Class Notes | 1940s

Our facility recently changed television servers, and so, I have the new e-address below. My math skills were ever frail, and the upgrade from Comcast to Direct TV is a new challenge in that channel triple digits and my own fumbling digits make watching anything an adventure in exploration; and my old love for reading and writing is rekindled. The word ’writing’ reminds me that a few weeks prior to this October, I received a handsome trophy that recognizes two poems I submitted to an Atria—an arts contest—more than a year ago. The citation indicates that my modest verses “…are among the 25 best of more than 900 offerings.” Well, as Archie would put it, there’s still life in the old guy. Enough life, at least, to be invited to deliver a talk on Veteran’s Day: the history of the Tenth Mountain Division in World War II. This division is unique in the U.S. Military in that it was recruited initially through a civilian organization, National Ski Patrol. It trained for almost two years at Camp Hale, Colo., and then distinguished itself in combat during the final months of the Italian campaign. After the war, division veterans revolutionized what was essentially a rich man’s sport into what is today’s ski industry; warming climate patterns hint at future industry woes.

This was our 70th Reunion year If anyone planned any sort of on-campus festivities, I never knew of it, so I’ll be truly happy to receive a note or an e-mail to include in my next class notes. Slán go fóill!!

FRANCIS W. LOVETT | francis.lovett1@comcast.net
805 Compassion Drive, Apt. 208, Windsor, CO 80550
907/460-9338

Adolf Grünbaum’s writings deal with the philosophy of physics, the theory of scientific rationality, the philosophy of psychiatry, and the critique of theism. In a 2012 book, Why Does the World Exist?, the New York Times journalist Jim Holt described Grünbaum as “arguably the greatest living philosopher of science.” And Holt declared (p. 63): “…in the philosophical world, Adolf Grünbaum is a man of immense stature.”

In 2013, Oxford University Press in New York City began publishing three volumes of his collected papers and lectures under the overall title Adolf Grünbaum: Collected Works. The first volume is devoted to his writings on scientific rationality, the human condition, and 20th century cosmologies. The second volume contains papers on philosophy of physics, time, and space. The third volume features lectures on psychology and psychoanalysis, including Grünbaum’s previously unpublished 1985 Gifford Lectures, and his 1985 Werner Heisenberg Lecture to the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich, Germany.

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Again, I regret having to announce three more losses to our Class of ’43 since my last report. Cyrus Quinn, a fellow soccer player and longtime class agent, who was a member of Alpha Delta Phi, died June 29, 2014. Robert Ackart, a Psi U brother, died Dec. 14, 2014; and Rollin Polk, an Episcopal priest, who was a member of Delta Upsilon, died March 16, 2015. These classmates will be greatly missed and our hearts go out to their families.

Here in Virginia we enjoyed some balmy weather this fall. I hope the same was true where you are. I continue to be involved in my bout with cancer. I have already had two operations, and they have just discovered another cancerous tumor. So here I go again!

Fred Mellor writes: “Appreciated your notes. At 95 years, we’re both in our later 50 years of living, making us prone to injury. I fell and hurt my left leg, so I walk with the help of a cane now. We still belong to Portage Country Club, but only for eating out and playing bridge. I gave up playing golf at 92, the year I shot 59 at a challenge round. Our second son moved here (Akron), so we see him a lot at his own apartment or at our house. Our daughter is close by in Cleveland and our oldest son lives in Sweden with our 19-year-old granddaughter. I do not know of any classmates, or how ole’ Wes has grown over the years, but I do enjoy Wesleyan magazine. All that I can remember of sports and Beta Theta Pi fraternity is most favorable. Well, Fred, you do a great job of reporting on our class.”

From Dick Ferguson: “Always so good to hear from you. Don’t have much news for you, but I always think of you when I go past your Wildweed House. Those were the good old days!”

Frederick P. Appleton
100 O’Brien Court, Suffolk, VA 23434

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Please send updates to the editors.

TED NELSON
BrightView Commons,
57 Grandeville Crt., apt. 307, Wakefield, RI 02879

In a letter I received from Dave Richards he makes reference to a previous class note I wrote concerning the diminishing number of ’49 classmates. He made the point that he can still be counted as one of those still with us. He also made the point that he is one of the older members of our class, apparently 91 years of age, which makes him a year older than I. Dave further states that he walks a couple of miles a day and is in good health.
Dave and his wife, Mary, traveled through a “good bit of the world,” as he puts it. As a former architect he developed artistic skills and applied those skills to drawing pen-and-ink sketches of places through which they traveled. He has incorporated those sketches in a book, Some Thoughts on Sketching, and is sending a copy to Wesleyan for its creative arts classes.

I appreciate the letter from Dave, as I get very little information from classmates and his was an interesting and succinct description of his career, travels, and current activities. How about the rest of you who remain on this earth: Your friends and classmates want to hear about you…and don’t leave me hanging like this, begging for something and someone to write about.

The editors are saddened to report the death of longtime secretary Charlie Hill, who died June 7, 2015. He was 90. An obituary in the New York Times noted that he “taught French at Brooklyn College for 30 years, where he was a loved and respected teacher and colleague. He served as chairman of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures during the turbulence of New York City’s fiscal difficulties. He would give junior faculty members choice teaching assignments if he felt it would help their careers, since he was securely tenured. He was active as a leader in the New York-area American Association of Teachers of French, a role for which the French government honored him as a Chevalier des Palmes Académiques.” His son, Nick Hill ’85, observes: “Obviously, Wesleyan was a special place to him. Although many of our family members were Wesleyan graduates, that was not what mattered to him. He appreciated how well Wesleyan embodied the liberal arts. He would sometimes point out that he and Victor Butterfield started in the same year. I like to think that my time at Wesleyan gave him a renewed appreciation for a Wesleyan education. … As a longtime N.Y. Jets fan, he would jokingly gripe about Wesleyan’s embrace of Bill Belichick ’75!”

Douglas Dorchester writes, “I sent in an article on racism to the Cape Code Times. The editor liked it and waited for the right moment. When the tragic murders in Charleston, S.C., occurred, he said, ‘Now!’ He modified the article and printed it as their official response to Charleston. The article analyzes how racism develops in all of us.”

You can find his article at capecodtimes.com.

The preceding issue of this magazine included notice of the 2013 death of Gene Noble ’47; but before leaving for WWII service, he was a member of our class. He was also one of the 13 of us from Wesleyan who enlisted in the Tenth Mountain Division, which distinguished itself in combat in Italy and revolutionized the post-war ski industry. So far as I know at this June writing, four of us may still be alive; of two I am certain. That division was unique in military history, and its story and Wesleyan’s chapter of that story deserve a place in the college archives.

My last column generated no influx of news from you out there, but I did receive one unsigned scribbled note telling me, “A curse on your nonsense blessings.” Alas, that anonymous curse lacks spirit, lacks sting; it has no hint of elegance. Consider, if you will, how the ancient Irish curser had a fearsome power. To offend him or her was to flirt with a fate that could last four generations. Every chief had his personal bard whose function was to eulogize his employer and to curse without end his employer’s enemies. Next to the bard in cursing power came the widow woman, and a widow’s curse is still greatly to be feared. The orphan’s curse was no joke, either, and the priest’s curse was to be avoided like the plague. There’s a whole litany of curses in the Irish tradition: the hereditary curse; the reverting curse; the ceremonial group curse; the historical curse (probably the best-known historical curse in Ireland is ‘the curse of Cromwell’; the saint’s curse; and the poet’s curse. They take too many words of explanation for these notes’ allotted maximum, so I’ll end with my favorite delineation, the cursing contest, which has an underlying hint of good humor today. In Sligo town I witnessed a cursing contest between a shopkeeper and a woman of the Travelers. They went at it with vigor until the shopkeeper delivered this curse: “May the seven terriers of hell sit on the spool of your breast and bark in at your soul case.” The Traveler woman defeated him with, “The curse of the goose that lost the quill that wrote the Ten Commandments on ye.” American English has no elegance or imagination in what we coyly call four-letter words. The loss of powerful cursing is appalling.

Slán go fóill

I’m sorry to have to report two more losses. George McFarland died Jan. 5, 2015, and Art Snyder died Nov. 11, 2014. Art was a member of Psi U and a fellow soccer player. They will be sorely missed, and our hearts go out to their families.

Hope you are surviving the weather all right. A little too hot for me, coming from New Jersey! On my follow-up visit to the surgeon, they found some more cancer, so I’ll have to go back for another operation—maybe this time they will get it right!

From Jack Ritchie: “You do good work. I recently got to the campus (in May). I went to hear the president do an update on the state of the college, at lunch in the ’92 Theater for old folks. I was the only ’43 graduate, and the oldest there. The lunch was free.”

I received a nice letter from Fred Mellor, in which he writes, “It’s been years since I reported in to you or your predecessor. You deserve a deal of credit for your effort on behalf of the class of ’43. My wife and I are still in our same home since 1954—in good health, except I fell down a set of stairs and injured my left leg—so that I now walk slowly with a cane. It forced me to give up golf at our country club—now we play bridge there instead—men with men, women with women. I still can drive the car easily, but no sports. Ben Buffham ’41 is the only Wesleyan and Beta Theta Pi fraternity brother I have left to communicate with anymore. It has been years since the last visit to Wesleyan. Well, Fred—keep up the good reporting—I enjoy your effort.”

Dick Ferguson writes, “Always so good to hear from you, and the Wesleyan news. There are not any ’43 guys here at Cranes Mill. There is Bob Foster ’45, who was two classes behind us. He, also, likes news! Both of us send our best to Bobbie.”

Gene Loveland reports: “All is well. Tried to win back the cup in the spring putting championship, but bowed to my nemesis who had five aces to my four. A great match, and another crack at it in October. Also, news for the fall! Labor Day weekend I will marry an old friend of ours from Hartford and resident of the Hallmark. A beautiful 93-year-old who went to Wes house parties in our era, with a Deke whose name she can’t recall. [Congratulations, Gene!] Five days later, on Patriot’s Day, I will be 95. Should be a good year. Onward and upward into the 21st century!”