PAUL B. ALTERMATT, a former Connecticut State Insurance Commissioner, past president of the Connecticut State Bar Association, and an attorney in private practice, died Sept. 4, 2008, at age 78. He was a member of Alpha Chi Rho and received his law degree from Georgetown University. A U.S. Marine Corps officer, he served in Korea and later joined the Reserve. Survivors include his wife, Ann Taylor Altermatt, five children, 15 grandchildren, and two brothers.
The Rev. DONALD C. ARMSTRONG, a retired minister, died Apr. 28, 2004 at age 74. He received his divinity degree from Yale University and served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He was a minister with the New York Conference of the United Church of Christ before his retirement in 1994. Among those who survive are his wife, Judith Maclean Armstrong, two daughters, two grandchildren, and a sister.
JOHN R. ARMS, the founder and retired president of Credit Management Corporation, died Sept. 3, 2010, at age 82. The nephew of Herbert Welch of the class of 1887, he was a member of Sigma Nu and was a U.S. Army veteran. Prior to founding Credit Management, he began his career with Connecticut General Life Insurance Company. He is survived by his wife, LaVon Gehrke Arms, two children, two grandchildren, and his sister.
I hereby award DAVID F. ANDERSON the heretofore unofficial Posthumous Wesleyan Award for Exceptional Service in the Fabulous Person/ Family Man category.
Wait, you say, there is no such award.
Perhaps there should be.
Having matriculated from our alma mater in 1977, I have been blessed with much more than the transformative education I received from Wesleyan. I have at my disposal, 24/7, solid self-esteem, tireless optimism, a quirky sense of humor, and a devotion to making the world a better place.
I got all of this from my Dad, David Fenwicke Anderson, Class of 1950 (Big D as I called him) who died of colon cancer last May (2003) in the family home.
While my father had a respectable career as a small business owner, he was first and foremost a career family man. Once he found an equally bright, caring, competent partner in my mother (Jane Shanahan, Mt. Holyoke Class of 1950), he devoted himself to creating a launch pad of light and laugher for his 3 children who then had the vision and tools to extend his legacy in their adult lives.
My father’s pre-Wesleyan years hardly made him a shoe-in for this type of value structure. He was born in Mussoorie India, the son of two working parents, both Presbyterian missionaries. His parents sent him to a boarding school called Woodstock at 5 years old. (Please note that 5 years old is typically the age when we now send our children to half-day kindergarten.) At 14, his parents sent my Dad to the United States (a new country) to attend Mt. Hermon, another boarding school where he was tasked with getting an education and completing the key tasks of adolescence without any family nearby. In fact he didn’t see his parents for six years after he came to this country. This might be grounds for years of intense psychotherapy but my dad had an unfaltering cheerful disposition. In addition, he met my mom at the high school SAT exams and embarked on a 58-year love affair that he said more than made up for the loneliness that he experienced during those early nights in boarding school.
Somehow my Dad found his way to Wesleyan where, for the first time since the age of 5, he found a ‘home.’ He was educated, guided, and nurtured in countless ways and by countless people at Wesleyan. Most notably, Professor Ted and Marion Banks of Lawn Avenue and the Eclectic Fraternity were key in shaping his Wesleyan experience and igniting a life-long devotion to the university. We cannot say the same thing about Physics which apparently took him a few tries to pass. My father played lots of tennis and squash at Wesleyan, which were sports he went on to enjoy throughout his adult life. He went so far as to credit his love for squash with leading my sister Lisa ’75 to have ‘successful’ squash dates with another David, who has been her husband of more than 20 years.
Wesleyan hardly exited from my dad’s life upon graduation. He brought his lovely bride to every Reunion he could attend throughout their nearly six decades together. He had two alumna daughters to count on for new red and black trinkets and sportswear. Our livingroom hosted countless Wesleyan interviews and information meetings with local high school students. And the annual telethons were always good for a ‘free’ call from my dad wherever we were. Even when my Dad developed Alzheimer’s in the last 10 years of his life, he continued to love our annual visits to the Wesleyan campus where, medical anomaly or not, his memory never failed.
On May 7, 2003, Wesleyan lost one of its most ardent supporters and we lost a great great man. My dad’s successes in other areas of life, such as work, could also be recounted but to be honest, they had much less to do with the state of his heart, mind and soul than did his leadership in our family. And perhaps these successes don’t make my father or others like him, unique but certainly rarely publicly acknowledged for these particular triumphs. Thanks for allowing us to acknowledge him here.
ANDREW C. ACKEMANN, 61, a management consultant and expert in rationalization of complex global organizational structures, died July 19, 2006. He was a member of Eclectic. During his nine-year service in the U.S. Navy, he commanded a coastal minesweeper as well as a unit of the Special Warfare Operations Command and was awarded numerous medals. Prior to becoming an independent consultant, he was associated with Booz Allen Hamilton, Alexander & Alexander, and MGM. He also served, pro bono, as a National Safety Inspector for Outward Bound Schools and for NOLS (the National Outdoor Leadership School), and he served in the search and rescue operations at the site of the World Trade Center attack in 2001. Survivors include his wife, Deborah Ackemann, and six children.
JOSEPH S. ALESSI ’53, who had a long career in construction management, died Mar. 26, 2012. He was 83. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, he received his degree from Wesleyan, where he won trophies for football. His most notable projects were three of the Apollo S-1 S-2 test stands, the Veterans Regional Medical Center in Cleveland, and the skyscraper at 57th and Madison Avenue in New York City. Predeceased by a daughter and by several siblings, including Salvatore L. Alessi of the class of 1942, he is survived by his wife, Mary Ellen Webster Alessi; two daughters; his sister; his former wife; and several nieces and nephews, including Lisa M. Lombardo ’96
MICHAEL A. AUSTIN, 68, an attorney who specialized in tax, and in trusts and estates, died Dec. 7, 2011. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi, received his degree magna cum laude, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After four years of service in the U.S. Navy, he entered Harvard Law School and upon receiving his degree began practicing law in Boston, first with a larger firm and later on his own. Predeceased by his daughter, he is survived by his wife, Nolly Corley; two sons, including Jeffrey M. Austin ’00; two sisters; a stepson; and many nieces and nephews.
DAN R. ARONSON, an anthropologist whose career spanned 25 years at McGill University and 15 years at the World Bank, where he was the principal social scientist until his retirement in 2003, died Feb. 26, 2010. He was 69. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, he received his degree with honors and with distinction in anthropology, and was a member of EQV. He received master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Chicago. A specialist in developmental anthropology, particularly in African countries, he tried to incorporate a deeper understanding of social structure and cultural values into efforts to improve the well–being and income–earning potential of the poor. He is survived by three children, including David A. Aronson ’86; eight grandchildren; two brothers; a large extended family; and his former wife, Theresa Lopez.
RICHARD M. ARMSTRONG, 72, the president of Armstrong Engineering Associates and the former chair of both the boards of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and of Chester County (Pa.) Hospital, died May 9, 2010. He was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon and received a master’s degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His company, founded by his father, designs and makes heat–transfer equipment for the chemical and oil–refining industry. He was an advocate of open land and he served on several boards in addition to his hospital commitments. Survivors include his wife, Susan Dole Armstrong, three children, seven grandchildren, and a brother.
KENNETH C. ALLEN, 73, a builder who rehabilitated houses on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., died Oct. 18, 2011. He was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon and received his law degree from the University of Virginia. After serving in the U.S. Navy for six years, he returned to the Washington, D.C., area and went into the building business. He was president of Walden Construction, but had been disabled since brain surgery in 1985. Survivors include his wife, Beverly Jones Allen, a stepson, and a brother.
