CLASS OF 1946 | 2015 | ISSUE 2

The editors are saddened to report the death of longtime secretary Charlie Hill, who died June 7, 2015. He was 90. An obituary in the New York Times noted that he “taught French at Brooklyn College for 30 years, where he was a loved and respected teacher and colleague. He served as chairman of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures during the turbulence of New York City’s fiscal difficulties. He would give junior faculty members choice teaching assignments if he felt it would help their careers, since he was securely tenured. He was active as a leader in the New York-area American Association of Teachers of French, a role for which the French government honored him as a Chevalier des Palmes Académiques.” His son, Nick Hill ’85, observes: “Obviously, Wesleyan was a special place to him. Although many of our family members were Wesleyan graduates, that was not what mattered to him. He appreciated how well Wesleyan embodied the liberal arts. He would sometimes point out that he and Victor Butterfield started in the same year. I like to think that my time at Wesleyan gave him a renewed appreciation for a Wesleyan education. … As a longtime N.Y. Jets fan, he would jokingly gripe about Wesleyan’s embrace of Bill Belichick ’75!”

Douglas Dorchester writes, “I sent in an article on racism to the Cape Code Times. The editor liked it and waited for the right moment. When the tragic murders in Charleston, S.C., occurred, he said, ‘Now!’ He modified the article and printed it as their official response to Charleston. The article analyzes how racism develops in all of us.”

You can find his article at capecodtimes.com.