Perhaps Mr. Nottingham's most daring adventure came in 1979, when he was managing AIG's Middle East operations and was sent to pre-revolutionary Iran to safeguard the company's assets as fears mounted about the toppling of the U.S.-backed shah. When the Ayatollah Khomeini was swept into power by popular revolt, Mr. Nottingham was trapped in the country for several weeks, "keeping a low profile" as anti-American protests swirled outside his hotel window, said his son, Charles D. Nottingham of Fredericksburg, Va.
He escaped on the last commercial flight to leave Iran for years - carrying not just briefcases full of cash, but also deeply discounted tins of caviar he bought from an airport vendor, his son said.
In 1960, Mr. Nottingham married Elizabeth Hanson LeViness, whom he courted while she was a student at Bryn Mawr School. Their eldest son, Robinson Kendall Nottingham Jr., a Washington attorney and real estate businessman, died of cancer last year.
The Nottinghams lived for about two decades in South Orange, N.J., before moving to Washington in 2000. In 2007, Mr. Nottingham retired from AIG as executive vice president and chairman of subsidiary American Life Insurance Co. of Wilmington, Del.
Before joining the Hopkins board of trustees about five years ago, Mr. Nottingham served on the advisory board of the university's School of Advanced International Studies, and was a major financial donor there in recent years, as well as frequent adviser and career counselor to students.
Mrs. Nottingham said her husband was a "great bon vivant" and "huge reader" who devoured histories and biographies. The couple kept a yacht near their vacation home in Palm Beach, Fla., and Mr. Nottingham also enjoyed boating and fishing. He was a member of numerous social clubs, including the Everglades Club in Palm Beach, the Chevy Chase Club and the Johns Hopkins Club.
A memorial service will be held Wednesday at St. David's Episcopal Church, 5150 Macomb St. in Northwest Washington.
Mr. Nottingham is survived by his wife and son, and two grandsons.
gadi.dechter@baltsun.com
