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Birth:          4 May 1941 Bryn Mawr, Pa.
Death:          4 Feb 2007 Boston, Mass.

Notes
!PUBL
1981 book (see for details)
Conn. Div Idx on ancestry
From http://www.iumi-newyork-2002.org/Neff.htm
Short Biography  of Mitchell C. Gibbons-Neff
Born in 1941 

Grew up on a farm.  Parents were sailors and he has been on boats since a toddler. 
Bachelors Degree in Geology Franklin and Marshall College.  4 yrs in Navy - 
Engineering Officer on a 172’ Wood Minesweeper and Officer in charge of a 50’ PCF 
(Swift Boat ) in Vietnam.  Then 2 years at Harvard for an MBA.  2 years as a Project 
Engineer in Pacific NW in heavy construction.

In 1971 employed by Palmer Johnson as a salesman.  In 1973 co-founded Nautor USA 
for Western Hemisphere.  In 1976 joined Sparkman & Stephens, Inc. as broker.  
Currently Sales manager, President and broker.

His obit:

Gibbons-Neff, Mitchell Chance "Mitch"    
 
GIBBONS-NEFF
MITCHELL "MITCH" CHANCE, 65, Noted Yachtsman, of Roway-ton CT, for many 
years President of Sparkman & Stephens, the naval architecture and yacht broker-age 
firm based in New York, died on February 4, 2007. He was 65. His death, at a Boston 
hospital, was caused by complications from lung cancer.
Mr. Gibbons-Neff was born on May 4, 1941 in Bryn Mawr PA, the son of Morton 
Gibbons-Neff, Jr. of Chestertown MD and the late Florence Chance Gibbons-Neff. He 
grew up in Devon PA. He graduated from Haverford School, Franklin and Marshall 
College, and Harvard Business School. A Navy officer during the Viet Nam War, he 
was first assigned to the navy base in Coronado, California as Boat Crew Training 
Officer before the crews left for Vietnam and he himself was later assigned to the Swift 
Boat Base at Da Nang in Cameron Bay. He conducted over one hundred gunboat 
missions as Officer in Charge of a Swift Class Patrol Boat. 
Mr. Gibbons-Neff was a world-class sailor and participated in multiple transatlantic 
voyages. He sailed in twenty Newport to Bermuda races, beginning when he was 15 
years old. He was a member of the New York Yacht Club, the Noroton Yacht Club, the 
Cruising Club of America, and the Storm Trysail Club. Long active in the affairs of the 
Mystic Seaport Museum, Mr. Gibbons-Neff was also an overseer of the SEA Education 
Association. Beloved by sailors around the world, Mitch was a legend. 
He is survived by his former wife Suzanne Kahn and their children TM Gibbons-Neff 
and Paul Gibbons-Neff, all of Boston, by his father, and brothers Morton Gibbons-Neff, 
III of Chestertown MD, Peter Gibbons-Neff of Rosemont PA, Henry Gibbons-Neff of 
Chestertown MD and by many nieces and nephews. Services will be private. Memorial 
contributions may be made to the SEA Education Association, PO Box 6, Woods Hole 
MA 02543.  
Published in the Philadelphia Inquirer & Philadelphia Daily News on 2/7/2007.  


Parents
GIBBONS-NEFF Morton ("Sunny") (7 Mar 1913 - 17 Dec 2007)
CHANCE Florence Mitchell (25 Oct 1914 - 28 Apr 2002)

Siblings
GIBBONS-NEFF Morton ("Tony") ()
GIBBONS-NEFF Mitchell Chance ("Chance") ("Mitch") (4 May 1941 - 4 Feb 2007)
GIBBONS-NEFF Peter (20 Dec 1945 - 20 Jan 2013)
GIBBONS-NEFF Henry ()

Marriage To ----- Samantha ()

Notes


Children by ----- Samantha
PANKO [CHG TO GIBBONS-NEFF] Sharon A. ()

Marriage To KAHN Suzanne S. ()

Notes


Children by KAHN Suzanne S.
GIBBONS-NEFF Thomas Mitchell ()
GIBBONS-NEFF Paul ()

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