society, Smith Senior Living, Methodist Youth Services, Center for Parish Development, and Garrett Theological Seminary.
A Rector Scholar at DePauw, Gene Delves was a member of DePauw's Board of Trustees for more than 30 years and received and honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the University, as well as the Old Gold Goblet (1992) and an Alumni Citation (1973). Over the years, Delves aided his alma mater in a number of capacities: serving on the executive committee of the sesquicentennial committee and the Campaign for DePauw, and as a reunion year and Annual Fund volunteer, among other things. He was also known for leading historic tours of East College. The generosity of Gene Delves and his wife, Sue '51, who survives, created the Eugene L. and Sue H. Delves Merit Scholarship at DePauw.
"I want to do things for my school," Delves told The DePauw in an April 1983 interview as he assumed the chair of the Board of Trustees. "It's part of the DePauw mystique. It boils down to the people. You have to feel
very, very dedicated to an institution that produces such quality students and graduates and the important contributions they make in everything they do." (left: 1986 photo of Robert R. Frederick '48; DePauw's eighteenth president, Robert G. Bottoms; DePauw's seventeenth president, Richard F. Rosser, and Gene Delves '50)
Memorial visitation is taking place today from 3 to 9 p.m. at Donnellan Funeral Home, 10525 S. Western Avenue in Chicago. A memorial service will be held Saturday, August 6, at 10:30 a.m. at Morgan Park United Methodist Church (MPUMC), 11030 S. Longwood Drive, Chicago.
An obituary is published in today's Chicago Tribune.
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