The Rev. DONALD C. ARMSTRONG, a retired minister, died Apr. 28, 2004 at age 74. He received his divinity degree from Yale University and served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He was a minister with the New York Conference of the United Church of Christ before his retirement in 1994. Among those who survive are his wife, Judith Maclean Armstrong, two daughters, two grandchildren, and a sister.
JOHN R. ARMS, the founder and retired president of Credit Management Corporation, died Sept. 3, 2010, at age 82. The nephew of Herbert Welch of the class of 1887, he was a member of Sigma Nu and was a U.S. Army veteran. Prior to founding Credit Management, he began his career with Connecticut General Life Insurance Company. He is survived by his wife, LaVon Gehrke Arms, two children, two grandchildren, and his sister.
I hereby award DAVID F. ANDERSON the heretofore unofficial Posthumous Wesleyan Award for Exceptional Service in the Fabulous Person/ Family Man category.
Wait, you say, there is no such award.
Perhaps there should be.
Having matriculated from our alma mater in 1977, I have been blessed with much more than the transformative education I received from Wesleyan. I have at my disposal, 24/7, solid self-esteem, tireless optimism, a quirky sense of humor, and a devotion to making the world a better place.
I got all of this from my Dad, David Fenwicke Anderson, Class of 1950 (Big D as I called him) who died of colon cancer last May (2003) in the family home.
While my father had a respectable career as a small business owner, he was first and foremost a career family man. Once he found an equally bright, caring, competent partner in my mother (Jane Shanahan, Mt. Holyoke Class of 1950), he devoted himself to creating a launch pad of light and laugher for his 3 children who then had the vision and tools to extend his legacy in their adult lives.
My father’s pre-Wesleyan years hardly made him a shoe-in for this type of value structure. He was born in Mussoorie India, the son of two working parents, both Presbyterian missionaries. His parents sent him to a boarding school called Woodstock at 5 years old. (Please note that 5 years old is typically the age when we now send our children to half-day kindergarten.) At 14, his parents sent my Dad to the United States (a new country) to attend Mt. Hermon, another boarding school where he was tasked with getting an education and completing the key tasks of adolescence without any family nearby. In fact he didn’t see his parents for six years after he came to this country. This might be grounds for years of intense psychotherapy but my dad had an unfaltering cheerful disposition. In addition, he met my mom at the high school SAT exams and embarked on a 58-year love affair that he said more than made up for the loneliness that he experienced during those early nights in boarding school.
Somehow my Dad found his way to Wesleyan where, for the first time since the age of 5, he found a ‘home.’ He was educated, guided, and nurtured in countless ways and by countless people at Wesleyan. Most notably, Professor Ted and Marion Banks of Lawn Avenue and the Eclectic Fraternity were key in shaping his Wesleyan experience and igniting a life-long devotion to the university. We cannot say the same thing about Physics which apparently took him a few tries to pass. My father played lots of tennis and squash at Wesleyan, which were sports he went on to enjoy throughout his adult life. He went so far as to credit his love for squash with leading my sister Lisa ’75 to have ‘successful’ squash dates with another David, who has been her husband of more than 20 years.
Wesleyan hardly exited from my dad’s life upon graduation. He brought his lovely bride to every Reunion he could attend throughout their nearly six decades together. He had two alumna daughters to count on for new red and black trinkets and sportswear. Our livingroom hosted countless Wesleyan interviews and information meetings with local high school students. And the annual telethons were always good for a ‘free’ call from my dad wherever we were. Even when my Dad developed Alzheimer’s in the last 10 years of his life, he continued to love our annual visits to the Wesleyan campus where, medical anomaly or not, his memory never failed.
On May 7, 2003, Wesleyan lost one of its most ardent supporters and we lost a great great man. My dad’s successes in other areas of life, such as work, could also be recounted but to be honest, they had much less to do with the state of his heart, mind and soul than did his leadership in our family. And perhaps these successes don’t make my father or others like him, unique but certainly rarely publicly acknowledged for these particular triumphs. Thanks for allowing us to acknowledge him here.
JOSEPH S. ALESSI ’53, who had a long career in construction management, died Mar. 26, 2012. He was 83. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, he received his degree from Wesleyan, where he won trophies for football. His most notable projects were three of the Apollo S-1 S-2 test stands, the Veterans Regional Medical Center in Cleveland, and the skyscraper at 57th and Madison Avenue in New York City. Predeceased by a daughter and by several siblings, including Salvatore L. Alessi of the class of 1942, he is survived by his wife, Mary Ellen Webster Alessi; two daughters; his sister; his former wife; and several nieces and nephews, including Lisa M. Lombardo ’96
J. DANFORD ANTHONY JR., a preeminent tax attorney, former member of the Wesleyan Alumni Council, and active volunteer for charitable institutions in the Hartford, Conn., area, died Apr. 1, 2012, at age 76. A member of Beta Theta Pi, and the son of Julian D. Anthony of the class of 1928, he received his law degree from Harvard University. He served in the air wing of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. After clerking for a U.S. Tax Court judge, he joined the Hartford, Conn., law firm of Day, Berry, and Howard and was made a partner in 1971. He remained with the firm until his retirement in 2004, specializing in the tax treatment of financial intermediaries, tax-exempt organizations, and public financings. Admitted to practice in numerous courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, he served on many professional committees nationwide. He was emeritus director and former chairman of the board of the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, as well as director and trustee of many Hartford area charitable and cultural institutions. He also sang in the Hartford Chorale for a number of years. Among those who survive are his wife, Nora Brown Anthony, three children, three grandchildren, his brother, and several nieces and nephews, including Susan H. Anthony ’87.
LATHAM L. ALLISON, 74, a retired executive with United Technologies Corporation who led numerous nonprofit agencies in the Hartford, Conn., area, died Aug. 14, 2008. He was a member of Phi Nu Theta (now Ec), received his degree with honors, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After receiving an MBA from Harvard University, he served in the U.S. Army. When he retired from his corporate career, where he served in senior financial and strategic planning positions, he devoted his time to community service, as well as personal interests. In 1994 he went back to school to earn a master’s degree in economics at the University of Connecticut to better inform his community work. His last major project was the development of the Asylum Hill Boys and Girls Club, which opened in 2004. He is survived by his wife, Margot Rusch Allison, four children, six grandchildren, two sisters, and his in–laws.
STEWART ATKINSON JR., M.D., 82, a retired ophthalmologist, died Nov. 8, 2006. A member of Psi Upsilon, he received a master’s degree from the University of Tennessee and his medical degree from the University of Vermont. Among those who survive are his wife, Jane Limburg Atkinson, three children, and five grandchildren.
