TERENCE B. LEARY, 19, died unexpectedly Nov. 4, 2003. He was a member of Psi Upsilon. Among his extracurricular activities, he was a pitcher for the Wesleyan baseball team. Survivors include his parents, a brother, his paternal grandparents, his maternal grandmother, and a large extended family.
LILLY J. M. NGUYEN, 29, a biology major who was in the process of applying to medical school, was killed on Nov. 21, 2010, the innocent victim of a domestic dispute between her sister and her sister’s boyfriend, both of whom died. She was working at Tufts University School of Medicine as a research technician. Among those who survive are her parents, one sister, and several nieces and nephews.
AARON K. THALER, a social services case manager and avid musician, died of a brain tumor on Apr. 24, 2011. He was 28. Despite being diagnosed with a brain tumor during his junior year abroad in South Africa, and all the treatments that followed, he managed to travel to Africa, Israel, South America, and all over America with his family and friends. Within weeks following major surgery in 2009, he hiked to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. As a case manager, he assisted clients disabled by HIV/AIDS. He is survived by his parents, his brother, his paternal grandfather, and a large extended family.
ALEX OKRENT, 29, a political organizer who had worked in presidential campaigns since 2004, died July 13, 2012. Survivors include his parents, Michael Okrent and Lynn Pollack, his sister, his grandmother, and a large extended family.
IAN H. E. HANKS, the co-founder of Hanks Brothers Chinese Trading Company, which sources Chinese products, died Dec. 23, 2011. He was 30. A lymphoma survivor in his teens, he was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2005. He was an East Asian Studies major who had been inspired first by a Wesleyan course in Buddhism that piqued his interest in Asia and then by his courses in Mandarin Chinese, in which he became fluent. A Princeton in Asia scholar, he worked as a consultant in Shanghai with Tractus Asia, a management consulting firm, and later moved to Hangzhou, where he and his brother founded their company. He and his wife also provided heart surgery for seven Chinese school children through Project Hope. Among those who survive are his wife, Sandra Hanks; his mother and father; his brother and sister; his grandmother; and his other mother, Tita Dueñas.
PETER B. MORGENSTERN-CLARREN, 22, died on April 23, 2004 by suicide. Peter was active in social justice causes at Wesleyan, including working with Justice for Janitors, Amnesty International, and improving economic conditions for the world’s poor. He also formed the rock band 8 Fingered Jakob with his friends Derek Garcia ’04, Ben Abrams ’03, and Roger Cohen ’03. The band performed on campus at the Naked party, among other gigs. Peter is survived by a family who loved him dearly, including his parents Hadley and Patti, sister Rachel, four grandparents, eight aunts and uncles, and seven first cousins.
SAMUEL V. AARONIAN, an editor and writer, died Apr. 29, 2007. He was 28 and had worked as a project manager for Unison Site Management in New York City. He had also worked in the editorial department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and had been involved in the publication of several books. His parents, one brother, and a large extended family survive.
HOPE REICHBACH, 22, communications director for New York City Councilman Steve Levin and an up-and-coming politician in Brooklyn, N.Y., died Apr. 28, 2011. Among those who survive are her parents.
PAUL SCHAFFEL, 22, a prize-winning double major in History and Psychology, and who graduated with High Honors, died Sept. 16, 2012. He had been diagnosed with a long-term illness in December 2011 and continued his course work and honors thesis despite undergoing extensive treatment. Originally from New York City, he served as editor-in-chief of Historical Narratives, Wesleyan’s undergraduate history journal. He was awarded the Butler Prize for his thesis on London student radicals in the early 1900s, centered on the killing of Curzon-Wyllie, the aide to the Secretary of State for India. Admitted to Columbia, Harvard and Stanford law schools, he had planned to attend Harvard after deferring for a year because of his illness. His mother, Ellen Walker, and his father, Steven Schaffel, survive.
SAMUEL M. TUTHILL, Ph.D., nationally distinguished chemist who served Mallinckrodt, Inc. as director of quality assurance until 1981, died Dec. 6, 2005, after a brief illness.
He was 86 and a longtime resident of Ferguson until he moved to Hidden Lakes Retirement Community in Spanish Lake in 2003.
Dr. Tuthill grew up on a farm in Rocky Point, Long Island, New York, and attended Wesleyan University, where he received his B.A. and M.A. in chemistry. In June, 1941, he married Frances Hallock, also of Rocky Point, and they moved to St. Louis, where he began his career with Mallinckrodt Chemical Works.
During World War II, he worked on the Manhattan Project carried out by Mallinckrodt to purify uranium for use in atomic weapons. Following the war, he earned his Ph.D degree in Analytical Chemistry at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. In 1948, he returned to Mallinckrodt, where he became Director of Quality Standards, serving until his retirement as Corporate Director of Quality Assurance in 1981.
He continued as a Mallinckrodt consultant for 15 years, serving on many national standards committees. Dr. David Fey, a colleague at Mallinckrodt, remembers: ?Dr. Tuthill was a long time member of the Committee of Revision of the United States Pharmacopeia (1975-2004). His almost 30 year career with the Pharmacopeia included a diverse range of service, from Chairman to member on committees such as ?Organic and Inorganic Compounds, Radiopharmaceuticals, Reagents, General Chapters,? and ?Reference Standards?. Dr. Tuthill was also the American Chemical Society delegate to the United States Pharmacopeia which made him a natural conduit for cooperation and communication between these two organizations that strive for scientific integrity, as did Sam.?
His interests included the First Presbyterian Church of Ferguson, where he and his wife have been members for over 50 years. He served the church as President of the Board of Trustees, Elder and Chairman of the Stewardship Committee.
Survivors include his wife, Frances; his children, Arthur Tuthill of Ferguson, Thomas Tuthill 72 (The Rev. Cricket Cooper) of New London, N.H., and Anne Tuthill (John) Polta of Golden Valley, MN; and grandchildren, Andrew and Peggy Polta.
