CLASS OF 1961 | 2024 | SUMMER ISSUE
We begin with John Rogers:
Appreciate your last news mention,
So, no reason for any attention.
You really serve our class grads so well.
Hope others will answer with show and tell.
Paul Dickson has recently sold his home in Garrett Park and moved with his wife, Nancy, to Kensington Park Senior Living in nearby Kensington, Maryland. Paul also was recently awarded the 2024 Washington Independent Review of Books Lifetime Achievement Award. Recipients of this annual award have evidenced a long-term contribution in ways that encourage others to contribute and enhance a literary community rich in independent thought and boundless curiosity.
Peter Funk reports that Bill Harris’s wife, Robie, died on February 6, 2024, according to a New York Times obituary. “Bill and sons, Ben ’92 and David ’94, are holding up,” observes Peter, adding that “All is well with Jennie and me on our small island.”
An additional notice of Bob Owens’sdeath, occurring on September 19, 2023, has been received. Please refer to https://obituaries.nationalcremation.com/obituaries/denver-co/paul-owens-11469341 for his obituary.
Bob Patricelli writes: “Maggie and I are still upright and active. She labors in the garden and I in politics, i.e., D.C. legislation/Hartford, Connecticut, projects. I am dismayed by our national dysfunction. We have to do better!”
An update from Larry Wiberg has been received: “I’m doing well in Denver, keeping my medical license active and doing some part-time psychiatry. Wesleyan doesn’t seem that long ago. I can still conjure up the smell of the then brand-new Foss Hill dorms. I did leave Wesleyan a year early to start medical school at Stanford (you could do that back then). I only wish that Wesleyan had been co-educational, but my grades might well have suffered! Stanford medical school was on the Palo Alto campus, which I quickly took advantage of and met and married Katie Davidson, an undergraduate senior. We moved to married-student housing and started our family. I continue to have great appreciation for the intense intellectual challenges and experiences I had in my three years at Wesleyan!”
“Thanks for keeping us more or less together over these years,” writes Larry Krucoff. “My wife of 61 years, Carole, and I keep busy after retirement. In my case, it’s playing golf in Chicago (not a full-year occupation), shepherding a play reading group, and writing short stories. She is active with book clubs and docent activities at both the Frank Lloyd Wright Robie House Museum and Chicago Art Institute. Quite certainly, she’s busier than I. I make up some of the difference by cooking and baking.”
Allen Thomas provides a detailed summary for us to enjoy: “Sixty-three years on from Wesleyan, three marriages (one extant) enjoyed, three continents lived upon, three children sired, five grandchildren indulged, two law firm partnerships practiced, lots of boards sat upon, two nationalities and two religions, and still my wife says I never change, only because I wear the same sort of chinos and the same button-down shirts I wore at Wesleyan and before! Keeping to a few constants in a kaleidoscopically changing life seems prudent. I have lived happily in London for more than 30 years now, sometimes continuing to practice international corporate law (defined as ‘taking money from one SOB and giving it to another’); sometimes as a non-exec chairman or director of insurance and other public companies; sometimes pretending to be an entrepreneur; but always enjoying ballet and chamber music performances, cooking, skiing, and indulging those grandchildren. The work has now pretty much retired from me, but the ballet, music, cooking, and skiing and children and grandchildren still give me much pleasure. I have a holiday house in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, the center from which to entertain U.S. and UK family and visitors (you are all most welcome) and enjoy music at Tanglewood and dance at Jacob’s Pillow.”
Jack Mitchell sends his warmest wishes and tons of hugs. He proudly boasts, “Ed Mitchells, a fourth-generation clothing enterprise with eight stores coast-to-coast, was founded by his mom and dad in 1958 and presently employs my oldest grandson, Lyle ’16.”
Alexander McCurdy warmly reflects: “Pure Wesleyan nostalgia for dear ones who pass in front of my mind’s eye: Tom Peterson, Pete Odell, Hank Hilles, Larry Wiberg.The great professors who live on in their gifts to us. Weren’t we fortunate? Aren’t we still?”
Eric “Swede” Wilson summarizes the following: “Margaret and I are still doing well in Tuscaloosa, the home of the Crimson Tide. Health is good. I’m still active, walking every day, and am semi-retired from my second full-time employment. Margaret continues to paint for friends and children and is engaged in several clubs. The children are fine. My daughter, Avery, is married and lives in Nashville, working as a benefits advisor for a large health consulting firm. My son, Eric, is an attorney in Tuscaloosa, and has a 20-year-old son who attends the University of Alabama. My third child, Martin, continues to reside in NYC, where he is employed by HarperCollins.”
Here’s a short word from Robert Hausman: “I am still above ground. My family is fine as we anticipate grandchildren graduating and going off to college. I am still in touch with Glenn Hawkes and Emil Frankel.”
Paul Boynton shares that late last fall, he and his wife, Barbara, “joined the family of a close friend on a two-week visit to Namibia that included a several days’ safari on the Kalahari savanna.”