Robert Browne Wallace

Robert B. Wallace, 84, a former agribusiness executive, sustainable-development activist and son of former U.S. vice president Henry A. Wallace, died of cardiac arrest Oct. 10 at Georgetown University Hospital. He had a stroke in 1999. He was the second of three children born to Henry A. Wallace and Ilo Browne Wallace. Robert Wallace, who attended Sidwell Friends School in Washington DC, was a 1940 biology graduate of Iowa State University. His graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin were cut short by World War II, when he entered the Army and served as a major in Europe. In 1946, he married Dr. Gordon Grosvenor, a sociologist and concert pianist. They settled near Philadelphia, where he was an animator, illustrator and producer of educational films. From 1948 to 1973, he was chief executive of Hy-Cross Hatcheries Inc. in Doylestown, Pa., a subsidiary of Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., an agricultural genetics firm founded by his father. Pioneer grew to become among the largest producers of hybrid seed corn and other crops, merging with Dupont Corp. in 1999. Robert Wallace, who played tennis and squash, was an amateur ornithologist. A bird species discovered in 1999 in the Andes of Peru bears his name: Wallace's barbet. He was a founder of the Council of Sponsors of the Worldwatch Institute and a member of the board of Planned Parenthood/World Population and the executive committee of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. His first wife died in 1994. Their daughter, Allaire Wallace, died in 1992. Survivors include his wife, Raisa Scriabine Wallace of Washington; three sons from his first marriage, Robert Bruce Wallace of Ottsville, Pa., Henry Scott Wallace of Bethesda and Randall Clark Wallace of New York; a brother, Henry B. Wallace of Scottsdale, Ariz.; a sister, Jean Wallace Douglas of Washington; and seven grandchildren. Robert founded the Wallace Global Fund, which supports sustainable development. The Fund carries forward Henry A. Wallace’s commitment and courage by promoting fearless and strategic activism and advocacy for public policies that empower and protect the “common man,” and restrict the power of corporate interests to distort and divert public policy and resources away from the common good.