By GREER FAY CASHMAN
President Shimon Peres changed his schedule on Thursday to travel to Kibbutz Einat, near Rosh Ha'Ayin, in the early evening to deliver the eulogy at the funeral of Amos Ben-Gurion, 88. Amos, the last survivor of the three children of founding prime minister David Ben-Gurion, died on Tuesday.
His two late sisters were microbiologist Ra'anana Leshem and Geula Ben-Eliezer.
Like his parents David and Paula, Amos Ben-Gurion also had a son and two daughters. Galia and Ruth both live in Ra'anana. Alon Ben-Gurion, like his father, married a non-Jewish woman, but whereas Amos's wife converted to Judaism, Alon's wife, who is of Greek descent, did not.
After serving in the British Army during World War II, Amos Ben-Gurion was appointed deputy police commissioner and later became the CEO of the ATA textile factory, which in its time was Israel's largest and most important textile enterprise.
Alon Ben-Gurion, who had been in the hotel industry in Israel, and worked at the Tel Aviv Hilton, moved to New York. There, in March of 1997, he became the general manager of the Waldorf Astoria. There have been rumors of his returning to Israel to become involved in real estate development.