Obituaries | 1950-1959

CHARLES E. FIERO JR., an international banker and former Wesleyan trustee, died Jan. 24, 2015, at age 88. A member of Beta Theta Pi, he received his degree with high honors and distinction in economics, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. During World War II he served in the U.S. Navy. After graduation he joined Chase Bank’s training program. During his 25 years at Chase he was made vice president and was put in charge of the credit department. Later, he joined the international department and opened Chase’s first branch in Geneva; he also helped to restructure and improve Chase’s European network. In 1965 he moved to London, where he became a Board member of what was then the Standard Bank, with branches in sub-Saharan Africa. In 1968 he was asked to become Under Secretary of Commerce to check and control the U.S. funds being moved to Europe. He spent a year in Washington and then returned to Chase as directly of long range planning and corporate development. He traveled extensively in the Middle East to assess the impact of OPEC’s wealth on the world’s monetary system, and he later became an executive vice president. In 1976 he left Chase to join the Hay Group, an international consulting group, as partner and chief financial officer. He also ran sessions at Northwestern University’s business school about mergers and acquisitions. When Hay was sold, he and two others formed MLR Holdings, a venture capital firm, from which he retired at age 78. He was a trustee of Wesleyan from 1974 to 1977, the chairman of the Mount Holyoke College Parent Fund, and a member of the Board of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. Among those who survive are his wife. Dorothy Hagenbuckle Fiero; three children; six grandchildren, including Christopher A. Brown ’04 and Brian C. Morgan ’09; one great-grandson; two sisters; and his brother.

MARTIUS L. ELMORE, who taught English and film at Manchester (Conn.) Community College, died Jan. 19, 2016. He was 87. The son of Lynwood K. Elmore of the class of 1918, he was a member of Delta Upsilon. He served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. After receiving a master’s degree in English from Ohio State University, he taught English in several schools before joining the faculty at Manchester Community College, where he spent 23 years teaching English and film. He also wrote film reviews for various publications. His wife, Eleanor Ritchie Elmore, predeceased him. He is survived by two children and one grandchild.

GEORGE D. BRYANT, 77, a local architectural historian, architectural consultant, and public servant in Provincetown, Mass., died Mar. 25, 2015. He was a member of Delta Tau Delta and received a master’s degree in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Among the first group of Peace Corps recruits, he was stationed in Peru where he oversaw construction of a housing project. Later, he worked for a large architectural firm and also bought and renovated buildings in Cambridge, Mass., before returning to Provincetown, his hometown. He was a trustee of Seamen’s Bank for many years. Survivors include two sons, one of whom is the son of his second wife, Dr. Rosemary Elliott, a grandson, a brother, and several cousins.

RICHARD E. STEPHENS, who had been a business manager for a realty company, died Aug. 14, 2015. He was 82. A member of Alpha Chi Rho, he had worked in retailing and advertising, and served in the U.S. Army in Korea for three years. Survivors include his brother, a niece and nephew, and his very close friend, Ron Carty.

SOMERVILLE PARKER, whose entire career was in private secondary education, died July 13, 2015. He was 82. A member of Eclectic, he received his degree with honors. He received a master’s degree in teaching mathematics from the University of Virginia and taught at Christchurch School of Virginia, St. Albans School, and the Blue Ridge School, before spending the rest of his career at the Landon School of Maryland, as a teacher, coach, head of the upper school and assistant headmaster. His wife of 56 years, Joan Hovendon Parker, survives, as do three children, eight grandchildren, and his brother.

HOYT CHAPIN, the retired owner and president of the Pottery Barn Inc., died July 16, 2015, at age 82. He was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon and also attended the Columbia University School of Business. After beginning his retail career at Bloomingdale’s and then moving to Dansk International Designs, he spent the majority of his work life since 1966 as owner and president of the Pottery Barn Inc., until he retired. His forward thinking, creative and entrepreneurial approach championed “good contemporary design at a great price,” according to his family. After he retired, he remained involved in several business adventures, including the creation of two developments, Browns Hill and the Georges Mills Boat Club, in Sunapee, N.H., and consulted to Mesa International in Warner, N.H. He was an active member of the New London community, as a director of the Little Sunapee Protective Association, New London Hospital, and the Kearsarge Council on Aging, among others. Among those who survive are his wife of 60 years, Marybelle Carruth Chapin; three children, including Deborah Chapin ’81; three grandchildren; a niece and nephew; and several cousins, including Edward W. Hoyt ’69, who officiated at the memorial celebration of his life.

HAROLD S. WHITE, who retired as Senior Jewish Chaplain at Georgetown University, the first rabbi to hold a full-time campus ministry position at a Catholic university, died Aug. 31, 2015, of complications due to a stroke. He was 83. A member of the John Wesley Club, he received his degree with honors. He received his rabbinical ordination at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and served as a U.S. Navy chaplain at Parris Island, S.C., and with the 7^th Fleet in the Pacific. A respected scholar of Jewish mysticism, he was a tireless promoter of interfaith dialogue and was one of the first rabbis to officiate at interfaith and same sex marriages. At Georgetown, he was instrumental in creating a milieu for Jewish-Christian theological dialogue and seeking common ground between Jewish and Jesuit theology. In 2003 he helped establish Georgetown’s Program for Jewish Civilization to expand the understanding of Jewish history to include cultural, religious, political, philosophical, literary, and scientific accomplishments. During his years in Washington, he was also B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation director at American University; scholar-in-residence at Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville, Va., and at Mercersburg Academy in Mercersburg, Pa.; associate rabbi of Temple Sinai in Washington, D.C.; and rabbi of Temple B’nai Israel in Easton, Md. Prior to that, he was the rabbi of Beth Israel Congregation in Ann Arbor, Mich., and of the Dublin Jewish Progressive Congregation in Dublin, Ireland. Active in the Civil Rights Movement and a frequent visitor to African American churches, he also worked to build interreligious dialogue with Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs. He retired this year as the spiritual adviser to the Interfaith Families Project of Greater Washington, D.C. At the time of his death he was teaching in Georgetown’s theology department and was an active board member for Moment Magazine, the country’s leading independent Jewish magazine, which established The Rabbi Harold S. White Fellowship in 2010 to train young journalists in his honor. He was the cousin of the late Myron E. White of the class of 1941. Survivors include his son, Ross McQuilkin, six nieces and nephews, and a large extended family.

JONATHAN LOVEJOY, 82, an attorney and Norwalk, Conn., coastline steward, died Apr. 5, 2014. A member of Sigma Nu, he received his degree with honors. He was the son of Frederick F. Lovejoy Jr., of the class of 1923, the brother of Frederick A. Lovejoy of the class of 1950, the brother-in-law of Roger S. Hanford of the class of 1950, and the nephew of Louis R. Arnold of the class of 1924 and of Harry M. Arnold of the class of 1928. After receiving his law degree from Yale University, he was a partner at the firm of Lovejoy, Cuneo and Curtis, which later became Lovejoy and Rimer. He also served on the New Canaan, Conn., zoning board of appeals and as Judge of Probate in the town of Westbrook. His interests and contributions revolved around the water, boating, and music. A Coast Guard Reservist, he was chairman of the Norwalk Harbor Management Commission and an active member of the Norwalk Seaport Association. He received the David S. Dunavan Norwalk Harbor Stewardship Award for his years of dedicated work on behalf of Norwalk and its coastline, and also volunteered repairing boars at Mystic Seaport. Predeceased by his wife, Jeanne Dugdale Lovejoy, he is survived by three daughters and two granddaughters.

HARRISON CLARK JR., who retired as a programming manager for the Dennison Manufacturing Co., died June 4, 2015. He was 85 and received his degree from Babson College, after which he was employed as an auditor and accountant. Despite a congenital hearing loss, he was able to read lips and manage in the mainstream, thanks to being educated at the Wright Oral School and the Clarke School for Hearing and Speech, before entering the Kingswood School in West Hartford in the seventh grade. He had a 23-year career at Dennison, which merged with the National Blank Book Company. Survivors include his wife, Sarah Ackerman Clark, five children, 16 grandchildren, and his sister.

EUGENE D. JACOBSON, M.D., former professor in the school of medicine at the University of Colorado, died Aug. 14, 2015, at age 85. A member of the John Wesley Club, he received his degree with high distinction in biology and English, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his medical degree from the University of Vermont and also received a master’s degree from the State University of New York. He served in the U.S. Army for eight years.