Tag: 1977

CAROL JEWETT ROSTAD, 52, a vice president of GenRe Securities, died June 30, 2007. She received her degree magna cum laude, earned a master’s degree at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, and a PhM at Columbia University. During her career she taught economics at Drew University and had worked at several banks in New York City. She is survived by her daughter, Laura K. Rostad, her parents, a sister, a brother, and an extended family. (For more information, see the Times Tribune, July 8, 2007.)

EDWARD G. (Ned) ROGERSON, 52, a senior vice president at BankAtlantic, died Dec. 15, 2006. He was a member of Psi Upsilon and received an MBA from Northeastern University. He is survived by his wife, Shelby Coleman Rogerson ’78; a daughter; a son; his life partner, Juan Carlos Guerrero; his parents; and a sister.

DONNA L. MORAN-AMARANT, 55, a nutritionist who had just completed a master’s degree in library science from Southern Connecticut State University, died Sept. 8, 2005, of injuries suffered in an automobile accident. After attending Wesleyan as an Etherington Scholar, she received a bachelor’s degree in nutritional science from the University of Connecticut. She was a member of the Haddam (Conn.) Land Trust and was a past president and leader of her synagogue in Deep River. Among those who survive are her husband, George Amarant, their son, another son from her first marriage, her father and stepmother, four sisters, and many nieces and nephews.

RICHARD S. GOLDMAN, M.D., a physician who practiced internal medicine in Sudbury, Mass., died Apr. 4, 2009. He was 54. A member of Psi Upsilon, he received an MPH from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a medical degree from the Boston University School of Medicine. The former husband of Barbara Kaplan Goldman, survivors include two daughters, his parents, a brother, and a friend, Ashley Devine.

JAMES A. GIARDINA, James Alfred Giardina (Wesleyan Class of 1977) died on Saturday 25th of August 2007 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, at his home in Rheinfelden, AG. James was born in Santa Monica, California on May 17th 1955, son of James Alfred Giardina (?) and Barbara Helen Nordgren Giardina (?).James graduated from Cromwell High School in 1973, then attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, graduating with a degree in European History in 1977. He began his career in Connecticut as a banker, then in 1979 moved to S?o Paulo, Brazil as a financial consultant. In 1983 he left Brazil to get an MBA from INSEAD, in Fontainebleau, France and subsequently began a 23-year career in finance with the Swiss pharmaceutical industry. From 1983 – to 1993 he worked with Sandoz AG, with postings in Basel, Jakarta, Indonesia, Guadalajara, Mexico and Dallas, Texas. In 1993 he joined the Roche Diagnostics Division, returning to Switzerland. James was married in 1980 in Smiths Parish, Bermuda to Wendy Suzanne Brown (also Wesleyan alumni of 1977), and they have two daughters, Stefanie Grace, born in 1984 in Basel, and Francesca Blythe, born in 1987 in Singapore. In March 2000, James and his family took on Swiss citizenship. He is also survived by a sister, Nancy Giardina Bennett, who lives with her husband and two sons in Farmington, Connecticut. A service was held in his memory on Friday 31st of August at the Christkatholische Stadtkirche zu St. Martin in Rheinfelden. Instead of flowers, the family would be grateful for a donation to a charity of your choice, or the Aargauische Krebsliga Ambulante Onkologiepflege (AOP) Postcheckkonto: 50-72019-9 or the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, (www.pancan.org) 2141 Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 7000, El Segundo, CA 90245.

JENNIFER GATES, a student in the College of Letters who received her degree with high honors, died July 7, 2003 at age 47. Survivors include her three children, her mother, her father, two sisters, a stepsister, a stepbrother, and several nieces and nephews.

JAMES A. FAIRBROTHER, a media and advertising executive, died Dec. 27, 2010, at age 55. He received his degree magna cum laude and with honors, and he had received numerous national awards for his creative work with his firm, Fairbrother & Company. Survivors include his wife, Eileen (Ivy) Fairbrother, and four children.

LOIS E. EGASTI, a human resources executive who founded and was president of the Hurricane Voices Breast Cancer Foundation, died of breast cancer Apr. 15, 2003. She was 47. After receiving a master’s degree in public and private management from Yale University, she worked in human resources at Cummins Diesel Engine Company, Wellesley College, and Lotus Development Corporation. She started the Foundation to make a difference in the search for a cause and a cure for breast cancer. Survivors include her husband, Jeffrey L. Shames ’77, a daughter, two sisters, and a brother.

RUSSELL G. “Toby” D’OENCH III, 58, an attorney and partner in Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP, and founder of the North Star Fund, a nonprofit organization that supports grassroots groups fighting for equality, economic justice and peace, died Jan. 23, 2012. Known as Toby, he received his law degree from Columbia University Law School in 1992, where he was both a James Kent Scholar and a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. He clerked for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York before entering private practice. A member of Skadden’s Financial Institutions Group, he handled mergers, acquisitions, equity offerings and other transactions, both public and private. In 1977 he founded the North Star Fund, a nonprofit organization that supports grassroots groups fighting for equality, economic justice and peace, and he served as the organization’s executive director until 1983. The son of the late Ellen G. D’Oench ’73, he is survived by his wife, Tani Takagi, two children, his sister, and his brother, Peter G. D’Oench ’73.

PHYLLIS R. BRUCE, an accomplished musician, writer, and administrator, died Nov. 8, 2010. She was 69. After receiving an associate’s degree from Mattatuck Community College, she earned a bachelor’s degree in music and a master’s degree in American studies from Wesleyan. As a performer and scholar, she is best known for her work with the songs of American women, particularly in the 19th and early 20th centuries. She is the author of several short articles in the Grove Dictionary of American Music. Her master’s thesis was on the life and work of composer Carrie Jacobs Bond. For many years she worked on a biography of Mrs. Bond, left unfinished at the time of her passing. She was also well-known for her performances of the music of her husband, Wesleyan Professor of Music and American Studies Neely Bruce. She sang in major premieres of works by many American composers. The late John Cage considered her performance of his Song Books definitive. She was the associate director of the Graduate Liberal Studies Program at Wesleyan from 1976 to 1984, and she also worked in real estate and property management. Since 1997 she served as co-director of music at South Congregational Church in Middletown and with her husband wrote a series of three church musicals. Among those who survive are her husband, seven children, 12 grandchildren, her mother, four sisters, a brother, and a large extended family.