Author: Cynthia Rockwell

Cynthia Rockwell, MALS ’19, P’11
Categories Obituaries | 1940-1949Posted on

F. EDWARD (“MUZZ’) MOLINA ’43

F. EDWARD (Muzz) MOLINA, the retired president of Edward Molina Designs, Inc., died Sept. 17, 2014. He was 93. A member of Psi Upsilon, he served in the U.S. Navy as a bi-lingual flight instructor during World War II. Later, he received an MBA from Dartmouth College and began a successful career in the textile industry. An avid athlete and traveler, he was also a loyal fan of Wesleyan football. In retirement, he became a community volunteer. His wife, Margaret Shippen Grubb Molina, predeceased him, as did a granddaughter. Among those who survive are three daughters; one son; nine grandchildren, including Dana E. Matthiessen ’09; and four great-grandchildren.

Categories Obituaries | 1940-1949Posted on

J. ALDEN NICHOLS ’41

J. ALDEN NICHOLS, 95, a retired professor of European history at the University of Illinois who had taught at Wesleyan, died June 28, 2014. A member of the John Wesley Club, he received his degree with high honors and with high distinction in history. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. During World War II he served as a conscientious objector. After receiving his master’s and PhD degrees from Columbia University, he taught at Wesleyan and at Skidmore College before returning to Wesleyan where he taught and was the managing editor of Daedalus, the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which was then published by Wesleyan. In 1961 he joined the faculty of the University of Illinois. An authority on German history, he also created a new course at the University of Illinois that incorporated the music, art and literature of the Romantic period. An avid amateur musician, he was an active participant in local groups. His wife, Barbara Tuttle Nichols, and one son predeceased him. He is survived by a daughter-in-law with whom he lived, two daughters, five grandchildren, several step-grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Categories Obituaries | 1930-1939Posted on

JOHN BAIRD ’38, trustee emeritus

One of Wesleyan’s most distinguished alumni, Trustee Emeritus John Baird ’38 P’69’78, died on Dec. 27, 2013, in Glenview, Ill., after a brief illness. He was 98.

“His life of service to Wesleyan, his community, and his country serves as a standard for us all,” said President Michael S. Roth ’78.

After graduating from Wesleyan in 1938 and receiving his MBA from Harvard in 1940, he served with distinction as a captain in the U.S. Army during WWII.

After the war, he joined his family’s prominent Chicago real estate firm, Baird & Warner, where he worked for the remainder of his life. At Baird & Warner, he served as president and eventually chairman of the board, overseeing the growth of the company to $5 billion in annual revenue. More remarkably, he used his voice as a real estate leader in Chicago to pioneer civil rights. As president of the Metropolitan Housing and Planning Council in the 1960s, he fought prevailing views of the time to champion anti-housing discrimination, leading to the passage of the open-housing ordinance in 1963. As a Chicago business leader, he remained active in civic affairs throughout his career, spearheading the efforts of many urban revitalization projects and serving on the board of the Trust for Public Land.

Baird generously offered his time and resources in support of Wesleyan throughout his lifetime. He served as an alumni-elected trustee from 1966–69, and a board-elected trustee from 1971–83. From 1980–1983 he was vice chairman of the board. He was a founding director of the Hill Development Corporation, which was originally established by the Wesleyan Board of Trustees in 1967 to create the Wesleyan Hills housing development in Middletown. He was honored with the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1970 and the Raymond E. Baldwin Medal in September 1983. In his honor, the Wesleyan Club of Chicago established the annual John Baird Lecture in 1987.

He was predeceased by his wife, Marion, and is survived by his daughter, Katherine Baird Mann, and sons Orrin ’69, Wyllys ’78, and Stephen, whose wife is, Susan Baird ’74, and many grandchildren. He came to campus this past May for his 75th Reunion.

Categories Obituaries | FacultyPosted on

THOMSON WHITIN, the Chester D. Hubbard Professor of Economics and Social Science, Emeritus,

Thomson Whitin, 90, the Chester D. Hubbard Professor of Economics and Social Science, Emeritus, died Dec. 9, 2013.

Whitin had already achieved distinction when he joined the Wesleyan faculty as a professor of economics in 1963. He graduated from Princeton University in 1943 and served as an officer in the U.S. Navy during World War II on the aircraft carrier the Bon Homme Richard. Having obtained a doctorate in economics from Princeton University, and teaching there until 1952, he joined the faculty of M.I.T. as an assistant professor. While on leave from M.I.T. from 1956–58, he served as Chief Economist of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission; subsequently he rejoined the M.I.T. faculty 1958–60 before joining the University of California, Berkeley, as a full professor in 1960. During his long tenure at Wesleyan, he twice served as a visiting professor of administrative science at Yale University and received fellowships from the National Science Foundation and the Ford Foundation. He retired in 1993.

The author of two books, The Theory of Inventory Management (Princeton University Press, 1953) and Analysis of Inventory Systems, co-authored with George Hadley (Prentice-Hall, 1963), Whitin also published dozens of scholarly papers and reviews. He served as a consultant to numerous organizations, including the RAND Corporation, Stanford Research Institute, and the U.S. Navy.

The Economics Department will be offering the inaugural Barber/Whitin Prize this spring for the best undergraduate paper in economic theory or institutional economics.

Whitin served as an advocate for the mentally ill through his association with the Connecticut chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Predeceased by his wife, Edith Osborn Sherer, he is survived by four children and three grandchildren.

Categories UncategorizedPosted on

PAUL J. MATHIS, MALS ’85

PAUL J. MATHIS MALS’85, an educator in the Lower Cape May (N.J.) Regional School District, died June 17, 2013. He was 61. A summa cum laude graduate of Assumption College, he received his MALS from Wesleyan and worked in the same school district for 38 years. His wife, Violande Mathis, survives, as do two children, a grandson, his mother, and his sister.

Categories UncategorizedPosted on

MARGARET R. FETE, MAT ’70

MARGARET R. FETE, MAT ’70, a professor of Modern Romance Languages at Ohio Wesleyan University, died Dec. 24, 2011, at age 65. She received her BA from the University of Colorado-Boulder, master’s degrees from Wesleyan University and Middlebury College, and her PhD from Ohio State University. Survivors include two children, a grandchild, and a large extended family.

Categories UncategorizedPosted on

KATHARINE T. COLEY, MA ’63

KATHARINE T. COLEY MA’63, an ardent conservationist and co-founder of The Connection, one of Connecticut’s most successful social-service agencies, died Aug. 19, 2013, at age 89. An alumna of Smith College, she began her career as a reporter and later a columnist for The Washington Times-Herald. She then moved to New York and worked for the United Nations in public relations for UNICEF, where she was instrumental in starting several UNICEF programs. In 1952, she moved to Connecticut with Wesleyan Professor Emeritus of English William Coley, her former husband. She received a master’s in psychology at Wesleyan for her research on Navajo tribal government and then taught anthropology at Middlesex Community College. After volunteering at Connecticut Valley Hospital, her experiences with young heroin addicts led to the founding of The Connection in 1972. A small initial program of counseling and support has become a statewide, multi-million dollar social service agency, on whose board she remained for 41 years. She was also one of the founders of The Independent Day School in Middlefield, Conn. A long and distinguished career of environmental activism followed, one that brought her to Washington to lobby Senators and Congressmen, to join with numerous Connecticut-based organizations as an environmental advocate, and to participate in the preservation of large swaths of open space in Middletown and elsewhere. She, along with others, spearheaded the preservation of the Wadsworth Mansion at Long Hill Estate, a Middletown landmark, and served on its Parkland Committee. She served on the Middletown Conservation Commission and the Steering Committee of the Connecticut Land Conservation Council. Survivors include two daughters.

Categories UncategorizedPosted on

EDWIN B. RICHARSON MALS ’60

EDWIN B. RICHARSON MALS ’60, a teacher and administrator who retired as a senior admissions officer at Harvard University, died July 22, 2012. He was 83. An alumnus of Harvard, he taught at the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven before becoming headmaster at the Harvey School in Katonah, N.Y. He then joined the admissions staff at Harvard. An active community volunteer, he was also an accomplished sailor. More recently, he worked at Milton Academy where he assisted alumni fundraising efforts. His wife, Anne Lindsay Miner, predeceased him. Among those who survive are three children, six grandchildren, his sister, and his companion, Linda Foehl.

Categories UncategorizedPosted on

JAMES C. LUITWEILER JR. MALS ’57

JAMES C. LUITWEILER JR. MALS’57, a retired teacher, died Sept. 6, 2013, at age 93. He received degrees from the University of Wisconsin and Plymouth (N.H.) Teachers College, and he served in the U.S. Army in World War II. Predeceased by his wife, Erika O. Luitweiler, survivors include two children, four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Categories Obituaries | 1970-1979Posted on

GEORGE D. NAYLOR IV ’71

GEORGE D. NAYLOR IV, a freelance writer and author of plays, short stories, and books about the counterculture and his time as a farmer, died Nov. 8, 2013, at age 65. A member of Alpha Delta Phi, he received his degree with honors from the College of Letters. After serving in the U.S. Army, he received an MFA degree from Columbia University. His sister and a niece survive.