David Frederick Babson was born in Rockport (Pigeon Cove), Massachusetts, on November 27, 1896, the third child and only son of Frederick Babson (1868-1912) and Ella M. (Bailey) Babson (1867-1946). DFB served as a private in the 104th U.S. Infantry in France during 1917-1918. During that period, his younger sister, Helen Hatch Babson (1899-1984) worked as a housemother at Pine Mountain Settlement School, Harlan County, Kentucky. Naomi Lane Babson (1895-1985) was an elementary school teacher at Glastonbury, Connecticut, and Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Dorothy (Babson) Rikert (1894-1965) lived in Mount Hermon, Massachusetts, with her husband, Carroll, and their son, Carroll, Jr. After the war, DFB entered Harvard College with the Class of 1925; he died in Wolcott, Connecticut, on April 12, 1971.
For further information on the Babson family, see the genealogy compiled by Catherine Finney-MacDougal and published by Eaton Press (Watertown, Mass.) in 1978.
From the guide to the Papers, 1903(?)-1984 (scattered), (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)
