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Alan J. Dalby, 79; led pharmaceutical Smith Kline

Alan J. Dalby, 79, formerly of Devon, who rose from a lab assistant to lead the pharmaceutical firm of Smith Kline & French, died Monday, Aug. 1, at his home in London.

Alan J. Dalby
Alan J. DalbyRead more

Alan J. Dalby, 79, formerly of Devon, who rose from a lab assistant to lead the pharmaceutical firm of Smith Kline & French, died Monday, Aug. 1, at his home in London.

He and his family lived in Philadelphia in the 1960s and in the suburbs from 1972 to 1986, as Mr. Dalby scaled the career ladder at the company, which later became known as GlaxoSmithKline and GSK.

At the height of his success, he was executive vice president of SmithKline Corp. and president of Smith Kline & French Pharmaceuticals. The business entities were acquired by Glaxo in 2000 to form GlaxoSmithKline, the London-based pharmaceutical giant.

Mr. Dalby grew up in a religious mission in one of the poorest sections of Glasgow, Scotland.

"He often marveled at his success, yet he always attributed it 90 percent to luck," his family said in a tribute. "Those who knew him realized that his hard work, intelligence, and charisma probably also had a lot to do with it."

At 21, Mr. Dalby was determined to leave Scotland for Canada, so he worked in a ship's galley to pay for his passage across the Atlantic. When he arrived in Montreal, he found a job as one of two employees mixing chemicals in a lab owned by Smith, Kline & French. Though based in Philadelphia, the firm maintained a Canadian operation.

Mr. Dalby moved into marketing, and "through sheer determination and perseverance" worked his way up to head the company's Canadian division, his family said.

Smith, Kline & French transferred Mr. Dalby to its Philadelphia headquarters, where he ran the marketing operations for the entire corporation.

Never one to shrink from a career risk, Mr. Dalby accepted the post of director of the company's international operations in Brussels, although it seemed like a step backward - the unit handled only a sixth of the firm's overall business.

Mr. Dalby, however, recognized that globalization would become a cornerstone of the modern economy. Under his tenure, the company accelerated growth across Europe and also expanded into Iran and Japan.

The company again transferred Mr. Dalby to Philadelphia as executive vice president of SmithKline Corp. and then made him president of Smith, Kline & French. He left in 1986 after 28 years.

Mr. Dalby became chief executive of Cambridge Neurosciences, a biotech company in Massachusetts working to develop a cure for Alzheimer's disease.

His last position was chairman of Reckitt & Colman, a London-based conglomerate that makes such consumer products as Lysol. He guided the company's transformation into Reckitt Benckiser.

In 1960, Mr. Dalby married Sheila Hardie, a Smith Kline colleague. The couple had two sons. She died in 1982.

He was married again to Helen Hargadon, a lobbyist for the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, on whose board Mr. Dalby sat. She died in 2006.

In 2008, he married Gill Siddall. The couple built a life together on Cape Cod and in London. She survives.

His family described Mr. Dalby as "a man who couldn't sit still for long."

He taught himself carpentry and gardening. He became a sommelier and an excellent chef. He played racquetball until his knees complained, then spent 30 years of weekends perfecting his golf game, mostly at the Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square.

In Mr. Dalby's last years, he had dementia. "Up to the very end, however, he was a charming, loving man who always wanted to sing and dance, and who always believed he was the luckiest man alive," his family said.

Besides his wife, he is survived by sons Royce and Mark Dalby; two brothers; a sister; stepchildren Charles, Sue, and Toby Siddall; two grandchildren; and six step-grandchildren.

Services were Thursday, Aug. 11, in London.

bcook@phillynews.com

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