Farewells: Herbert Wallace

He was the shy industrial engineer from Hermon, New York who always carried nail clippers and a handkerchief in his pocket. She was the flamboyant Spanish actress who lit up a room.

It was 1949. Herbert L. Wallace Jr. was on a business trip when he met Pituka de Foronda at a party in Mexico City. They were married at Union Church here less than a year later.

Wallace died Dec. 31, 2006 in Mexico City. He is survived by his four children, Herbert, Edgar and Robert, of Mexico City, Elizabeth Wallace Duarte, of San Antonio, Texas, and five grandchildren. His wife died in 1999.

Though they never became Mexican citizens, Wallace and de Foronda worked, raised their family and learned each other’s mother tongue in Mexico. “They held hands to the last day,” Elizabeth said.

Westinghouse transferred Wallace to its subsidiary Industria Eléctrica de México. After that, he was general manager of Heinz Mexico and, when that company closed in the early 1970s, he ran a clothing company out of his children’s playroom to support the family. Wallace later built a successful market research company.

A devoted member of Union Church, “he taught us that the first thing in life was Jesus Christ,” Elizabeth said. He tucked his four kids into bed every night and as he drove them to the American School every morning they would recite the Lord’s Prayer.

Friends and family said Wallace, witty and ever the gentleman, didn’t criticize, never held grudges and prized honesty and reflection. When Elizabeth wanted to leave home as a teenager, her dad told her to sleep on it and that he would support her decision in the morning.

Wallace was both personal counselor and public volunteer. His posts included President of the Board of Deacons at Union Church, President of the Salvation Army and Vice President Emeritus of the American Benevolent Society, among others. The ABS honored Wallace with its first lifetime community service award in 2006.

“I think I know very few people who live their beliefs the way that man lived his beliefs,” said friend Frances Hutanus. When the two worked on refurbishing the American Cemetery, Wallace insisted on a policy for burying needy veterans. Wallace showed Hutanus that “you can’t be off-hand about human beings.”

“Total opposites,” but always a team, Elizabeth said that her father encouraged her mother to balance her acting career with volunteerism, as well. The couple routinely hosted huge parties and once they invited inmates from a women’s prison to put on a dance performance in their backyard. That evening jail guards surrounded their home.

Wallace was well known for the graceful way he supported his two sons with physical disabilities.

“To him, it made no difference,” said friend Bill Biese, citing Wallace as a role model for dealing with adversity. “He cultivated love around him,” Elizabeth said.

Herbert Wallace is buried with his wife and father at the American Cemetery in Mexico City.