CLASS OF 1945 | 2014 | ISSUE 2

“What are the news?” wired Horace Greely, insisting that ‘news’ is a plural noun. “Nary a new,” came back the clever gotcha response. And so it is with this column: nary. Hence, lacking inspiration from you out there, and unwilling to create fiction, I’m indulging in a bit of unique history. Back in early 1943, 13 Wesleyan men from ’43, ’44, and ’45 procured the requisite three letters of recommendation and were accepted into the Tenth Mountain Division: Stan Mann ’43; Norm Benson, Frank Bowles, Dick Brengle, Don Haight, Chip Lofstedt, Bill Low, all ’44; Donald Dunn, Pete Griskivitch, Bud Lovett, Gene Noble, Bill Thompson, Bill Wannamacher, each ’45. Bowles, Low, Griskivitch, and Wannamacher left the Division before we were deployed to Italy, and Haight was killed in action; the rest of us came home in various states of good health or disrepair, some back to campus, some to other campuses.

I know that seven are no longer living; I’m fairly sure that four are still alive; I truly want to know of Bill Low and Pete Griskivitch. I recall that Bill was in our admissions office for some time, and Pete was a registered Tenth Mountain veteran some years back. Can anyone fill me in? And isn’t Wesleyan’s association with this unique and heralded division of World War II perhaps worth a story in our alumni magazine? Slán go fóill.

FRANCIS W. LOVETT | francis.lovett@comcast.net
925 Hover St., Apt. 1L 106, Longmont, CO 80501