Obituaries | 1950-1959

CONCETTA P. GRANSKI, a retired kindergarten teacher and an artist, died Apr. 29, 2015, at age 97. She was a graduate of Central Connecticut State University, and received her MALS from Wesleyan in 1958, a sixth-year certificate from the University of Hartford in 1963, and a PhD from Michigan State University in 1971. She was a volunteer and contributor to the New Britain Museum of American Art. Predeceased by her husband, Joseph A. Granski, D.D.S., she is survived by three stepchildren, five grandchildren, three great-granddaughters, and several nephews.

DAVID R.W. RAYNOLDS, 87, a bison rancher, diplomat and author, died June 19, 2015. He was an alumnus of Dartmouth College. After U.S. Army service from 1950 to 1953, he received a master’s degree from Wesleyan in 1955, did pre-doctoral work at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and later graduated from the National War College in 1973. Joining the Foreign Service in 1956, he served in the diplomatic corps in El Salvador, France, Haiti, Pakistan, and Washington, D.C. In 1966 he received the Meritorious Service Award from the U.S. Department of State. In 1964 he and his family spent a year in Lander, Wyo., where he wrote a book on El Salvador, and in 1975 they settled permanently in the Lander area and developed a bison herd at Table Mountain Ranch. He spent almost 40 years deeply involved in the community and spent 26 years on the steering committee of the Wyoming Business Alliance, with its Leadership Wyoming program. He was also involved with other local and national associations, including as president of the National Buffalo Association. Survivors include his wife, Mary Alice (May) Kean Raynolds, five children, eight grandchildren, and his sister.

EDWARD McGREW JR., a retired business manager, died May 31, 2015, at age 78. A member of Alpha Delta Phi, his career as a business manager took him from the Chicago Board of Trade to the International College of Surgeons. He later worked for H&R Block in their premium division and enjoyed teaching tax preparation to their new students. His wife, Carol William McGrew, survives, as do three daughters, eight grandchildren, and his sister.

JIM R. BROWNING, M.D., an ophthalmologist and well-known gardener, died Mar. 12, 2015. He was 77. A member of Eclectic, he received his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College and served in the U.S. Navy. He practiced ophthalmology for 44 years. A renowned gardener of rhododendron, azaleas, magnolias, and dwarf conifers, he was also a hybridizer of hardy rhododendron and a dedicated member of the Great Lakes Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society, which awarded him the Bronze Medal, their highest honor. Among those who survive are his wife, Blanche Rider Browning, two children, two grandchildren, and his brother.

EUGENE V. ALESSANDRONI II, a career prosecutor in the Philadelphia district attorney’s office, died Nov. 25, 2014, at age 77. He was a member of Sigma Chi and received his law degree from Villanova University. During his 38-year career in the district attorney’s office, serving under five district attorneys, he had, at various times, headed the child support division and the anti-obscenity enforcement division. He had also been a public defender and an assistant counsel to former governor Raymond P. Shafer. His wife, Maria Lochetto Alessandroni, and his brother survive.

WARREN WITHERELL, 79, a former headmaster and the founder of Burke Mountain Academy, died May 26, 2014. He was a member of Alpha Chi Rho. After serving as an administrator in several independent schools, he founded Burke Mountain Academy in 1971, where he served as headmaster, English teacher and coach. He promoted the ability of student athletes to thrive and learn in a non-graded and physically active school. Through his coaching, more than 115 students and alumni of the school have been named to the U.S. Ski Team, and 43 to Olympic teams. In 2004 he came out of retirement to become headmaster of Crested Butte Academy, from which several top athletes moved on to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard teams. He wrote How the Racers Ski and co-authored The Athletic Skier and Lessons from Burke—One School That Works. He was inducted into two athletic halls of fame for both snow skiing and waterskiing. He set multiple world records in water skiing, including five world water skiing titles. Survivors include two daughters, two sisters, his brother, and a large extended family.

THOMAS H. CONNELL, a retired attorney and an artist, died Feb. 17, 2015, at age 80. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi and received his law degree from the University of Connecticut after serving in the U.S. Navy. As an attorney, he specialized in heavy construction and was president of the Connecticut law firm Michelson, Kane, Royster & Barger. After retirement he devoted much of his time to artwork. Many of his works feature Cope Cod and the Wellfleet Bay Sanctuary of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, where he was also a volunteer naturalist. Two children and four grandchildren survive.

CHARLES E. LITTLE, 83, a conservationist, author, and land use expert, died June 20, 2014. A member of Beta Theta Pi, he received his degree with distinction in creative writing. He was the great-grandson of Gaybert Barnes of the class of 1869, the grandson of C.E. Little of the class of 1894, and the son of John R. Little of the class of 1926. During the Korean War he served in the U.S. Army. He was an advertising executive at Foote, Cone, and Belding until 1963, when he became chief executive officer of The Open Space Institute and published its Open Space magazine with the objective of preserving areas of natural beauty in the New York metropolitan region. His entire life’s work then became devoted to the appreciation and protection of American landscapes, rural or urban, public or private. In 1972 he joined the Conservation Foundation in Washington, D.C., and then became head of the Natural Resources Division of The Congressional Research Service, which he left in 1978 to establish the American Land Resource Association and edit its publication, American Land Forum. The author of many books, he founded Voices from the American Land, a quarterly publication of poetry celebrating outstanding landscapes of North America. Survivors include his wife, Ila Dawson Little, three children of his first wife, two stepsons, 12 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

ARTHUR A. COPPOTELLI ’55, a former instructor at Wesleyan, and a freelance writer, teacher and translator, died Mar. 5, 2015. He was 81. A member of Alpha Chi Rho, he received his degree with honors. He served in the U.S. Army and then received a master’s degree from Yale University in English Language and Literature. From 1968 through 1980 he lived in Italy, where he taught English literature and cinema for programs sponsored by Wesleyan, Trinity College, and Temple University, including the College of Letters at Wesleyan. He wrote dialogue and collaborated on numerous American-Italian movies, including on the movies Medea and Magdalen with Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini. He was the European fiction editor for Playboy magazine, translated the poems and books of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, and translated Landscape Painting in the 19^thCentury for the New York Graphic Society. During the course of his career, he was a speechwriter for President John F. Kennedy, where he authored the proposal for the youth training corps used in President Kennedy’s State of the Union address. He was also an instructor of English and humanities at Wesleyan from 1965 to 1968, where he founded the Italian program. He served as European editor for Hawthorn Books, overseeing a major dictionary and encyclopedia project for Lateran University, and held numerous editorial and writing positions with the Architecture Research Institute and Hacker Art Books. Survivors include his great-grandnephew, Alex Coppotelli. His partner, Joan Dunlop, died in 2012.

ROBERT S. ROSSON, M.D., a gastroenterologist at Hartford Hospital for 40 years, died May 8, 2015, at age 83. A member of Sigma Nu, he received his degree with honors and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After receiving his medical degree from Harvard University, he continued his training in Boston and then in the U.S. Air Force before completing residencies and fellowships at Yale University and Hartford Hospital. He served as chief of gastroenterology at Hartford Hospital for 20 years and as president of the medical staff. He also served as a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and as president of the Howard Spiro Society. He was predeceased by his wife, Eileen Kaufman Rosson. Among those who survive are three children, five grandchildren, his sister, and his partner, Judith Pitt.