Tag: 1959

“When you enter this church, it may be possible that you will hear ‘the call of God.’ However, it is unlikely that he will call you on your mobile. Thank you for turning off your phones.”
–Poster found in a church in France, translated

Jim Brands attended a grandson’s graduation and commission into the Army as a second lieutenant. “Unfortunately, it coincided perfectly with our 60th!”

Professor Josiah Carberry Hon’59 has been strangely silent since our 50th. An honorary member of the Great Class of 1959, and one of the few specialists in psychoceramics (cracked pots), it is rumored that he has fled the country in haste for reasons unknown. Any news from classmates most welcome.

Marty Weil could not resist responding to our plea for news! “I think even our small company of classmates will survive and thrive without knowing this. But my mood at the moment is to show a willingness to be helpful and cooperative! And recognizing and honoring the curiosity embodied in your question, I decided it was necessary to answer.

“I was working on an obit of the famous physicist and Nobel winner, Murray Gell-Mann. Had I been at Reunion, and learned of his death, I would have tried to suppress my chagrin. I was, however, chosen as most qualified to write his obituary at the Post. As a person schooled in the need for rigorous honesty and close examination, I have to admit that what I wrote was not particularly good. Had I attended the Reunion and not written about this man I would not have been able to extirpate all feelings of regret—regret that I did not do a better job. 

“I am confident that you will agree that our classmates do not need to know all that. But if you feel that any of them would not be completely fulfilled without some inkling of it, please feel free to share it!”

Wolfram Thiemann wrote on his return to Germany, “I do fondly recall the wonderful weekend at Wesleyan with all its activities and the chance to meet old mates again after so many years. It was an extremely emotional time.

“Wen and I traveled to Boston and New York after Reunion, then on to Annapolis to stay with a cousin of mine, with easy visits to Washington and the University of Maryland, where I did a research sabbatical in 1980. Good to have ‘reanimated’ my strong affinity with the US. Wesleyan had truly not disappointed me over so many years and the air of New England has inspired me again.”

Herb Steiner is still feeling the glow from our 60th as we go to press but is also reeling from the fact that 80 of our classmates have gone to eternal rest. Is that an unusually large number, he asks? “All is well. Traveling, violin/viola playing, stock market playing, and feeling good. Youngest granddaughter, Hattie June (Wesleyan class of ’39?) is a joy!”

On Sept. 12, the annual mid-coast Maine 1959 mini reunion took place at Joanie and Bob Chase’s home in Boothbay Harbor for cocktails and savory appetizers followed by dinner at the Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club. The group included Bob and Joanie, Wendy and Joe Mallory, Anne and Tom McHugh, Linda and Dick Cadigan, and Marie-Pier and Alan Brooks ’59 MALS’68.

Stunning photographs by Weg Thomas can be found here.

Spurdle news: “As we were cavorting in Middletown at our 60th with grandson Will Stack in tow (St. Lawrence 2023), wife Cyndy and granddaughter Isabel Stack were in England attending grandson Nicholas Peel’s graduation from Harrow. Magnificent days on both sides of the Atlantic, although Harrow out did us on elegant tents. Our other granddaughter, Hadley Stack, graduated with high distinction from the Batten School at the University of Virginia and immediately headed west to work for Mayor Pete on his campaign team. August at Fishers Island and now back in NYC.”

Calvin Trillin Hon’59 agreed to be our honorary class secretary on very short notice as Skip was heading out West to see grandchildren and explore a move to a spot nearer to them north of San Francisco. By the most amazing coincidence, he was doing a piece called “Class Notes” for the Sept. 9 New Yorker, our deadline to submit all your news. Wrong school, wrong class, but wicked clever! Read it at newyorker.com/magazine/2019/09/09/class-notes.

We were notified that John Dennis passed away over Labor Day. Ted Fiske wrote a moving tribute to him, which you read in its entirely here.

Sadly, David Steindler passed away in June at age 81. Longtime resident and supporter of Sheffield, Mass., he and his wife, Judith, started and ran Dovetail Antiques in Sheffield, with David specializing the repair of antique clocks. Founding member of the Bushnell-Sage Library and its first president.

Skip Silloway | ssillow@gmail.com; 801/532-4311 

John Spurdle | jspurdle@aol.com; 212/644-4858

“You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely!”
–Ogden Nash (1902-1971)

 The 60th Reunion of the Great Class of 1959 was a spectacular treat, and we broke the record for attendance at a 60th along the way!

Things really got rolling on Friday at the lunch under the tent behind Russell House (Honors College). The day was glorious, the food was good, and three tables of classmates had come to begin the celebrations in earnest. There was ample time for registration before the next Friday afternoon event at the Silloway Gymnasium honoring the 1959 basketball team, the first Wesleyan basketball team to make it to the NCAA tournament. Dick Cadigan and Dick Wenner, co-captains, and teammates Joe Mallory and Dave Hohl ’60 accepted the banner on behalf of the team. They were saluted by Mike Whalen ’83, athletic director, and Joe Reilly, men’s basketball coach. It was a fitting tribute to this extraordinary team in the wonderful setting of the Silloway Gym, bedecked with banners and gleaming varnished floors. We also heard from Andrew Daggon ’20, a current military veteran scholar, about his experiences at Wesleyan as a 28-year-old. There are pictures of the event below.

There was a well- attended late afternoon cocktail party hosted by President Michael Roth ’78 on Andrus Field to honor Barbara Jan Wilson on her retirement for her great service to the school followed by a 1959 reception in Wasch House.

Dinner Friday evening was fairly casual. The 1959 Eclectics carried on a tradition of having a dinner downtown at Luca. We were around 20 in number with wives, some children and grandchildren, and special guests Loni and Al Haas ’56, and Mr. and Mrs. Wolfram Thiemann. Dinner was accompanied by some lusty singing and storytelling.

Saturday dawned a lovely day. The class had a memorial remembrance at 10 a.m. for our classmates who had passed away, led by Rev. Dick Cadigan. He began the memorial with a reading from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, and reflected on knowing those departed. The class read the names out loud in unison, 77 in all, remembering each one, and closed by singing the alma mater in harmony!

A quick but delicious boxed picnic lunch was followed by the parade which got off about 11:30 a.m. You will find parade pictures below.

Our boys showed well as they marched behind a tremendously enthusiastic, if slightly aged, Dixieland band. The march was quite short, fortunately, and north rather than south, to the Crowell Auditorium, where the Alumni Association meeting was held. High spots for us were serious awards for Bert Edwards and Ed, our stalwart class agents and a brilliant talk by Thomas Kail ’99, director of Hamilton.

The memorial service for classmate Doug Bennett began in the chapel at 1:30 p.m. A block of seats had been reserved for the Class of 1959 on the left side of the chapel just under the plaque we had given in his honor. It was a lovely service, with Doug’s brother, John, three grandchildren, and his son, Michael ’87, painting an indelible, and appealing picture of the man. The Wesleyan Spirits sang two lovely hymns, and chamber musicians played at the beginning and end of the service. We were all honored to be there. The Bennet Family graciously thanked the class for the memorial plaque and the Bennet Endowment Fund in a note on the program.

Our class dinner followed in Doggon, the old squash court building. The space has been transformed totally, and we dined in great comfort in a charming room big enough to hold all our gang. Dave Darling, our Reunion chair, led the proceedings with style, in the face of a sound system which looked brand new but just would not work. Once turned off, Skip spoke with great affection about Doug and presented Donna Morea ’76, board chair, with a replica of the Bennet plaque. We all toasted Barbara Jan Wilson again, and she and Dave gave Skip Silloway and John Spurdle touching Wesleyan Service Awards.

With three ex-Jibers present (Moody, Steiner, and Vander Veer), it did not take much to get the place rocking, 1959 style! You can just imagine how brilliant the singing was and how long it lasted! What fun. Dinner was followed by the All Class Sing led by Bill Moody next door on the steps of North College.

Nice note from Ted Bromage: “Joan and I enjoyed the programs and found conversations with classmates I had not known well most rewarding. Now in our 80s, we are who we are, and not too worried about who we will become!”

Dick Cadigan wrote, “Fabulous time, great conversations, well-organized weekend. Looking forward to our 65th!”

Jerry Doolittle said, “Haven’t been back for years. I had no idea of the scale of change nor the impact of Doug’s Presidency. It felt great both to wander alone in places of the past, and to visit with Classmates. Very glad I came.”

Wolfram Thiemann, all the way from Germany, wrote, “Thanks so much for the great event, which I was allowed to participate, even only as a foreign scholar. It was the first time I attended Reunion, now the 60th one. I am grateful to have taken the opportunity to visit my one-year alma mater which had given me so much for my future life. And what a blessing to meet so many of my former mates back at Wesleyan . . . I was stirred to be given the title Eclectic member.”

Hugh Lifson, decked out in a bespoke blazer and Wesleyan patch at Reunion, wrote: “Gratification of my nostalgic cravings was the main reason I came back. A walk along Brownstone Row, even without the ivy was special. General agreement about the debt we owe Vic Butterfield for finding the most amazing teachers in the nation and getting them to Wesleyan for us: Professors Shorske, Brown, Caspari, Shattsneider, Rudich, Mink, Winslow, and many more.

“We were able to share the memories of our deceased classmates, particularly Doug Bennet. His son, Senator Bennet, gave a eulogy reminiscent of the Kennedy speeches. Two other events stood out: The Weseminars, particularly the one on prison education, and the All Campus Sing led by our own Bill Moody and the Class of 2019!”

One bit of particular sadness: Dave Mitchell passed away this spring. He had a terrible battle with cancer. Al Brooks, who played tackle next to Dave, used to feed him bits of Hershey Bar before our games to keep him from being sick from nerves. We will miss Mitch!

Don’t forget to do two important things: Join the Olin Society before it is too late; and support the 1959 Bennet Endowment if you have not done so already. The two are not mutually exclusive, and Mark Davis (mdavis@wesleyan.edu) at Wesleyan can help you take care of both.

Skip Silloway | ssillow@gmail.com; 801/532-4311 

John Spurdle | jspurdle@aol.com; 212/644-4858

Your scribes for the Great Class of ’59 offer this poem by Henry Longfellow, written on the occasion of his 50th Reunion at Bowdoin in 1825.

“Ah, nothing is too late

Till the tired heart shall cease to palpitate.

Cato learned Greek at eighty; Sophocles

Wrote his grand Oedipus, and Simonides

Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers,

When each had number more than fourscore years,

And Theophrastus, ‘Characters of Men.’

Chaucer, at Woodstock with the nightingales,

At sixty wrote the Canterbury Tales;

Goethe at Weimar, toiling to the last,

Completed Faust when eighty years were past,

These are indeed exceptions; but they show

How far the gulf-stream of our youth may flow

Into the arctic regions of our lives,

Where little else than life itself survives…”

Cato learned Greek at 80! So, what have we all been doing?

Bonnie and Bob Waterhouse report on their “last Big Adventure” having moved from Massachusetts to Venice, Fla., and “love it.” Good people, great beaches, and an afternoon alligator. They stay in touch with Bob Mann and Herb Steiner.

Joe Vander Veer has found the antidote to today’s discouraging political year: The arrival of two great-grandchildren. They seem unfazed by gridlock and the rest.

Steve Kaplan reports continued traveling, some brought about by providing expert testimony to the federal judiciary. Will be attending graduations of grandchildren from Clark and Barnard just before our Reunion.

Don Hinman wrote: “The deaths of classmates Ernie Dunn and Doug Bennet have brought back some vivid memories of the late ’50s. Doug was the president of AXP and sent Ernie and me to the AXP National Fraternity meeting in Buck Hills Falls, Pa., to ask them to include others than white Christians in the brotherhood. The Inn at Buck Hills Falls did not know quite what to do when Ernie and I arrived at the front desk. I was astonished, naive enough, I guess, to think that all college people were like our colleagues at Wesleyan. Ernie knew better, I think. We were essentially ostracized by most attendees. Allegheny and Dartmouth were the only sympathetic attendees. Doug would have been a better representative, but he, too, would have failed, in spite of his eloquence and logic. I admired Ernie for his courage and calmness throughout it all. Both are to be much honored by all of us . . . for supporting our stand.”

Bob Czepiel wrote in a note to Tom McHugh that he planned to attend Reunion! “Should be particularly interesting to look back over 80 years and reflect on the importance of a Wesleyan education has had on all our lives. Eleven years ago, in 2008, I spent a considerable time on campus producing a video, 50: The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same, as part of a film class I took at Wesleyan.

“Surprisingly, only a few things had changed: Women, of course, the PC/cell phone phenomena, and some modern buildings. The student body’s personality, education process, and faculty were much the same as when we were in Clark and the Beta House years ago.”

Cyndy and John Spurdle spent six weeks in London over Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year. The highlight was a week together with daughter Meg ’86 and her English husband, Giles, and grandchildren, Nick, 18, and Maud, 17. Lots of great music (the highlight was the carol service at the Royal Hospital Chapel),ß fun theater including a rollicking “pantomime” of Sleeping Beauty, and a good old Don Quixote. Attended the London Library Christmas party hosted by our new honorary president, Sir Tim Rice.

Weg Thomas is continues to produce some wonderful photographs of the season.

Dick Wenner reported on a recent trip to Europe. “The first week was spent on a cruise from Paris to Normandy (and the cemetery) and back. The second was a week on the road in Switzerland with my son and 16-year-old grandson. The second week ended with a family reunion of some 150 Swiss and 25 American relatives, including all seven of my descendants. All in all, quite an experience for one who thought he would never see foreign shores again!”

Dick Cadigan urges all of our classmates to make it back for the 60th. “I truly hope that as many as possible will return for our 60th. Sixty-four years of contact and friendships is a bit staggering to think about. I have been to every Reunion of our class since the 15th (nine in all). I have always come away with joy, and a deep appreciation for our classmates and Wesleyan.”

Wolfram Thiemann is also planning to attend Reunion from Bremen, Germany. He writes, “”Since I have long been formally retired from active teaching Physical Chemistry at the University of Bremen/Germany I have been busy since in teaching abroad, sharing exciting research projects, visiting conferences, and reviewing doctoral theses and scientific manuscripts submitted to various peer-reviewed international journals. About once a year I have been invited by either some universities in Maharashtra/India to deliver lectures on various topics in environmental issues and space research, or by some academic institutes in China, in particular by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Peking to contribute to specific research subjects in Bioanalytical Chemistry. My most challenging research project, named ROSETTA-PHILAE, was the active participation of a soft landing of a probe on a comet (called Churymosov-Gerasimenko) carrying an analytical instrument developed in our laboratory to search for prebiological organic matter on the comet’s surface, – of course I was only one out of a number of researchers sponsored by the European Space Agency, yet one who was privileged to have contributed to one of the central experiments searching for the origins of life on Earth and in the Universe. Imagine the enthusiastic excitement in our team when the news came through that our lander has in December 2014 finally arrived safely on the tiny (its size is roughly 2 x 3 km!) comet’s surface after a 10-years-journey through space.

“Privately I (together with my wife, Wen, born in China) have been lucky to enjoy the fact that my two daughters, one adopted son, and four lovely grandkids are living not too far from Bremen, and that we have met regularly with a huge number of cousins within Germany.

“Looking forward to this great chance of seeing some of my classmates again, at the very site where I learned so much from Wesleyan which inspired all my life.”

On a sad note, Betsy Lindgren wrote that her father, David Larson, passed away suddenly on Dec. 20. Dick Goldman ’58 reported that Wayne Fillback’s wife, Mary Ellen, died recently. Wayne was part of the Deerfield gang who spent two years with our class and transferred to Colby.

Alan Dieffenbach passed away shortly before his 82nd birthday. After earning an MAT at Oberlin, and an early career as a smoke jumper, he taught secondary school in Salt Lake City and New York State. He volunteered for the Peace Corps in Nepal in 1964 and spent considerable time there on the Peace Corps staff while trying to climb extremely difficult mountains in his spare time. After moving back to Providence, the Dieffenbachs left to work on a water project in Yemen for a year, ending up eventually in Brattleboro, Vt., owning the Upper Crust Bakery! Our thoughts are with his family.

Skip Silloway | ssillow@gmail.com; 801/532-4311 

John Spurdle | jspurdle@aol.com; 212/644-4858

The Great Class of 1959 continues to achieve, amuse, travel, laugh, and send interesting news! Bravissimo!

Amazing to note that the Class of 2022 just arrived on campus at 800-plus strong. That is larger than the whole school in 1959.

Talking about “achieve” brings me to a recent conversation with Allan Munro, who is still practicing law after 52 years and counting, and still getting referrals from his best source of new clients, a 97-year-old pal who got him started with his first client! Alan is planning to come to the Reunion next year and is happily grandfathering a computerized cartoonist, an aspiring doctor, and a fledgling psychologist.

Ted Fiske and wife Sunny are moving up the leaderboard in the travel department. They are still living in Durham, N.C., where Ted edits the Fiske Guide to Colleges while serving on the boards of several nonprofits, including the Durham Children’s Initiative. Sunny retired as a professor of public policy and economics from Duke last year. “We have been able to ramp up our travel, spending three weeks in Kerala in southern India, summer in Maine and New Hampshire, time in Stockholm for an educational conference, and Ireland for a week with a side trip to London to see Jack Lambert and his wife at their lovely house in Islington.”

Dick Cadigan sent along the following news: “When author Tom Wolfe died earlier this year, I decided to reread Bonfire of the Vanities for fun. I discovered a character named Edward Fiske, a young, white Yale-educated cleric working for the Episcopal Diocese of New York, whose job it was to try to recover a $350,000 school grant made to a crooked black wheeler- dealer in Harlem.

“I thought it rather odd that the Fiske name was used, so I e-mailed Ted and got the following response: ‘When I was starting out, long ago, I worked for some church outfit doing work in Harlem. Years later I met Tom Wolfe at a conference, and by coincidence ended up sitting next to him on the plane home. We chatted about Harlem, my being a Princeton theological grad and Presbyterian minister. I didn’t think anything about our conversation until years later when Bonfires was published.’” Cads ends by saying “Now you know the rest of the story!”

The ever talented Weg Thomas has posted from great fall photos online, including “Up So Floating #9” — “I need a poem to sing the leaves to the eternal sea. I need a poem to calm the throbbing waters of Beings River, the river of one mother and one father.”

Laughter seems to have ruled this year’s annual Maine reunion. Al Brooks, Tom McHugh, Joe Mallory, and wives gathered at the beautiful house of Joanie and Bob Chase in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, on Sept. 12. Many laughs, fond recollections, reviews of the phenomenal exploits of our grandchildren dominated, but, of course, there were deep philosophical insights shared by all, Joe reports.

Latest amusement from Dave Eklund: “Mary and I hosted a Wesleyan Delta Sigma reunion on Nantucket for four days at our place (Rose and Crown) on Siasconset. Attendees were Irene and Tony Allen from Providence, Dave Darling from Middletown, John Dennis from Portland, Ore., and Shirley and Larry Kedes from L.A.

Bob Gillette writes, “Unfortunately Marsha and I will not be attending our 60th Reunion. We just found out that our granddaughter will be graduating from Elon that weekend. So, we will be with you in spirit, but you all understand how lucky we are to celebrate this family event. We were looking forward to the Reunion, the chance to be with old friends and to also celebrate our 60th wedding anniversary with other classmates doing the same.”

Back to traveling, Ellen and Herb Steiner will be in Portugal for a couple of weeks in October, but before departure are celebrating the arrival of grandchild number 10. Wow. Back to Delray for the winter. Herb says: “Retirement ain’t bad!”

Tom McHugh remembers Ernie Dunn: “A year ago at the dedication of the Huddleston Room at Downey House, I mentioned that the 1959 track team had a group of broad jumpers who could exceed 23 feet . . . a feat unequalled in most colleges and even larger universities. One was Dick Huddleston ’60. One was Ernie Dunn, our classmate and captain of the track team, and the third, Jim Thomas ’61, a sophomore.”

On to sad news: Dick Smith passed away just after Christmas last year. Smitty was a classmate of ours at Deerfield Academy, my roommate in Eclectic, and a wonderful guy. He had been battling an illness for a number of years. Our heartfelt sympathy to his wife of 57 years, Barbara (Teeny), his brother, Charlie ’55, three children, and 10 grandchildren. We will miss him.

Skip Silloway | ssillow@gmail.com; 801/532-4311 

John Spurdle | jspurdle@aol.com; 212/644-4858