Gavin Pitt Sr., 82, a writer, educator and former president and CEO who helped oversee the merger of Presbyterian and St. Luke’s hospitals in the 1960s, died Tuesday in his home in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. In 1960, Mr. Pitt was hired to implement the merger of the hospitals, now known as Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center. He oversaw a $5 million campaign for a health center and research building. His development skills were also employed by the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Johns Hopkins Fund in the late 1950s in Baltimore. He guided the “Decade of Development” program, which included a new children’s medical center and a 4 million-volume university library. “He was a bit of an overachiever,” said his son, Judson H. Pitt. “He especially loved working with (Johns Hopkins University President) Milton Eisenhower. That was one of his favorite jobs, and the sense of accomplishment at Rush Medical Center. When we drove by, he was always very proud of what he started there.” Born in Berkeley, Calif., to a Presbyterian minister and his wife, Mr. Pitt earned his economics degree from Brown University in 1938. He was later hired as a senior associate with Booz, Allen & Hamilton in New York, a consulting firm where he worked with clients such as NBC and helped reorganize the United States Information Agency. After Mr. Pitt earned his master’s degree in education from Johns Hopkins in 1959, he moved his family to Chicago’s Gold Coast. He spent several years as an executive at St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy in Delafield, Wis., and at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, and returned to Chicago in 1990. Mr. Pitt served on the board of The Latin School of Chicago and as vice president of the Chicago Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Mr. Pitt is survived by another son, Rev. Gavin Pitt Jr.; a daughter, Gaele Kastberg; two brothers, Courtnay and Ledlie; a grandson; and a granddaughter. A memorial service will be held July 25 at the Fourth Presbyterian Church, Michigan Avenue and Delaware Place.
