CLASS OF 1966 | 2025 | FALL ISSUE

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We celebrate the lives of Jeffrey Kent Nilson and Robert H. Chickering. Jeff died on January 10, 2025. Though we were fraternity brothers at Wesleyan, both being English majors, I did not get to know Jeff well during our years on campus. But I knew enough to admire him, wanting to be more like him: his infectious smile, easy way with people, wit and good humor. It wasn’t until I became class secretary at our 50th Reunion that Jeff and I began to know one another better. I was, and I wasn’t the only one, stunned, inspired, and grateful for his moving talk at that reunion. I had no idea what he and his wife, Marieta, had been through. And then he began to send contributions to the class notes, contributions that were informative and full of fun—his children’s stories and light verse never failing to delight me and, I am sure, many other members of our class. He clearly loved, and was proud of, his children and grandchildren. I found his reaching out to our fellow classmate, Don Craven, ever so moving. He will be greatly missed.

Rob Chickering died on February 25, 2025, Harold Potter alerting me to his death. Harry “met Rob in grammar school. We both attended the same middle school, high school, and Wesleyan. After that our paths diverged but we kept in touch.” David McNally writes that “Rob (‘Bob’ in our college years) and I roomed together all four years, from 214A Howland Hall to 418 Harriman Hall (reputedly the largest double on campus), to two years in the Commons Club fraternity house. We both started in the College of Social Studies sophomore year and both dropped out midyear. Rob then majored in government, as did I.”  Dave goes on to observe that “Robert never aspired to climb the corporate ladder or make a lot of money. He lived a good life, made and kept friends easily, served his community in many ways, and cherished Rhoda and her two sons. There wasn’t a mean bone in Rob’s body, and he was upbeat and in good spirits to the very end. RIP, dear friend.” Here is a link to Rob’s obituary: https://www.timesargus.com/obituaries/robert-h-chickering/article_8dfb88d3-ed76-5bac-9e10-7dd519adab05.html

Harry and his wife, Lee, “continue to travel,” recently to Sicily. “Stunning island. Great food and classic European hillside villages with spectacular sea views. Too many churches for me but that was to be expected. We plan to be in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, in July this year for our annual family vacation with our three children, their spouses, and our seven grandchildren between the ages of seven and two. We have been in Steamboat several times before for skiing. This will be the first summer vacation there. Looking forward to it. I am still skiing, albeit not so well anymore, and playing a lot of tennis. Last summer, we had our family vacation in Michigan on Lake Charlevois. The grandkids loved the easy access to lake swimming. Beautiful spot.”

Harry shares this update on his “lifelong friend from Wesleyan, Bill Machen, who is still traveling the world. He lives primarily in Bald Peak, New Hampshire, a beautiful golf and recreation community in Melvin Village, with his wife, Leslie. We see them often and have a weekly Zoom call with them and several mutual friends. I also remain in touch with two of my roommates from Wesleyan, Stanton Healy and Joe Pickard. Stanton still lives in Mashpee on the Cape, and Joe lives in Londonderry, Vermont, when he is not sunning himself in Appalachicola or St. Thomas.”

I was delighted to get this note from Robert Dannies. He and his wife, Priscilla, “spent a night with Rick Crootof and his wife, Linda, and participated in the monthly KNK Zoom. We also drove through the Hands Off demonstration in Sarasota, which was quite a turnout and gave us some sense of hope. Finally, Michael Roth’s op-ed in the New York Times seems to have resonated not only nationally, but with many friends in New Haven. Priscilla and I are well; two-week trip to the UK planned in August for walking/hiking in the Lake District and then on to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival. Keep up the good work.”

I was taken aback by Jack Knapp casually mentioning in an email that he took a class with Rosalie L. Colie while at Wesleyan. I had no idea Colie taught at Wesleyan and wish I had. Her book, Paradoxia Epidemica, was to have a great influence on my work. Hannah Arendt’s name also came up, Jack writing: “On the subject of Hannah Arendt, I have a very distinct memory of sitting in the middle of a couch flanked by R. R. Palmer and her in the home of Edward T. Gargan, where I had been invited for dinner. I listened quietly as they sparred but was awed by the experience. Another great example of the opportunities afforded us by the Wesleyan we attended.” How true.

Jack recently received the great news that Choice Magazine has published a glowing review of his book,  A Carpetbagger in Reverse. “This biography of Mitchell, who has been virtually forgotten by history, is essential reading for scholars to understand the early days of the modern civil rights struggle.” As the email goes on to note: “This is Choice’s highest recommendation, which means your book is likely to be included in the Outstanding Academic Titles 2025 list.” Congratulations on this remarkable achievement! A review by Choice is a prestigious recognition, and A Carpetbagger in Reverse is truly deserving of this honor. This is as good as it gets.

One of Bud Smith’sbooks is also drawing praise. This past June, Shanti Arts announced the publication a new edition of Claude Clayton Smith’s Quarter-Acre of Heartache. First published in 1985, Bud’s book is an account of “what the late Chief Big Eagle of Connecticut’s Goden Hill Paugussett Indians called ‘the war for the quarter-acre,’ a struggle for one of the oldest (1659) and smallest Indian reservations in [the] United States.” The Hartford Courant said the first edition of Quarter-Acre of Heartache (Pocahontas Press, 1985), by Bridgeport-born Claude Clayton Smith, “easily joins other distinguished works on the American Indian such as Edmund Wilson’s Apologies to the Iroquois (1960) and Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (1970). I would say that is pretty good company.

And congratulations are in order for Bill Dietz on being honored with the Distinguished Graduate Award from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Here is Bill’s eloquent acceptance speech that captures some of what he has accomplished and how those—his family, the faculty at Penn—have nurtured his splendid career, one that I am delighted to note goes on.

“I am deeply honored to receive the Distinguished Graduate Award from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. I want to begin by citing my wife, Nancy, who deserves to be the co-recipient of this award. She has made this award possible through her tolerance and resilience for our multiple moves on behalf of my career—from Philadelphia to Panama, Syracuse, Boston, Atlanta, and most recently Washington, D.C. It has not always been easy for her to establish her own networks, but she has repeatedly done so with aplomb. Thank you—I am so grateful for your love and support. I would also [like] to recognize Tony and Sue Scirica, our closest friends, with whom we shared multiple respite weekends at their house in Conshohoken during medical school and my internship at CHOP. I am indebted to Jack Yanovski, School of Medicine Class of 1986 who submitted my name for consideration of this award.

“I was incredibly fortunate to have been here as a medical student in the zenith of the pediatric program at HUP. Lew Barness had assembled an exceptional group of pediatricians committed to teaching and patient care—including Frank Oski, Walt Tunnessen, Bill Mellman, and Mike Miller. One of my most memorable learning experiences came from a Saturday morning seminar for medical students interested in pediatrics in which one of these extraordinary clinicians would focus on the differential diagnosis of common symptoms, like diarrhea, abdominal pain, or headache. I still have the notes from those seminars.

“Those who know me know that I ask a lot of questions. I have always been most interested in questions with no answers. These represent the frontier between what is known and what is unknown and identify a question ripe for research. I have been exceedingly fortunate to have worked with mentors who gave me the freedom and encouragement to pursue these questions. Those mentors included Mike Miller and Bill Mellman here at Penn. In an attempt to answer the question of why children with Down’s syndrome [have] an increased susceptibility to infection, I worked with Drs. Miller and Mellman to assess immunoglobulin levels in newborns with Down’s syndrome. The finding that newborns with Down’s syndrome had reduced levels of IgG, and that lower IgG levels could account for an increased susceptibility to infection led to my first two publications in the medical literature.”

We end with a photograph of Will Rhys, Sandy Van Kennen, and Rick Crootof, who attended our 59th Class Reunion, a reminder to all that our 60th Reunion will take place May 22–24, 2026. Please do plan to attend.