Author: Anne Marcotty

When Ken Barratt wrote in late summer, he and his wife had recently returned from a trip to Alaska and the Yukon Territory in northwestern Canada. They visited Dawson City and learned what life was like there in the gold rush days. They visited the kennels of Jeff King, who had won the Iditarod race from Anchorage to Nome for four straight years, and toured the tundra for a view of the mountains surrounding Mount McKinley, then headed back home to Green Valley, Ariz., in time to experience Arizona’s monsoon season. Ken said they were glad to have escaped at least some of the early summer heat wave, which sent the temperature soaring above 100 for 39 days in a row at their locale.

King Berlew wrote from Topsham, Maine, where he and his wife Jeanne spend seven months of the year. The Highlands Retirement Center, where he wrote from, is just across the Androscoggin River from Brunswick and Bowdoin College. For a small annual fee, they became friends of Bowdoin and have enjoyed taking advantage of numerous events at the college. They saw Bowdoin beat Wesleyan in football two years ago and hoped to see that result reversed this year. By the time this sees print, the Berlews will be back in Florida, where they spend the winter-spring months at their condo in Sea Oaks, which stretches between the Atlantic Beach and the intercoastal waterway.

Les Aroh wrote from Louisville that he was still active in leasing and managing the office warehouses he has had an interest in. He and his wife, Janet, had cut back on travel, but instead have enjoyed interacting with their two sons’ families, which, Les said, for the most part lived only minutes away from them. One granddaughter lives in Yuma, Ariz. At the time Les wrote, he and Janet were getting ready and had just learned that their oldest granddaughter would make them great-grandparents in March.

Walter Cook wrote in late August from Connecticut, where he and his wife, Marie, spend their summer months before moving to Florida for the winter. “We have families in both states, which makes it nice,” he wrote. Walter was a World War II veteran who was stationed for two years in France. As part of his voluminous summer reading he has recently read a lot about the war. But the best story was written by a member of his own family. Walter’s nephew convinced his father, Walter’s brother, to tell his story of a mission his brother had not told anybody for 69 years, the story of a bombing mission his crew carried out on Nov. 4, 1944. Their B-24 was shot down over Vienna and the crew had to bail out. Walter’s brother landed on a farm, where he was sheltered by a 20-year-old American exchange student named Vicki, who was hiding with her brother from the Nazis. She sheltered Walter’s brother until he could assemble his crew and they then made a 30-day trek across country, helped by the Underground, finally making it back to their base in Italy, from which they flew 43 more missions. After the war, Walter spent 41 years with the UniRoyal Chemical Corp. “So far, Marie and I are doing okay,” Walter wrote.

DAVID M. PHILIPS
100 Elena St., Apt. 618, Cranston, RI 02920-7620 davephilips69@hotmail.com

The editors thank Bob Birney for his fine service as Secretary for the Class of 1950.
If you would like to “pick up his pen,” please send a message to Associate Editor Cynthia Rockwell at crockwell@wesleyan.edu.

Frequently I have a dearth of material to write about unless my “boss” at Wesleyan, Cynthia Rockwell, comes to my aid. She has done so on this occasion. She sent out a plea to classmates on my behalf and I have two responses, one from a teammate and one from a fraternity brother.

First the frat brother, Nat Hathaway: As I recall, (he did not verify this), Nat lives in a retirement community in Phoenix, Ariz., called “La Sienna.” He tells me he is 90 years old, and, I observe, he still has an active and fertile mind. He is currently giving talks to his community neighbors about Thomas Jefferson. The issue presently being discussed is the “Sally Factor.” Many of us will recall that Jefferson was accused of fathering children with a slave, Sally. I thought this issue was resolved and the families identified but Nat describes it as “quite a mystery” that has to do with the “Y” chromosome. Sadly, Nat’s wife, Lu, passed away two-and-a-half years ago.

I told Nat in a response to his e-mail that I recall going to a fair in Middletown, Conn., with him and Lu when she suffered an attack of asthma. I suspect that is why they settled in Arizona.

Bob Wylie, my teammate, came through with a short autobiography. He and Karen have been married for 61 years and have four children and six grandchildren. Bob was marketing V.P. for three companies, Celanese, Hoehst, and World Courier, LTD. During his business career he attended the AMP course at Harvard and, after retirement, got his master’s degree in economics at Western Connecticut State University. Bob lives in Greenwich, Conn., where my brother Hap’s family and my family grew up. Bob has been active in town government, with the Congregational church, and on the board of various business and civic associations. He has been a political consultant and manager of a number of campaigns. Karen was a real estate broker for 30 years in Greenwich and is now a docent at the Bruce Museum. She is also the recipient of the Carnegie Medal for a heroic act many years ago. She saved the life of a boy who fell through the ice on a nearby body of water, risking her own life, as I recall.

As some of you may recall, Bob and I were teammates on the track team. Together we made a happy duo for Coach Fritz Martin as he could usually figure on 12 to 16 points from us toward the final score at each meet.

David Richards, the author of a series of books about a naval captain in the British Navy during our revolution and which I wrote about in the previous issue of Wesleyan, has sent me another of his publications called Pollen in the Wind. It is described as “a collection of short stories of developing Western United States during the 1800s.” Again, I found it fun reading and would recommend it for easy reading, unlike Charles Krauthammer who uses such “big” words one needs a dictionary nearby (see his Things That Matter), but whose politics I admire.

William C. Brooks

9 Willow Pond Rd., Amelia Island, FL 32034

williamcbrooks@comcast.net

Please send updates to the editors.

Bill Smallwood has done it again!! And I thank him again and hope other classmates send in their thoughts and memories. Let’s share some ideas with each another. All e-mails and letters will be used. Let’s challenge Bill!!!

Ex-POW Picnic: Plymouth, Vermont

Each summer we gather at Plymouth State Park

midst clusters of birches in paper white bark

The distance some travel in crossing the state

feels shorter just knowing there’s much to relate.

The women chat freely on domestic things

of gardens and grandkids and what new life brings.

Then on rustic tables they generously spread

green salads and baked beans with juicy brown bread.

Old soldiers assembled still picture their foe

as memories swing over to days long ago

when duty demanded at terrible cost

the battle, then capture, with all freedom lost.

Abruptly our leader bids all of us know

how illness has laid two comrades down low

And further sad tidings list one comely wife

departed, while seeming so full of life.

The schedule we’ll follow includes a parade

to mark when our country’s freedom was made.

We’ll march in a body on Fourth of July

as National Guard fighters do their fly-by.

With eating now over some make for home base,

while those living closest help clean up the place.

Now, future campers, a word of advice

from well meaning oldsters who paid a full price:

The wisdom which aging can sometimes bestow

prompts veterans of combat to share what they know. 

Strong vigil for country’s a must at all times

to counter war’s outbreak and terrorist crimes.

—Bill Smallwood

Sandy Mclean
2270 Melville drive, san marino, ca 91108 rmcleanjr@aol.com

CHARLES HILL
115 E. 9th St., Apt. 10L, New York, NY 10003 HillChas3@aol.com

Since my previous column was written, my Longmont was flooded beyond imagination in September. Scientists designated the catastrophe “a 500-year phenomenon.” Whatever the label, the city was split in half as, after three days of downpours, the St. Vrain River and filler-creeks changed courses and flooded vast areas of Colorado’s northern plains. As I write on this early November day, the news is that the road to Lyons and Estes Park (not many miles west of Longmont) has opened. Hundreds of homes are ruined, millions of dollars worth of possessions destroyed, and several lives lost by drowning. Recovery began immediately and is inspiring. I am seeing human and humane behavior at their best.

In early October, the Latin School of Chicago celebrated its 125th anniversary and I was invited to participate as a Grand Marshal in the parade around Lincoln Park. Reunion dinners were held, cocktail parties were enjoyed, seminars were presented, and I was greeted and feted by many of my former students (now retired!) from my 1948–1957 tenure. Among them was Jack Dearinger ’57, who, with Bill Wallace ’57, Norm Wissing ’57, and Dave Noble ’56, had entered Wesleyan from the Latin School. The weekend was great fun, and I was honored to be remembered as a fine teacher who made a difference to some of his students.

Now winter is nigh: several ski resorts in the high country where the Rockies are already resplendent opened in late October. I have nothing more of note to include in this brief report, and so wish you all a heartfelt slán go fóill.

FRANCIS W. LOVETT
925 Hover St., Apt. 1L 106,
Longmont, CO 80501.

francis.lovett@comcast.net

If you would like to write the 1944 notes, or if you have class news to share, please contact Cynthia Rockwell at 860/685-3705 or crockwell@wesleyan.edu.