Steve Ettinger, PTF Advisor and team leader on PTF’s projects in Latin America, including the FONTRA program, died on July 31 after a four year valiant and determined battle against pancreatic cancer. Steve, 70, traveled the globe, ever promoting development projects in his 23 year World Bank career.
Steve was a grand colleague with a sense of enthusiasm, a vibrant wit and a contagious zest for life. In recent years, despite his illness, he would time and again be there at PTF to work on projects, to consider the organization’s future with colleagues, and to meet with civil society activists from Latin America when they came to Washington DC.
All of us in PTF extend our sympathies to his wife Ronie, sons Jonathan and Kenneth, sister Laura, nephews Mike and Dan, and their families. His family notes that donations in Steve’s name would be welcome for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (pancan.org) and Caring Bridge.
Steve loved to bicycle and to canoe – he recently wrote, “Capital Canoeing and Kayaking: A complete Guide to Whitewater Streams Within Two Hours of Washington DC.” Steve held a doctorate in Economics from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and a master’s in public administration from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton. He had been the treasurer of New Futures, a scholarship fund for DC youth, since its inception.
