Dan Pinck died in Belmont on Feb. 10 after a long illness. He was 94 and had been a seasonal resident of Chilmark.
Dan was born in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 21, 1924, to Esther and Louis Pinck. He was a graduate of the Sidwell Friends School and Washington and Lee University.
During World War II, he served behind enemy lines in China with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor to the C.I.A. and the U.S. Special Operations Command.
Following the war, he worked for A.J. Liebling at The New Yorker. One of his fondest memories was seeing the writer J.D. Salinger cheering for him as he pitched for the magazine’s softball team. He worked for Harvard, M.I.T. and Tufts University, consulted on education, and wrote extensively about his experiences during the war. His memoir, Journey to Peking: A Secret Agent in Wartime China, was published in 2003.
Survivors include Charles Pinck of Washington, D.C., Alexandra Pinck of Cambridge, Jennifer Pinck of Boston, and Anthony Pinck of Delray Beach, Fla.
He was interred at Abel’s Hill cemetery on Feb. 13 next to his wife, Joan Pinck. His son Charles, who serves president of The OSS Society, read a letter from C.I.A. Director Gina Haspel, who wrote that “like every man and woman who faithfully served our country under the great General Donovan, your father will always be an inspiration to those of us who carry on his work in the clandestine realm.”
Comments
Comment policy »