Tag: 1961

Paul Dickson reported the loss of one of our classmates, Bob “Gio” Palmeri, last November. Paul writes: “Bob had retired to a family home at Yarmouth Port on Cape Cod after a long and distinguished career as a U.S. foreign service officer. He had served in a far-flung assortment of overseas posts, including Nigeria, Congo, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Benin, Senegal, France, and Côte d’Ivoire. ‘His work,’ to quote directly from the obituary written by his family, ‘centered on fostering strong diplomatic relationships between the United States and the countries in which he served. He championed American literature abroad, advanced global literacy initiatives, organized visits of American artists and musicians who would share their talents in Africa. Through his efforts, education became a tool for unity, as he opened doors for students, both American and foreign, to pursue knowledge via study exchange programs, striving to lessen inequality and promote cross-cultural exchange.’ Bob will be especially missed by fellow members of the Wesleyan Alpha Delta Phi roundtable, which has been meeting regularly on Zoom since the early days of COVID.”

Peter Funk wrote with the sad news that Bill Harris passed away in January. Peter writes: “Bill broke his back in a fall several years ago and had concerns with mobility and health thereafter. He was in the hospital in NYC when he died. As you may remember, Bill, Brad Beechen, and I went to work together in Chicago following our graduation in 1961. All three of us and our families have remained in fairly close contact ever since. Robie, Bill’s wife, died in January last year. Ben ’92 and David ’94, their sons, are both graduates of Wesleyan. Bill, as you know, spent many years on the board at Wesleyan and was a significant supporter in the development of the University.” 

“Like so many others in our class,” writes John Alvord, I turned 85 this year and feel pretty good physically. Wishing all my classmates a happy, prosperous, and wonderful 2025.”

Robert Hausman sends his greetings to all, suggesting that the new year is a good time to count one’s blessings. Bob claims: “I am grateful for seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. I am also grateful for my Wesleyan classmates with whom I stay in touch: Glenn Hawkes, Emil Frankel,and Bob Wielde. Finally, I wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year.”

With a bit of light humor, John Rogers mumbles his closing words:

         “Already enough from me,

          So refrain from views

          And resume my daily snooze.”

Respectfully submitted,

DR. JON K. MAGENDANZ

One of the advantages of the new digital format now available to class secretaries in the Wesleyan alumnus magazine, is the use of photographs in our submissions. Sadly, two deaths are recorded for this Class Notes’ publication. 

       Spike Paranya was the first to send notification of Jack Woodbury’s death on May 22, 2024:

          “I’m so sorry to report that Jack Woodbury passed away on May 22 from cardiac arrest. He was one of our class’s finest. We shared the same career and training at UMass School of Education. We had great phone conversations over the last years about family and politics!”

         Additional information was later provided by Jack’s daughter, Sarah Woodbury ’05 and her wife, Clara Moskowitz ’05:

            “Jack greatly admired the friends and faculty he met at Wesleyan, and he often shared fond memories of the friends he made in Clark Hall, in his classes, and on sports teams. His time at Wesleyan helped inspire him to become a history teacher and later a public school administrator. Jack participated in civil rights marches in the 1960s, and racial equality and urban education became his passion. Hearing Martin Luther King Jr. speak at a rally of 25,000 people in Montgomery, Alabama, and again at a small church in Chicago, were unforgettable moments for him. Jack was also thrilled to do his part when he and his wife, Janet, canvassed for Barack Obama’s campaign, and he was so excited to make it back to Wesleyan to hear Obama speak at the 2008 commencement. 

“After Wesleyan, Jack earned a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts. He got involved in public education policy as chief of staff for the chancellor of the New York City schools in the 1970s and while serving as New Jersey deputy commissioner of education in the early 1990s. He spent most of his life working as a superintendent of schools in three suburban New Jersey school districts. In retirement, Jack mentored teachers in the school administrative program at SUNY New Paltz.”

            Another classmate, Lee D. Simon, died on the May 2, 2024. Lee was the parent of two Wesleyan alumni, Deirdre ’90 and Julia ’02. As described in his obituary:                    

“After receiving a BA from Wesleyan University in 1961, Lee entered a graduate program in biology at the University of Oregon and received his PhD in biology in 1966 from the University of Rochester. He joined the faculty of the Institute for Cancer Research (now Fox Chase Cancer Center) in Philadelphia as a microbiologist with a focus on the adsorption of T–even phages and breakdown of proteins in bacterial cells. He joined the faculty of the Waxman Institute at Rutgers University in 1976 and was a professor at Rutgers until his retirement in 2010. Lee was an accomplished electron microscopist: his iconic image of a bacteriophage infecting a virus (‘a phage shows its claws’) is still used in biology textbooks.”

           Peter Dybwad shares his recent update of activity: “I’m still happily at work heading the Wright Institute, an independent graduate school of professional psychology in Berkeley. I’m also happily living in a multigenerational household with two of my three children, the partner of one, and three grandchildren under four; two from one of my daughters, and one from the other. I’m walking five to six miles a day and can run and catch a bus (if necessary). My father emigrated from Germany in 1934. I fear for the future.”

And now a cryptic blurb from John Rogers.

“Think I replied before

So hope one of many

Still accepting golden aging

And trying to be trendy.”

Bob Hausman writes: “Nothing new. Just grandchildren graduating from college and high school. I am guessing that many of us are aging, as I am turning 85.” [Secretary’s note: Bob, It’s only a number. . .]      

Respectfully submitted,

Jon

We begin with John Rogers:

Appreciate your last news mention,

So, no reason for any attention.

You really serve our class grads so well.

Hope others will answer with show and tell.

Paul Dickson has recently sold his home in Garrett Park and moved with his wife, Nancy, to Kensington Park Senior Living in nearby Kensington, Maryland. Paul also was recently awarded the 2024 Washington Independent Review of Books Lifetime Achievement Award. Recipients of this annual award have evidenced a long-term contribution in ways that encourage others to contribute and enhance a literary community rich in independent thought and boundless curiosity.

Peter Funk reports that Bill Harris’s wife, Robie, died on  February 6, 2024, according to a New York Times obituary. “Bill and sons, Ben ’92 and David ’94, are holding up,” observes Peter, adding that “All is well with Jennie and me on our small island.”

An additional notice of Bob Owens’sdeath, occurring on  September 19, 2023, has been received. Please refer to https://obituaries.nationalcremation.com/obituaries/denver-co/paul-owens-11469341 for his obituary.

Bob Patricelli writes: “Maggie and I are still upright and active. She labors in the garden and I in politics, i.e., D.C. legislation/Hartford, Connecticut, projects. I am dismayed by our national dysfunction. We have to do better!”

An update from Larry Wiberg has been received: “I’m doing well in Denver, keeping my medical license active and doing some part-time psychiatry. Wesleyan doesn’t seem that long ago. I can still conjure up the smell of the then brand-new Foss Hill dorms. I did leave Wesleyan a year early to start medical school at Stanford (you could do that back then). I only wish that Wesleyan had been co-educational, but my grades might well have suffered! Stanford medical school was on the Palo Alto campus, which I quickly took advantage of and met and married Katie Davidson, an undergraduate senior. We moved to married-student housing and started our family. I continue to have great appreciation for the intense intellectual challenges and experiences I had in my three years at Wesleyan!” 

“Thanks for keeping us more or less together over these years,” writes Larry Krucoff.  “My wife of 61 years, Carole, and I keep busy after retirement. In my case, it’s playing golf in Chicago (not a full-year occupation), shepherding a play reading group, and writing short stories. She is active with book clubs and docent activities at both the Frank Lloyd Wright Robie House Museum and Chicago Art Institute. Quite certainly, she’s busier than I. I make up some of the difference by cooking and baking.”

Allen Thomas provides a detailed summary for us to enjoy: “Sixty-three years on from Wesleyan, three marriages (one extant) enjoyed, three continents lived upon, three children sired, five grandchildren indulged, two law firm partnerships practiced, lots of boards sat upon, two nationalities and two religions, and still my wife says I never change, only because I wear the same sort of chinos and the same button-down shirts I wore at Wesleyan and before! Keeping to a few constants in a kaleidoscopically changing life seems prudent. I have lived happily in London for more than 30 years now, sometimes continuing to practice international corporate law (defined as ‘taking money from one SOB and giving it to another’); sometimes as a non-exec chairman or director of insurance and other public companies; sometimes pretending to be an entrepreneur; but always enjoying ballet and chamber music performances, cooking, skiing, and indulging those grandchildren. The work has now pretty much retired from me, but the ballet, music, cooking, and skiing and children and grandchildren still give me much pleasure. I have a holiday house in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, the center from which to entertain U.S. and UK family and visitors (you are all most welcome) and enjoy music at Tanglewood and dance at Jacob’s Pillow.”

Jack Mitchell sends his warmest wishes and tons of hugs. He proudly boasts, “Ed Mitchells, a fourth-generation clothing enterprise with eight stores coast-to-coast, was founded by his mom and dad in 1958 and presently employs my oldest grandson, Lyle ’16.”

Alexander McCurdy warmly reflects: “Pure Wesleyan nostalgia for dear ones who pass in front of my mind’s eye: Tom Peterson, Pete Odell, Hank Hilles, Larry Wiberg.The great professors who live on in their gifts to us. Weren’t we fortunate? Aren’t we still?”

Eric “Swede” Wilson summarizes the following: “Margaret and I are still doing well in Tuscaloosa, the home of the Crimson Tide. Health is good. I’m still active, walking every day, and am semi-retired from my second full-time employment. Margaret continues to paint for friends and children and is engaged in several clubs. The children are fine. My daughter, Avery, is married and lives in Nashville, working as a benefits advisor for a large health consulting firm. My son, Eric, is an attorney in Tuscaloosa, and has a 20-year-old son who attends the University of Alabama. My third child, Martin, continues to reside in NYC, where he is employed by HarperCollins.” 

Here’s a short word from Robert Hausman: “I am still above ground. My family is fine as we anticipate grandchildren graduating and going off to college. I am still in touch with Glenn Hawkes and Emil Frankel.”

Paul Boynton shares that late last fall, he and his wife, Barbara, “joined the family of a close friend on a two-week visit to Namibia that included a several days’ safari on the Kalahari savanna.”

An update from Emil Frankel: “Kathryn and I continue our lives in Washington, D.C. I remain affiliated with a small, Washington, D.C.–based, transportation policy think tank, the Eno Center for Transportation, but most of my ‘advising’ consists of discussing transportation history and policy with former colleagues over lunches and through email exchanges. My intellectual and emotional energies are focused on the efforts to preserve democratic values and institutions both here at home and in Israel. As to the former, I remain involved in every Never Trump activity available to me, including some marginal involvement in a third-party effort (although I remain skeptical that the moment is right to launch a new centrist party). As to the latter, I am deeply engaged in efforts in my Reform temple to educate our congregants and the wider Jewish community about the attacks on democracy by Israel’s current extremist and theocratic right-wing government.

“I returned to my native state of Connecticut a few weeks after Reunion weekend to join in services to honor the memory of my former boss, former U.S. senator and former Connecticut governor, Lowell Weicker. I mention this because Governor Weicker received an honorary degree from Wesleyan in the early 1990s. He was the first sitting governor of Connecticut to receive an honorary degree from Wesleyan for many years, a historic tradition that seems to have been abandoned by the University in the 1970s. Lowell Weicker was a unique and extraordinary public figure; I am proud that Wesleyan recognized his contributions and that I had the opportunity to work with and for him.” 

At the time of our last Class Notes publication, Emil had written: “I wanted to let you know that our classmate and fellow Eclectic, Joe Powers, passed away a day or two ago. Joe and Maria had moved back to the Washington, D.C., region from New Mexico a few months ago, and they were living in northern Virginia when he died.”

Here’s a quickie note from Robert Wielde: “Proof of life. Traveling some. Reading a lot. Worried for the country.”                   

Peter Funk has provided a newsy update. He writes: “I am pleased to report that Jennie and I are well. I remain active in our island’s affairs, continue to sail and race offshore, and generally keep upright. I am reminded of Wesleyan frequently by daughters Lexy ’91 and Jenny ’95 whose offspring have visited campus to assess entry. No hits so far. I marvel at the lunacy of our American politics and the robustness of the economy. I remain hopeful for a more united Europe despite Brexit, which has dragged Jersey into the foreign nation category with attendant border and other restrictions. The war in Ukraine and threats arising overhang everything here. Please convey my best wishes to our fellow classmates and extend my welcome to visitors.”

Alexander McCurdy responded with a question: “My contribution would be a question regarding the folk singing group The Highwaymen. Didn’t this group originate in our era at the Alpha Delta fraternity house? Anybody know how they evolved with or into the later famous group with that name?” Your class secretary replied to Sandy suggesting he Google “Wesleyan Highwaymen 1960,” which he did with gratifying results.

John Rogers:

“Understand the continuing appeal and really appreciate your zeal

I’ve answered more often than you should reveal

So ignore or edit my replies and conceal

Our new home in Kentucky not a big deal

Although plentiful bourbon and horses produce a good yield

The aging body aches before and after each meal

But doubt my wife and 12 doctors really know how I feel

So I’ll continue daily rehab to heal

To try to delay the time when remaining family and friends kneel”

Paul Boynton reports on three issues: “One, my grandson, Caius Boynton, an accomplished musician and graphic artist, has just begun has first year at Wesleyan; and two, his equally talented twin sister, Auren Boynton, is simultaneously matriculating at Williams! Finally, three—their uncle, Eric Boynton (youngest of four sons), was recently inaugurated as the 12th president of Beloit College, founded in 1846.” Paul is the proud grandfather of eight and the father of four.