CLASS OF 1963 | 2020 | ISSUE 2

Some of you may remember me; most probably do not. I’m Jan Van Meter of the Class of 1963, your new class secretary. However, I’m not replacing Byron Miller in the role. I’m following him and hoping to do the job as well as he.

I’d like to help increase our sense of community as the Class of ’63. What are you doing these days, with whom, and where? How are you coping with what seems to be a world without…everything? What does Wesleyan and the Class of ’63 mean to you now?

Of one thing you may be sure: I’ll be in touch…and I look forward to it.

JAN VAN METER | bensfamily@aol.com; 212/427-2062

Ed.’s note: Robert “Jib” Fowles passed away on March 7. Jib was a College of Letters major at Wesleyan. After graduation, he spent a Fulbright fellowship year in India. He later moved to New York City, where he earned his M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University, and his PhD at New York University. He taught at NYU from 1967 to 1974. In 1974, he went to work at the University of Houston-Clear Lake as a charter faculty member where he taught for the rest of his career.

Jib was a committed scholar in media studies, publishing seven books and some 70 articles. His articles appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic, TV Guide, Advertising Age, and many academic journals. His books include Television Viewers vs. Media Snobs (Stein & Day, 1982), Starstruck: Celebrity Performers and the American Public (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992), and The Case for Television Violence (Sage, 1999).

In retirement, Jib served as commissioner of the Wiscasset’s Historic Preservation Commission, a docent for the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, and a member of the First Congregational Church of Wiscasset. At the time of his death, he was completing a book on the social history of photographic imagery.

Jib leaves behind his wife, Joy, daughter Celeste Fowles Nguyen ’01, son Nathan, and many others.