Obituaries

ROBERT E. RUTHERFORD, 93, who retired as general manager of the Carnation Company, died Jan. 25, 2008. He was a member of Chi Psi and received degrees from Whitworth College and Gonzaga University, where he also taught. He was active in community organizations that helped to care for the less fortunate. Predeceased by a daughter, among those who survive are his wife, Barbara Jenney Rutherford; two children, including Robert E. Rutherford Jr. ’64, M.D.; nine grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Blake Reynolds, exuberant lover of life and father of three, died at home surrounded by his family September 8 in Damariscotta, Maine. He was 93. Mr. Reynolds was born in Mount Vernon, NY, graduated from Wesleyan University in Connecticut (class of ’36) and received a Masters from M.I.T. His love of and loyalty to Wesleyan caused him recently to grant six full scholarships per year to the University.

Mr. Reynolds was an aeronautical engineer for Pratt & Whitney, assigned to the 3000-HP Twin Wasp Engine, and Lawrance Aeronautical Corporation where he worked on the auxiliary power plants used in the Elco PT boats. He moved on to Texaco Development Corporation where he worked first as a combustion engineer and then a chemical engineer until his retirement. His varied career and later life interests proved that he enjoyed learning throughout his life.

He married Sally Sergeant of Nutley, NJ, and began married life in Montclair, NJ, where two daughters were born, Laurie and Jancie. The couple then moved to Riverside, CT, and had a third child, a son George. They joined the Riverside Yacht Club and began their long love affair with boats and the water. Mr. Reynolds joined the Power Squadron and became an all-course member, also teaching half the courses offered. Fitted with such knowledge, the couple enjoyed sailboat racing and cruising New England and other areas. They lived in Riverside for 57 years.

After a four year stop at Evergreen Woods, a retirement community in North Branford, CT, the couple moved to Damariscotta, ME, where Mrs. Reynolds entered an Alzheimer’s unit of Miles Health Care and Mr. Reynolds an apartment at Schooner Cove, also part of Miles. With two daughters living in the area, Mr. Reynolds stated: “I now reside 3-minutes walk from Sal, 14 miles from Laurie and 10 miles from Jancie. I’m not moving!” Mrs. Reynolds died in 2003.

Mr. Reynolds is survived by his daughters, Laurie Asche of Wiscasset, Maine, Jancie Olson of Bremen, Maine, and son George Reynolds of Santa Cruz, Calif., and four grandchildren; Lucy and Hilary Olson and Jamandru and Judah Reynolds.

Services will be private. Arrangements are entrusted to the care of the Strong Funeral Home and Cremation Center, 612 Main Street, Damariscotta.

CARL E. POTTS, 90, an analytical chemist who retired after 40 years with the Anaconda American Brass Company, died Nov. 3, 2004. He was a member of Delta Upsilon. At the time of his retirement was the supervisor of the laboratory in Ansonia, Conn. Survivors include his wife of 66 years, Joyce Watson Potts, three children, seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

BAXTER S. PATRICK, 98, director of alumni relations at Wesleyan from 1956 to 1968 and an avid amateur violinist, died Aug. 12, 2011. A member of Delta Sigma, he received a master’s degree from Columbia University. After teaching high school English for several years, he pursued an administrative career that include service as an FBI agent during World War II, a personnel officer, and a dean at Antioch College, in addition to his position at Wesleyan. He later became a commercial real estate broker and entrepreneur. In 1983 he moved to North Carolina, where he was a strong supporter of music and continued to perform on the violin. His wife, Grace Farley, predeceased him, as did one son. He is survived by two sons, including James B. Patrick II ’66, and a granddaughter.

ROB ROY MACGREGOR, 97, who worked in the Geology Department at Wesleyan and who was later a salesman for the National Survey of Vermont, died Feb. 25, 2011. A member of Eclectic, he received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois and a master’s degree from Plymouth State College. He was a U.S. Navy veteran. His wife, Mary Knowles Higgins Macgregor, predeceased him. His brother, James S. Macgregor Jr. ’37, died in June 2011 (see obituary in this column). Among those who survive are several nieces and nephews.

HOWARD E. LOCHNER, who retired as a sales representative for the Amana Refrigeration Company, died Aug. 14, 2003, at age 89. He was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon. Predeceased by his wife, Muriel B. Lochner, he is survived by a daughter.

WILLIAM W. HATFIELD, 91, owner and president of the Hatfield Insurance Company, died June 30, 2005. He was a member of Psi Upsilon and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was also active in professional and civic associations. Predeceased by a son, survivors include his wife of 68 years, Adele Bacon Hatfield, three children, six grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

JOHN S. HANCOCK, a trustee of Wesleyan University from 1978 to 1981, and a retired bank executive, died Nov. 18, 2007. He was 93. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, he received his degree with high honors and with distinction in government, and was a member of Alpha Delta Phi. He received his law degree from Yale University and also graduated from Harvard Business School. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army Air Forces, later working for the Secretary of the Air Force. A former trustee of Wesleyan University, he was active in community and charitable organizations in Syracuse, N.Y. The grandson of Theodore E. Hancock (1871) and of George W. Shonk (1873), and the son of Clarence E. Hancock (1906), he was the nephew of Stewart F. Hancock (1905) and the cousin of the late Theodore McL. Hancock ’34. His wife, Frances Edwards Hancock, predeceased him. Among those who survive are three children, including Charles E. Hancock ’72 and Elizabeth H. Sillin ’77; four grandchildren; three step-grandchildren; a son-in-law, William B. Sillin ’77; and several cousins, including Stewart F. Hancock Jr. ’45 and Marion Hancock Fish ’76.

ROGER A. YOUNG, a geophysicist and associate professor at the University of Oklahoma, died Oct. 13, 2009, at age 66. He was a member of EQV and received his degree with high honors in geology. After receiving a master’s degree from Stanford University, he served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Map Service). In 1979 he received his PhD from the University of Toronto and became best known for his work in near-surface geophysics. He received the Stubbeman-Drace Presidential Professorship, given to outstanding faculty on the basic of teaching, willingness to mentor, and dedication to research, creative activity and service. Survivors include his wife, Frances Anne Bovee Young; his father, Dr. John A. Young ’40; two sisters; and a large extended family.

Burton C. Hallowell, educator, economist, and President Emeritus of Tufts University died November 21, 2006, at the age of 91.

Born in Orleans, Mass., in 1915, he grew up in Danielson, Conn., graduating from Killingly High School in 1932 and Wesleyan University (BA ’36, MA ’38). Caught up in WW II, he received his PH.D. in 1949 in economics from Princeton University. He also has five honorary degrees.

In World War II, he served as a civilian economist in the Office of Strategic Services and in 1942 entered the Army as a private, advancing to captain in the Transportation Corps. before his discharge in 1946. He led a group which designed and prepared statistical measures of performance for each of the Army’s corps in getting requisitioned supplies overseas to our troops. These measures were actively used to improve performance.

In 1946 he rejoined the Wesleyan University faculty (having been an instructor there in 1941-42) advancing to full professor and head of the Economics Department. Starting in 1949 he also served as consultant to the president of the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company for eleven years. He always believed that a foot in the real world made a better college professor. His scholarship was in the international economics and financial fields.

In 1961 he was persuaded to become a vice president, later executive vice president of Wesleyan. He played a significant role in resolving, with the faculty, the issue of selective doctoral programs. He also started to build a permanent money-raising capability for Wesleyan.

A strong believer in the practical usefulness of a liberal education at all levels of a person’s career, he left Wesleyan in June of 1967 to become president of Tufts University. He saw at Tufts a strong arts and sciences core including undergraduate women and well-known professional schools of medicine, dental medicine, and international relations. This appealed to him. The setting for higher education in 1967 was tumultuous and difficult: the Viet Nam War and Universal Military Service, minority and women’s rights, protests, sit-ins, and riots often leading to violence. There was uncertainty day and night as to what would happen next.

In this setting he lived on campus and related directly to students at all times. He turned budget deficits into surpluses, brought a sense of unity and cohesiveness to a university of proud and diverse schools and colleges, brought a view of what a higher education could and should be, and helped realize that vision. He also revamped and eliminated many restrictions on women, brought in more minorities, and rebuilt a sagging relationship with the Tufts New England Medical Center, its major medical affiliate. He brought a strengthened Tufts safely through the most difficult period in its long history.

He became president of the state Association of Schools and Colleges (AICUM) and brought it from a loose association into a powerful and effective voice of higher education.

When, in 1976, the tumult had eased and educational progress and finances were much improved, he resigned to direct his attention to corporate governance in the United States, a long-time interest. Briefly, from 1976-1979, he was chairman of Keystone Custodian Funds, a mutual fund firm in Boston. He was or became a director of seven corporations and participated in panels regarding reform for corporate governance. He relinquished the last directorship, Oppenheimer and Co., Inc., in New York City in 1997.

His directorship of Shaw’s Supermarkets led him back to higher education as one of the five original trustees of the Davis Educational Foundation. This foundation provides grants for projects designed to improve teaching of undergraduates. He and his wife, Joyce, drove thousands of miles throughout New England to colleges making proposals. He believed that teaching had been losing out compared to conventional research since World War II, and it should be invigorated. The foundation also supports projects such as college consortia to control university and college costs. He continued this work for the rest of his life.

He believed in helping the states and localities where he worked and lived. The governor of Connecticut appointed him chair of the commission to allocate federal facility grants among Connecticut colleges and universities. In 1967 the governor of Massachusetts appointed him as the first chairman of the new Housing and Home Finance Agency, which has thrived over the decades in making medium and low income housing a reality.

On moving to Cape Cod, he served as a Finance Committee member for a term in Orleans as well as on a revision committee for the town charter. He was one of the five founders of the Friends of the Cape Cod National Seashore and a trustee of the Cape Cod Museum of National History.

Dr. Hallowell’s first wife, Pauline, died in 1998, and in 2002 he married Joyce, who survives him. He is also survived by his son, Robert; two stepchildren, Deborah Fortin and John Glynn; and three step grandchildren, Emily, Peter, and Daniel Fortin.