Class Notes | 1960s

Michael Lux is an attorney “practicing customs and VAT law in Brussels.”

Joe Murray “hunkers down in South Carolina, still coaches high school lacrosse, and misses London buddies Steve Bryant and Steve Pfeiffer.”

Pete Arenella has “lived a bi-polar life—great highs, severe lows. Now in a rural Mexican village—no paving or restaurants, partnered with Mexican soulmate. Miss my children. Son David, 35, is lockdowned in a group home. The mentally disabled community has suffered from COVID-19. Daughter Kat, 29, earned a psych doctorate and Zooms patients in Minneapolis. Hope all are safe and virus-free.”

Bill Eaton wrote, “Take heart attack and ambulance ride off the bucket list. Feeling fine and back to work. New granddaughter. Play bluegrass with the starkly amateurish Sweet Potato Fries. Does anyone at Wes remember our jugband Vulgar Boatmen?”

Stuart Blackburn “enjoys trips down memory lane with Steve Pfeiffer. A lot happened 1965–69.”

Ron Reisner is “part of an email cycle with Harry Nothacker and Mike Terry, often discussing surfing and golfing.”

Jim Drummond said, “My get rich quick scheme has been a long criminal defense career. I’m in touch with Bruce Hartman and Jeff Richards. Deb and I actually enjoy the desocialization, though one might consider significant other encounter sessions. Stay safe.”

Carl Culler “retired to a house on Lake Norman, North Carolina, to enjoy boating and fishing. Isolation is easier until pandemic passes.”

John Bach “hopes we are all well enough. Marilyn fell and fractured her shoulder. Chemo is slowing down the healing. A trifecta—cancer, fracture, virus. Lions, tigers, bears.”

Charlie Morgan “plays tennis and shops for essentials. Wife Lois got sepsis, a uti, and kidney infection. Hoping kidneys recover and she can quit dialysis. Other than that, life is good.”

Ric Pease “helps at Polly’s childcare center.”

John Hickey “enjoyed Bruce Hartman’s novel, The Philosophical Detective Returns. My law practice is limited to commitment hearings in Southeastern Massachusetts. Daughter is a clinical psychologist in California.”

Jack Meier is “saddened by Rick Ketterer’s death. There wasn’t a better person in our class. Claudia and I are moving to Bluffton, South Carolina. We will miss New England but not the politics. Looking forward to a new world. Stay safe but enjoy your lives.”

John Wilson wrote, “Cliff Saxton informed me of Terry Hallaran’s death. Sad news. Pat and I are hunkered down in Ann Arbor. I need to learn how to retire. We are grateful to be in good health.”

From Jeff Richards, “September, autumn leaves, a new school year. I remember Wesleyan. Semi-instant nostalgia, or is it just missing one’s youth? Who could have imagined a campus devoid of students 55 years ago. Wasn’t there an orange juice fast to protest the war? We elected the first Black class president. Right now we live in a polarized society. I’m busier than ever with benefits for the Actors’ Fund.” Check online for his Spotlight on Plays.

Don Luke is “looking for David A. Vaughan to help a Wheaton ’69 friend.”

Steve and Bonnie Knox “retired to Asheville where both daughters and their families are. Retirement is not what I envisioned. The world is crazy. Our families have jobs; we are together; we help with grandchildren; we cope. The presidential election can’t come soon enough.”

Catch up with Ken Kawasaki at brelief.org.

Dennis Marron and I will meet when COVID-19 allows. “A mini-reunion,” he said. “My best to you and all our surviving class members.”

Bruce and Jeanne Snapp “enjoy retirement. We’re working hard to get Democrats elected by helping with absentee ballots and polling centers. Older daughter Emily is in New Zealand where COVID-19 is controlled. Her sister Juliana is a trauma therapist in D.C. We hope for an end to the pandemic.”

Bryn Hammarstrom “RNs about 55 hours/month at Temple University Hospital. Still splitting firewood despite some aortic problems.”

Email me for Steve Mathews’ and Pete Pfeiffer’s submissions. They will make you laugh. Doug Bell said hello. Andy Gregor lives in a lovely home in Old Saybrook overlooking North Cove and the Connecticut River. If my vision could hook left 500 yards east, I could see the house from our deck.

Carol and Maurice Hakim ’70 live a short distance west on the Post Road. They’ve taken a utilitarian 1790 Dutch gambrel and made it fit for visiting royalty. Their Thanksgiving invites are coveted.

First debate last night. Quelle disaster! We hide from COVID-19. Our condo is a castle keep. On two sides water, trees and poison ivy. The front is impenetrable metal doors. A raised deck guards the rear. Overall, the feeling is of a treehouse.

Please say Rick and Terry’s names as we add them to Ed’s List.

Charlie Farrow | charlesfarrow@comcast.net
11 Coulter Street, #16, Old Saybrook, CT 06475 

After years of a terrible but spirited battle with health issues, on July 21, 2020, Bob Newhouse passed. It was on “a beautiful day in the place he loved best, his home overlooking the ocean in Nantucket, where he insisted going when it became clear that he might have only one more trip in him. . . . He was a truly gifted artist. He drew and painted and was a terrific cartoonist but it was his marvelous sculpting and woodworking that most will remember” (from correspondence from his brother, Steve). 

Again from Steve: “I taunted him by saying his trials and tribulations later in life were payback for his Baccanalian revelry at Chi Psi. . . . Some think he was the model for the cool and handsome Eric ‘Otter’ Stratton in Animal House.” Be that as it may, he still managed to have 

a very successful career at the financial giant Marsh McLennan.

Bill Beeman retired as the chair of the anthropogy department at Minnesota after a long—34 years at Brown and 13 years at Minnesota—and distinguished academic career. No fool, he is leaving midwestern winters for Santa Clara to join his husband of six years (after 30 years of togetherness), Frank Farris, who teaches at Santa Clara University. (He sees Ted Smith ’67 who lives in San Jose). Bill went to an island in the Persian Gulf the summer of 1967 with Sib Reppert ’67 and returned there for the fall semester of 1967 to do ethnographic work. It was transformational as it led to his senior paper which led him to the University of Chicago (provided he continue with Persian and Arabic). Traveled to Iran and Afghanistan until it was no longer possible. Taught Peace Corps volunteers.

I reached out to Bob Abrams, a Nicholson 6 graduate, and learned he is in St. Louis and a man of leisure. He has a son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter not far from me. His wife, Jan, is unhappy that the pandemic has prevented them from making their semi-annual visits. John Kepner who had a career in hospital administration, has been writing a blog entitled “Rounding Third Leadership Blog”(fenwaymanagementadvisors.org/leadershipblog). It is a deep, far-reaching and ambitious endeavor that covers a lot more than baseball. Meanwhile, his son, Tyler, actually covers baseball for the Times and had a book out last year, K, a History of Baseball in 10 Pitches, which spent a week on the NYT best seller list.

I have been speaking with my erstwhile comrade in chaos, Bob Svensk. Still working quite independently (partnered with his son, Andrew ’99) from a Southport office in a worldwide reinsurance business. (To understand it fully, it helps to have gone to Harvard.) Very involved with Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation and Southport Conservatory. Son Christian ’96 is an urban planner married to a transportation guru in Sacramento. Son Hallock is Williams ’07 and an attorney married to an attorney in L.A. Andrew’s wife is a NYC ADA. Bob and Annie have five grands but three are on the West Coast­—out of cuddling range. 

My editor gives me 800 words and I am not yet there. So: Dave Losee has become a beekeeper. Bill Currier ’69 is working hard on a pilot for a TV show. BiIl Nicholson continues to read his way through American history. We are fine: Judy continues to love me and really gives me no choice in the matter.

 I write in September, and, as a rule, I keep current events out of these Notes. But, as I make the rules, I can break them. And, though a divinity school graduate, I am not good at asking god for favors. But, I am praying for the unemployed, the hungry, the homeless, the sick and dying, that we address the many divides in our country and for an orderly transfer of power.

Lloyd Buzzell | LBuzz463@aol.com
70 Turtle Bay, Branford, CT 06405 | 203/208-5360

Classmates, 

After 45 years teaching at Guilford College, I have joined the ranks of the retired. On March 16, in the middle of our spring break, I was scheduled to give a talk, the second stop on my two-stop speaking tour for a book I wrote about the college’s long-running noontime pick-up basketball game, GEEZERBALL: North Carolina Basketball at its Eldest (Sort of a Memoir). COVID-19 had arrived, and many events were being canceled. The woman who had invited me to give the talk called that day to see if I wanted to cancel, and she and I agreed to go ahead with the talk. We did, a surprisingly good crowd showed up (one, a former student, had flown down from New Jersey for this event), and we had a good time. Had it been scheduled just a day or two later, I am sure we would have canceled. By the end of that week, the college had shifted all classes to online instruction, and in almost every way my life and the lives of those around me changed dramatically. 

By the end of April, as I celebrated my 75th birthday, I decided to retire. Then, like many old retired guys, I found myself thinking back to my early days, especially my decision in 1973 to move from Santa Cruz, California, to Greensboro, North Carolina, for the teaching job at Guilford, a Quaker-affiliated school. I realized, quite belatedly, that I was the first Jew hired at the college, and this has led me to write another retrospective account (another “sort of a memoir”), this one titled Jews, Palestinians, and Friends: 45 Years at a Quaker College (Sort of a Memoir). This project has led me to think back to the Jews and the Quakers I knew at Wesleyan. Among the Jews in the class of 1967 were the three Jewish amigos, Don Gerber, Myron Kinberg, and Bernie Steinberg—I could probably name all the other Jewish students in our class as there were not very many. The two Quakers on campus that I remember most clearly (in part because they were the first Quakers I ever knew) were David Swift, a professor of religion I was fortunate to take a course with, and Bill Dietz ’66 (generally referred to by Barbara Davidson as “Doctor Doctor Dietz”). Writing this book helped to take my mind off the woes of my little Quaker college, which is struggling mightily to stay afloat, and also helped take my mind off the woes of our country.

As it turns out, I am not the only one who has retired after a long academic career. Our classmate, Tony Caprio, stepped down in June 2020, after 24 years as the president at Western New England University. Tony was the longest-serving president in the school’s 100-year history. Remaining in office as a college president for 24 years is quite an accomplishment—tenured faculty, if they avoid what typically in the profession is called “moral turpitude,” sometimes hang on until they have to be wheeled out, but college presidents only can continue in their jobs if their Boards of Trustees decide to renew their contracts. Given that the average tenure for a college president these days is down to 6.5 years (it was 8.5 years in 2006), it appears that Tony survived and seems to have thrived in a challenging job. 

At the end of my last set of class notes, I gave a quiz in which I asked for information about “the late Edward McCune ’67” who left $6 million to Wesleyan and allegedly was a classmate of ours. I now have received some info on him which I will share in my next set of notes. Let’s have another quiz, this one with four, perhaps easier, questions. First, who in our class has the most grandchildren?  Second, who since graduation has lived in the most states (for at least a year in each state)? Third, who has been married the most times?

 Finally, the fourth question. I have seen Springsteen five times (always great), Dylan three times (awful each time), and John Prine and James Taylor five or six times. Rick Voigt ’68 tells me that he has seen Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem, a band that includes some Wesleyan alums, five times. What musical performer have you seen the most frequently, and how many times?

 The answers to these questions might help you write your memoirs. Stay safe.

Richie Zweigenhaft | rzweigen@guilford.edu

RICHIE ZWEIGENHAFT | rzweigen@guilford.edu

Two hundred and thirty-two of us graduated on that Saturday, June 5, 1966, 20 pursuing careers in academe, many of those still going strong. Claude Smith, author of eight books and co-editor/translator of two others, has a new book out, Mists on the River by Yeremei Aipin. This collection of Khanty folktales, which Claude helped to translate and edit, his attempt “to keep Siberian literature alive,” introduces “children of all ages to the animal persons of Siberia, among them, Cuckoo Mother, Paki the Bear, and Sandpiper.” David Luft’s new book, The Austrian Dimension in German Intellectual History: From the Enlightenment to Anschluss, will be published this spring. David is “working on two other books: one on Czech intellectual history and one called Modernity’s Shadows: The anti-rational from the nineteenth- to the twenty-first centuries.”

And we have lawyers among the Class of 1966; perhaps few, if any, however, match Clark Byam’s “48 years with same law firm,” Hahn & Hahn. Clark has decided “to go of counsel in 2021.” His “main interests at this point are investing in the stock market, managing some charitable trusts I’m trustee of and trying to improve my golf game and hiking in the hills where I live,” which is Pasadena, California. 

COVID-19 is part of all of our lives, Hardy Spoehr sending an “Aloha” to all from Honolulu and writing that “the beaches are still deserted and the fish and ocean folk are loving it . . . so many turtles. We’re in the midst of our second lockdown in an effort to stem raising levels of COVID-19.” And Zoom has become a part of our lives as well, Harold Potter writing: “Zoom has been a welcome addition to ways to stay connected during the pandemic. Bill Machen, Joe Pickard, Stan Healy, John Howell and I and our spouses have been holding weekly or biweekly cocktail hours fairly regularly on Zoom. . . . It appears that everyone is retired and aging quite gracefully.” Harold adds this good news: “Lee and I do have another grandson, Trevor, born on June 3rd.” 

Barry Thomas also shares some good news “regarding our community support and development work in Burundi. Today we received notification that Dreaming for Change, USA, has been approved for 501 (3)c status by the IRS. This should inject some new energy into our fund raising to support the daily cup of porridge program, the preschool, and the scholarship program for high school girls. . . . . Oh yes, D4C has received a grant from the U.S. Department of State to implement a COVID-19 education and WASH program in the community.”

More good news from Rick Crootof. After successfully having both knees replaced this past winter Sandy Van Kennen “came for a visit yesterday [July 23]. Kittery is only an hour or so from Wolfeboro, so he drove his 1996 Volvo with 263,000 miles (the odometer stopped working he claims!) on a perfect weather day. The air and water temps were both 82 degrees. We had lunch of Linda’s pizza on the deck, and then we got two foam mats and spent two hours in the lake, paddling to the other side, and mostly drifting back with the wind. The knee recovery has gone well, Sandy’s legs are straight again, and he is taller and thinner, looking great, and his usual happy and optimistic self. If you want to see our hero swimming again, here’s the link.

In closing we celebrate the life of Peter “Pedro” Spiller, who died on May 30, 2020, in St. Augustine, Florida. Peter had won his battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but it had left him weakened, and he fell prey to sepsis. I did not know Peter well, but envied his dashing good looks and admire his successful and adventure-filled life. Hardy Spoehr writes: “Pete was an avid paddler and when he and his wife Debbie visited us a year or so ago, we all went paddling together. My cousin was his paddling buddy.” David Griffith recounts: “Peter Spiller was my classmate in CSS. He was a gentleman, truly, easygoing and seemed always to be smiling. I always thought that Peter had a wonderful hidden and powerful intellect, but I honestly don’t think he was seeking to achieve as much as to learn and to enjoy his life. Peter never lost his charm or his sense of humor.” As Rick Crootof poignantly puts it: “That something could take down a guy who could canoe 450 miles in northern Manitoba or Ontario and run 150 mile ultramarathons in Costa Rica in his 70s is disheartening.” Here is a link to Peter’s obituary.

LARRY CARVER | carver1680@gmail.com
P.O. Box 103, Rico, Colorado, 81332 512/478-8968

Fred Nachman called after learning of Hal Gorman’s passing. They were close friends and Chi Psi brothers. Fred sent Donna a lovely message and great photo of Hal pass-blocking for Fred on the gridiron. Fred and wife Linda remain happy and healthy (regular hiking/tennis) in Phoenix. 

 Geoff Geiser writes: “Carole and I celebrated our 54th wedding anniversary this year. Children, Erik and Lynn, and their spouses, Ingrid and Josh, continue to thrive. Grandchildren, Luke and Lauren, graduated from college, and Annika and Zachary are sophomores. Spend our winters in Pennsylvania when not traveling to warmer climates and summers on L.B.I. in New Jersey.”

Rick Borger: “Wife Judy and I are healthy, happy and comfortably retired, living at Cornwall Manor, a continuing care retirement community in Cornwall, Pennsylvania. I am vice president of the residents’ association and teach the AARP Safe Driving course. Each summer we visit our cottage on a pond in central Massachusetts where I grew up.”

Jack Hardin “continues to practice corporate law and to lead Atlanta’s efforts to combat homelessness. Compared to other major cities, Atlanta has had great success in reducing homeless counts. Upon the advent last spring of SARS Cov-2, Atlanta was the first city to test everyone in every shelter and most of the unsheltered, and opened up an isolation hotel and another hotel for the unsheltered. This kept the positivity rate below 2 percent when the general population tested as high as 10 percent, now trending down to 8 percent. Like the nation as a whole, we are facing a potential tsunami of potential evictions and working with landlords, tenants, and philanthropy to attempt to keep people in their homes.

 “A few years ago, I corralled a few of my fellow Wesleyan alums in Atlanta and we created the Greater Atlanta Scholarship that helps Atlanta area students go to Wesleyan. We have three children (including Brett ’91) and six grandchildren.”

Arthur Rhodes: “Retired from seeing patients at Chicago’s Rush University Medical in 2019. Wife Leslie and I are enjoying visiting our combined five children and ten grandchildren in Chicago and New Orleans.”

Guy Archer: “Andrea and I still going strong here in Honolulu—walking several miles most every day, counting the golden plovers, taking online courses, and watching old movies on TV. Last summer we managed a month in Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Austria via Eurail, and never missed a train. Among other European treasures, we saw the all Rembrandt exhibit, the Keukenhof Flower Gardens and heard the Firebird Suite in Amsterdam.”

Tony Shuman: “Very sorry to learn of Hal’s death, and sorrier still to inform you of another recent loss: Bill Brundage. Bill lived an iconoclastic life off-grid on the Island of Hawai’i (the ‘big island’). A champion of self-sufficiency and early environmental consciousness, he expressed this through his own life and in an endless series of letters to the editors of local papers. Over the years we were occasionally in touch, linked by our shared experience in class with Nobby (Norman O.) Brown. Bill never owned a computer, wrote by typewriter, and communicated through surface mail. I know that Guy Archer, also a Hawaii resident, was able to see Bill on his birthday last January. His daughter, Karla’s, poignant words to me follow:

“It is with deep sadness that I write to let you know that my dad, Frederic William Brundage, passed away on September 18, 2020, at the age of 77. I will always remember my dad’s love for the land and community of friends he found in Hawaiian Acres. He was a man ahead of his time in many ways. He always had a passion for the earth and with many of you, he lived his beliefs in his conservation and living as self-sufficiently and off the land as possible. He was a firm believer in recycling, and I recall him starting a recycling center at the Hawaiian Acres community a long time ago. I have always admired his artful life and skill in this way. My dad also had a passion for truth and always spoke what he believed to be true, which led to a very controversial life indeed! He also was an inspiration to me as a writer and artist and shared with me his love of his land. Thank you all for helping him to live a life of freedom, which he valued more than anything.” 

(Tony continues to teach architecture at the New Jersey Institute of Technology after 30 months as interim dean. He is on sabbatical this year focusing on his work around Newark: development of a physical model of the city; heading the local community development board; co-editing Newark Landmarks (2016); lobbying for the historic Essex County Jail; and promoting “passive house” design for university employees. His family is in good health, with both boys now seniors in college.)

Philip L. Rockwell | prockwell@wesleyan.edu

Those with class notes, please contact: 

Class Notes Editor
classnotes@wesleyan.edu

Rob Siegle writes: “Before the lockdown Rita and I had a wonderful week on the north shore of the Dominican Republic with classmate and fellow radiologist Dan Hottenstein and his wife, Pat. Back in the U.S. we’re doing well. Our kids are employed, our grandkids are in college and beyond, and I work almost full-time as a pediatric radiologist at St. Christopher’s Hospital in Philadelphia. I still enjoy teaching/pontificating to the residents and med students even if it’s by Zoom.”

Jack Jarzavek reports: “Norman, my partner/husband of nearly 56 years, and I have been reading up a storm. As a COL member, literature has always been a high intellectual priority, and I began 40 years of academic life teaching French, then English and finally as chair of the English Department and founder of the Art History program. Recently, I spent over two months studying W.H. Auden’s poetry and his intellectual development. Norman is reading Gogol in the original and practicing on both our harpsichord and piano for at least an hour and a half each day. Usually we spend half a year at our apartment in Arezzo, Italy, but not for a year. It is a great base from which to travel all around Italy. We both also love to cook, so great meals emerge after martinis every evening. We have a double apartment here in Boston with balconies on which to read and relax. I see Colby and Alice Andrus from time to time. They too are adopted Bostonians.

“There is sadness, however. I have lost my two closest Wesleyan classmates. Bob Sloat, my fraternity brother at Gamma Psi, died two years ago. We still see Caroline for lunch and dinners. Bob Martin died in 2012. He was my freshman roommate and fraternity brother. The three of us had many adventures over the years. I miss them dearly.”

From Allen Tucker in Maine: “Meg and I are keeping well­—she’s a quilter and I’m a software developer and still playing some golf. I also host a monthly Zoom meet-up with my HS class of ’59, which is a lot of fun.

“I just finished reading Eddie Glaude’s new book Begin Again, a narrative about James Baldwin’s struggles with racism in the ’60s and ’70s and its implications for the world today. It’s a powerful book.”

“Since I have been on the West Coast for the last 30 years, I am a little out of touch with my former classmates,” writes George Tapley. “Here’s my news. My wife Jan and I are healthy and weathering the pandemic well. I spend a lot of time doing drawings, photos, and oil sketches of the local scenery; the hills behind Fullerton provide endless visual stimulation. (c.f. georgetapleyart.com). I paint, Jan plays ukulele with various groups on Zoom. We both joined OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) for their mystery book club. Best of all, our two children and four granddaughters are doing well.

I am now reading Zachary Carter’s The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and The Life of John Maynard Keynes (different sort of book for me but I like the Bloomsbury artists and am curious about Keynes and his monetary theory and then and now).”

Walt Pilcher, too, has news. “First, my second novel, The Accidental Spurrt, a Mark Fairley Mystery, was released in late 2019. It’s hilarious (if I do say so myself), a fish-out-of-water story available on Amazon. You’ll be sorry if you miss it.

“Second, Carol and I have moved into a continuing care retirement community in High Point, North Carolina, next door to Greensboro, our home for 30 years. It has about 700 residents and a 9-hole golf course. We love it so far. I’ve always wanted a Jeep Wrangler, but we now have a personal golf cart we named “Happy,” and so that itch has been scratched.”

Bill Roberts and Melissa still live in Middletown, two blocks south of the campus. “I ride my bike on the campus several days a week, and the grounds have been just beautiful since late March as spring 

unfolded and almost all of the students are gone. 

“For two weeks in October 2019, I spent my noon hours in the Usdan Student Center, registering students to vote in the Middletown mayoral election. I was happily astounded by two things­­—the incredible diversity in the student body, and the number of women among them. It is always a very pleasant surprise to see the students return to campus.”

Russ Richey’s latest book is A Church’s Broken Heart: Mason-Dixon Methodism and will appear in the New Room Book series. The book is his 25th as author, co-author, or editor. Russ is now working with Columbia University Press on yet another book project, on several editorial boards and continues teaching at Duke University Divinity School.

JAN VAN METER | bensfamily@aol.com; 212/427-2062

At the beginning of October, coping with the COVID-19 social distancing was a common thread in the handful of comments received this cycle.

Robin Berrington laments being “holed up in my apartment” and says, “the only times I get out, it seems, is to see a doctor or go to the physical therapist.” However, he says there have been bright spots when, “on glorious fall days, I have asked various sets of two or three friends out for a late afternoon drink and conversation. We can take off our face masks and watch the sun go down.” In a comment that many of us probably will nod our heads at, he writes, “It passes for a social life in D.C.” He says, “I hope everybody else has found their own solution for the current emergency.”

 Jim Dossinger and Ginny are in Winston-Salem, “living at a wonderful retirement community called Arbor Acres.” He has been retired from Exxon for 23 years. He writes he is still in contact with Jim Schroeder on a regular basis. Referring to the COVID-19 distancing, he writes, “Our life is constrained like everyone’s due to the pandemic, but we cope with Zoom meetings, classes, and music. I am also into croquet, golf, and soon, fly-fishing for trout.”

Dick Dubanoski checked in to say that he is “just staying hunkered down.” He says he spends time “doing daily two-mile walks and exercises for my various joint replacements, etc.” 

Bob Gause writes that he is still working two days per week as a pediatric orthopedic consultant, which he says is “mostly to continue teaching residents, med students, and family.” Relating to the social distancing, he offers this piece of advice: “To everyone stuck at home, get a dog! A Jack Russell terrier will make you ten years younger.”

The pandemic did not deter hundreds of residents of Branford, NY, from staging a drive-by retirement party for pediatrician Gary Wanerka in front of the local town hall in July. The hours-long parade of former and current patients capped a 38-year local pediatric practice, with one colleague saying, “He’s just a damn good old-fashioned doctor.” (Thanks to ’68 class notes editor Lloyd Buzzell for sending me the local Shoreline Times article on what was a literal and figurative “moving tribute” to Gary.)

DAVID FISKE | davidfiske17@gmail.com
17 W. Buckingham Dr. Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971

Note: Wesleyan received the sad news that David Fiske passed away on December 15. Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family and classmates.

Previously, a search was begun by a classmate for a lost fraternity brother. Paul Boynton wrote, “I remember that he was a tall, lanky, easy-going ‘cowboy’ from W and I liked him a lot, being a farm boy myself. One more clue: He occasionally wore a dark green Stetson worn in prior years while herding sheep.” The reason for this search is that the Stetson was given to Paul, who still fondly wears it and who now wants to express his appreciation to his benefactor. Through the assistance of Emil Frankel, Casey Hayes, Chuck Work, Jack Mitchell, and Tom Spragens, the “lost brother” has been identified as Chris Rich ’63. Contact with Chris Rich is still in the offing so Paul Boynton would appreciate any suggestions regarding contact info.

 Casey Hayes reports: “Bobbie and I just sold our Wellesley home of 51 years to move into a nearby retirement community.”  Reflecting on the past, Casey continues his comments to Paul: “I recall our good times washing dishes together at Eclectic all those years ago. I’m still grateful for all your knowledge of physics and explaining how best to get the grease off those pots and pans. That much has not changed, so I feel that I will have a secure spot in the labor force just in case things turn a bit more troublesome than they are already.” 

Emil Frankel writes: “Kathryn and I remain largely hunkered down in our house in Washington, D.C., getting out occasionally for errands, lunches or dinners with friends—carefully and outside. Mostly, I seem to spend my days at my computer, corresponding with friends, and reading online articles and newspapers. I’m still doing a little writing on transportation policy (I had an op/ed in the Hartford Courant about two months ago on post-pandemic transportation issues), but mostly I have been reading and worrying about politics and the November election. I recently joined a virtual presentation, sponsored by Washington’s famous independent bookstore, Politics & Prose, of classmate Paul Dickson’s new book (The Rise of the G.I. Army). Paul has received great reviews of this book, and the Class of ’61 should be very proud of Paul’s career, as a journalist, historian, and biographer. Kathryn and I are still doing ok and hope that my classmates and their families are healthy and safe in these challenging and dangerous times.”

      In reply, the “immodest” (his claim) author Paul Dickson summarized a few of his reactions to Emil’s comments: “A whale of a good time Monday night talking about my new book at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C. During my Zoom session, I got a gracious message from Emil Frankel. If I seemed a bit befuddled at the outset I could neither see myself or my host and spent the hour speaking to a logo. Just for the record, Nancy cut my hair, picked out my shirt and tie and I tied the tie. Tying the tie was a moment of pre-COVID nostalgia when one actually got duded up for such things.”

George Little and his wife, Carol (Middlebury ’67), continue growing old in place in a circa 1800 Vermont brick colonial house to which they’ve been entrusted since 1976. They met at the University of Vermont Medical School after George’s return from a tour as a Peace Corps staff physician in Africa. Both being pediatricians, they settled in Vermont while crossing the Connecticut River to practice as academic clinicians at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. 

George is currently an active emeritus professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and remains involved in global medicine. He currently serves on the boards of Action, a Kosovo foundation committed to women and children, and Group Care Global, a US NGO focused on group antenatal care globally. He has also edited a book with Ronald M. Green, a fellow Dartmouth retiree, entitled Religion and Ethics in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (2019). 

The Littles have three children—Nicholas ’95, Malaika, and Katrina.  The Littles have enjoyed contact with Dom Squatrito, Bob Carey  ’54 and Jack Woodbury. When a COVID-19 vaccine is sufficiently evaluated and disseminated, they anticipate returning to travel and visits including Middletown. 

Finally, Dave Parker and his wife, Borgny, returned to Middletown in August, settling into Assisted Living at Luther Ridge. “After nearly fifty years editing and writing for community newspapers,” Dave relates: “I thought I’d seen a lot of challenges and change for journalism. Yet, they pale in comparison to the tumult and shocks which now confront not only my old trade but all of us as citizens. I hope and believe my old colleagues, as well as my old John Wesley Club comrades will be keeping the faith.”

Jon K. Magendanz, DDS | jon@magendanz.com
902 39th Avenue West, Bradenton, FL 34205

John Dobson shared the following: “Nici and I continue to love our new home in Ocala, Florida. It is sunny, warm, and flat here, which allows me to walk for my exercise. Because of COVID-19, we are wearing masks and keeping to ourselves, except for visiting our state parks occasionally.” 

A new book, Target Switzerland, written by Bill Walker, has been published. Like Danzig and A Spy in Vienna, it is a novel of political intrigue set in Europe, this time in 1939. It combines real history with a good story and continues the adventures of Paul Muller, a Swiss intelligence agent charged with protecting Switzerland from plots being hatched in Germany but also in Britain and France. More information is available on Bill’s website, authorwilliamwalker.com.

SAL RUSSO | salandjudy@hotmail.com
2700 Kentucky St., Bellingham, WA 98229