Obituaries | 1970-1979

MARK M. ROSENTHAL, an attorney and partner at Jeffer Mangels Butler & Marmaro in Los Angeles, where he chaired the National Sports Law Group, died Feb. 3, 2010, at age 61. He was a member of Gamma Psi and received his law degree cum laude from the University of Michigan. A litigation specialist, he represented sports teams in arbitration and negotiations for more than 20 years. He also chaired his firm’s recruiting department for many years. He is survived by his wife, Julie Veneklase Rosenthal; two sons, including William Rosenthal ’06; his mother; and his sister.

Sybil B. Paton, Library Trustee and Arts Activist
Sybil B. Paton died June 5th at Wadsworth Glen in Middletown, Conn, at the age of 84. A Middletown resident for more than 50 years, Mrs. Paton was notable for her leadership in many community organizations, including the Russell Library, the Connecticut State Library, the Wesleyan Potters, the Middletown Commission on the Arts, and Middletown’s Bicentennial celebration. Her efforts created a large number of innovations that took on a life of their own, and continue to enrich the life of the community.

She served as a member of the Russell Library Board of Trustees for more than three decades, from 1966 until 2007, serving twice as the President of the Board. She also served on the Board of Trustees for the Connecticut State Library in Hartford from 1976 to 1981. She was named Friend of the Year by the Friends of Connecticut Libraries in 2002, and Outstanding Library Trustee of 2004 by the Association of Connecticut Library Boards.

Mrs. Paton delighted in the inclusiveness of the library. She championed the expansion of children’s programs at Russell Library and chaired the building committees during two major library renovations that gracefully merged a former bank building with the library’s existing building, a former church. She chaired the search committee that brought the current Director of the Library, Arthur Meyers, to Middletown in 1997. She helped establish the Friends of the Russell Library and founded the John W. Paton Storytelling Contest in memory of her husband. Since 1997, the contest has showcased the writing of unpublished adult writers in the community.

Mrs. Paton was also notable for longstanding contributions to arts in the community. She was appointed in 1972 as one of the founding members of the Middletown Commission on the Arts and served on the commission until 1975. In that role, she worked to expand awareness of local art resources by helping to create a series of music and theater performances, an annual Showcase of the Arts, and a monthly arts calendar for the city. She also helped launch the city art collection and establish the grants programs which supported the start of The Oddfellows Playhouse and many other arts programs. Mayor Sebastian Guiliano declared March 12, 2007, Arts Advocacy Day in Middletown, in honor of “the standard for advocacy and volunteerism” she set for the city.

Her passion for the arts included active involvement in pottery, photography and Bonsai cultivation. She was a charter member of the Wesleyan Potters. She taught pottery classes, was active in the development of the Wesleyan Potters teaching facility, organized the first of many annual sales and won numerous awards in statewide exhibitions. She was a longtime member of the Castle Craig Photography Club in Middletown and the Bonsai Society of Greater Hartford.

Mrs. Paton took on many special challenges for the city of Middletown and community organizations. During the racial tensions of the late 1960s, she served as a Board Member in the TOPS (Teens Organized to Protect Society) organization, working with African-American teenagers to solve community problems. From 1975 to 1977, Mrs. Paton was the Bicentennial Coordinator for the City of Middletown and then from 1977 to 1979 she was Coordinator of Special Events. In both of these roles, she helped showcase Middletown’s rich multi-cultural heritage. She served from 1979 to 1988 as Coordinator of the Building Program for the Idella W. Howell Child Development Center on William Street, and as Coordinator of the Renovation Program for the Green Street School.

Before coming to Middletown, Mrs. Paton was employed as a secretary for the National Council of the YMCA in New York City and from 1950 to 1952, served as coordinator for one of the nation’s first pollution control campaigns to protect the Raritan River in New Jersey.

She first came to Middletown when her husband enrolled as a student at Wesleyan University in January 1946. She moved to Middletown permanently with her family in 1952. While raising three children, Mrs. Paton volunteered for a wide range of community activities. She served as a Brownie and Girl Scout Leader from 1958 to 1963. She was also a founding member of the Wesleyan University Monday Club, a group of faculty wives who originated many ideas for local improvements to the City of Middletown.

Mrs. Paton graduated from The Katherine Gibbs School in New York in 1943, and earned a Bachelor of Arts at Wesleyan University in 1970, in the first graduating class that included women. She later earned a Masters of Arts degree in Anthropology from Wesleyan.

She was married to the late John W. (Jack) Paton for 50 years. She is survived by three children: Laura P. Arnold of Middletown, Bruce Paton of Sunnyvale, CA, and Douglas Paton of Piedmont, CA, as well as five grandchildren. She was born Sybil Lorraine Busch in Yonkers, New York. A private memorial service will be held later this year. Contributions in her memory may be made to the Russell Library, 123 Broad Street Middletown, CT 06457.

David L. Nicholl, 56, a lawyer who specialized in communications regulations, died of brain cancer Oct. 25, 2006. A College of Social Studies major at Wesleyan, he received his master’s degree in communications from the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania and his J.D. from Catholic University. Early in his career, he worked for the Justice Department, on the team that prosecuted AT&T for antitrust violations, which resulted in the divestiture of the Bell System. He then joined the Federal Communications Commission in its cable TV and common carrier bureaus. For the past 22 years he was an attorney for the National Cable and Telecommunications Association on policy issues, serving as general counsel. Among those who survive is his cousin, Dr. Andrew R. Ganz ’62.

DARYL G. NICKENS, a screenwriter, former vice president of the Writers Guild Foundation and the faculty chair of the screenwriting department at the American Film Institute, died July 10, 2006, at age 57. He also taught screenwriting in the graduate program at the University of Southern California and was perhaps best known for writing the first feature film written by an African-American to open number one at the box office: House Party 2. He produced and wrote for film and television, and his essays appeared in professional journals. He also served on the boards of professional writers’ organizations, including the Writers Guild of America, west, and the Writers Guild Foundation. His was nominated for numerous awards throughout his career. Survivors include his wife, Sally Travi, and two children.

DONNA L. MORAN-AMARANT, 55, a nutritionist who had just completed a master’s degree in library science from Southern Connecticut State University, died Sept. 8, 2005, of injuries suffered in an automobile accident. After attending Wesleyan as an Etherington Scholar, she received a bachelor’s degree in nutritional science from the University of Connecticut. She was a member of the Haddam (Conn.) Land Trust and was a past president and leader of her synagogue in Deep River. Among those who survive are her husband, George Amarant, their son, another son from her first marriage, her father and stepmother, four sisters, and many nieces and nephews.

RICHARD A. MONROE, a real estate broker, died Nov. 29, 2009, at age 68. A U.S. Navy veteran, he was a member of Kappa Nu Kappa, received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Louisville, and then received an MBA from Indiana University. He is survived by his wife, Pauline Roberts Monroe, two sisters, and a large extended family.

ELIZABETH (LIZ) MARINER, 52, an executive who had been associated with several large corporations and was also an active handweaver, died May 21, 2007. She was in the College of Letters and later received an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Most recently she worked for the Upjohn Company and for the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo (Mich.). An Olin Associate, she provided for Wesleyan in her will. Her husband, David Magerlein, and her brother survive, as do many friends. (For more information, see the Boston Globe on 5/24/2007.)

 

Music program director and associate professor at Drexel University, died July 2, 2012. He was 60. A specialist in African American composers, he received his PhD from the University of Michigan. Before joining the faculty at Drexel, he was music department chair and director of bands at Southern Connecticut State University, and an invited guest conductor at Yale University, the Hartt School, and the University of Michigan. His parents, Sonya Kleider and Robert I. Moss survive, as do his sisters and two nephews.

JOHN H. MANDIK, a statistician for the Delaware Department of Public Health, died of a brain tumor Jan. 5, 2005 at age 52. He received master’s degrees from the University of Delaware and from the Stern School of Business at New York University. He had also directed statistical analysis for a division of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and he owned and operated the Internet Design and Management Company. Among those who survive are several cousins, his fiancee, and many friends.

JEFFREY A. MARSH, 59, who had suffered severe degenerative neurological damage in an accident during his college years, and who spent most of his adult life in nursing homes, died Aug. 1, 2010. He was an advocate for the rights and interests of nursing home patients. Predeceased by his mother, he is survived by his father, stepmother, three sisters, and two stepsisters.