CLASS OF 1961 | 2023 | SUMMER ISSUE
“I lead a very simple life here in St. Paul, Minnesota,” (writes Bob Hausman) “with family very close: sons, seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. I had to go to Connecticut for a funeral, so I got to see WesTech. While there, I made a quick trip to the shore, where I would normally see Red Erda ’63, but he was not home. I did get to swim in the Sound. I am in touch with Glenn Hawkes, Emil Frankel, and Bob Wielde. Coincidentally, public television just did a feature on folk music in which they showed the Highwaymen singing Michael Row the Boat Ashore, a blast from the past.”
An update was sent from Peter Funk: “I am pleased to report that Jennie and I are well here in the Channel Islands. The aftermath of COVID is receding but, like elsewhere, we feel the effects of inflation, the dreadful war in Ukraine, political uncertainties, and particularly, Brexit, which has restricted travel and trade to and from Europe. (France is a mere 17 nautical miles from us.) This too will pass, perhaps. I am also pleased to report that daughters Lexy ’91, Jenny ’95, and their families are well and living in the USA. I may get them back to this side of the Atlantic one day. My fond regards to our classmates and Wesleyan.”
Denny Huston writes: “After 55 years of teaching, most of them at Rice, I decided finally to retire completely from teaching courses in the university, though I will still teach a class in film off campus. Lisa and I have been traveling some, and had a great trip to Madrid in December, where we were given a fun tour by one of my granddaughters, who had been studying there for a semester. Maybe the biggest news in our family is that my daughter Kate ’91 has a son who is now touring the world in West Side Story for the next year and a half. I am sorry that living in Houston puts me relatively far away from life at Wesleyan, though I still am lucky enough to see some Wesleyan people who are passing through, most recently Bill Wagner, a fraternity brother and roommate my senior year. I would love to hear from others who are traveling this way (jdhuston@rice.edu).”
“It all started when we were at Wesleyan in 1958,” writes Jack Mitchell. “The big picture is that all in our nuclear family are healthy. Our family businesses, now eight stores strong, show record sales and profits. Our oldest grandson Lyle ’16, who graduated from Wesleyan and worked five to six years in our industry, is graduating from Columbia Business School in June and will join us as the first in a fourth generation! We will also celebrate our grandson Bob’s July wedding in Colorado. I’m now chairman emeritus, working most days meeting and greeting clients in the Westport and Greenwich stores, and participating on several corporate boards. Tennis is still my favorite game, while enjoying Block Island during summers with Linda as we celebrate 62 years together.” Jack sends his best to all with happy and healthy safe hugs.
In a reflective tone to your class secretary, Alexander (Sandy) McCurdy states: “You’ve kept us connected to that very special time in our young lives, which so quickly slipped by. We charged off into the adventure for which WesTech, as we used to say for some unknown reason, had prepared us. Any news from me could only be extremely boring, except how my mind wanders happily to the Wesleyan campus, from time to time, recalling such wonderful oddities as our dutifully worn freshman beanies. Can we imagine the looks on today’s [students] if they were presented with such required haberdashery? Of course, you know that Pete Drayer died not too long ago. I saw a bit more of him in our May years at his retirement place nearby me, where he settled in with his wife a while ago.”
“Happily, I no longer have a ‘bucket list,’ exclaims Russell (aka Bob, aka Mook) Mott.
“Without a ceramic studio until the summer when I go back to camp, I am beginning my fifth career in drawing with acrylic and collage on stretched canvas, eventually finished over with resin. I have no clue if I possess enough talent to enforce the chase, but the thrill of testing and then again and then again—I’m all over it like a bad suit. For those who may remember, John Keratzes, who died at a very young age in 1975, was my closest friend and ‘best man’ at my first wedding in 1966. (We had the same date of birth, January 18.) I returned from Vietnam in 1975 to learn that he had just passed, so I spent a very long time searching for relatives. Six years ago, I located his son, Matt Komonchuk, who lives with his Brazilian wife Miriam in Portsmouth. He owns a radio station, and we correspond all the time and are best friends.”
Cheerfully submitted,
Jon