Class Notes | 1960s

Class of 1963 Endowed Wesleyan Scholarship Fund
John Lewis Jr. ’21, Newark, NJ

From way out in the deep blue Pacific Ocean, Kaneohe, Hawaii, to be exact, Richard Armsby retired nine years ago after having worked as a clinical psychologist for the Hawaii State government for many years. His work focused primarily on seriously mentally ill citizens who were often also very poor, disabled and thus frequently unable to find or hold work. His wife, Judith, retired too, also worked in the mental health field. She was an MSW with a geriatric case load.  They met while he was still at WESU. She was at Penn State where he transferred to both finish up his bachelor’s degree and start a graduate degree. While

he had only had two psych courses at WESU, the assassination of JFK got him very interested in pursuing a degree in psychology. They got married in 1967. During a couple of summers at grad school, he worked back in Texas for the federal government as a science writer. After they finished getting their terminal degrees, they moved to Hawaii in 1969. Since retirement he spends lots of time reading, getting books—mysteries, adventure stories, and

some non-fiction—from the library to read on his Kindle. He works out three days a week at the gym. About eight years ago, Bill Roberts held a DTD reunion at Bill’s house. Richard has fond memories of that reunion.

Stuart Silver, living in Columbia, M.D., retired in 2014. He worked as a psychiatrist. He and his wife, Ann Louise, have three children: a daughter, 50, a son, 49, and another son, 46, and seven grandchildren, ages 11-22. Visiting and being visited by their offspring, keeps them quite occupied. Stewart met Ann Louise while at WESU. He was 20 and a junior and she was attending Mt. Holyoke. They were married in 1962 and thus he may be the longest continually married of our all our ‘63 classmates. After WESU, Stewart went to Hopkins and got his medical degree in 1966. He was deferred till after med school he was drafted along with approximately 199 other MDs.

Of that group, he and one other were the only two who did not go to Vietnam. They were sent to Alaska, where you may recall there was not that much fighting going on. He said that he and his wife really liked Alaska and while it was not as modernized then as now and travel was somewhat difficult, it was very interesting to them. While in Alaska, his CO once declared that “there will be no more frostbite in this unit!” Also upset at the number of suicides in his command, he sent around a memo that there “were too many suicides” in his command and he wanted “them to stop.”

As his leadership in these areas did not prove effective he was relieved. Stewart left the Army with the rank of major. He used to be a frequent skier, but now facing health issue, he moves around more slowly and cautiously.  He has a stamp collection, enjoys photography, likes to cook and actually admits to doing housework unasked. And over a long period of time in the past, he made a very elaborate, large model of a WWII liberty ship. The question of

which of his children is to carry on ownership of that model is not on his mind yet. The Silvers like to attend operas in NYC and have a farm in upstate New York.

Albert “Red” Erda of Guilford, Conn., retired 10 years ago, He was a consultant in computer usage, litigation, and support. Which means that in preparing a case, lawyers or their minions might have to read hundreds of thousand of pages of documents when preparing for a trial. So, both people have to be hired and files prepared so that computers can be programed to scan the material for keywords and issues. In retirement he still works on the Guilford Land Conservation Trust which seeks, raises money for, receives, and then maintains land donated to the town for permanent tax-free open space. When at WESU, it came to pass that he was advised by Dean Barlow to take some time off after his sophomore year and consider

his motivation for learning. “We called him Dean Furlough,” said Red. During that time off, Red considered joining the Army but his father told him in no uncertain terms to “get a job and learn something about actually earning a living!”

“So, I got a job surveying,” he said. “I liked math and found it easy. Eventually, motivation discovered, I returned to college but thereafter, every vacation I returned to surveying and my boss was always happy to put me right back to work.“

Red and his wife, Ann, have three children: two daughters, ages 51 and 49 and a son, age 46, and seven grandchildren ages 10-19. When he goes to WESU football games, which is reasonably often, he sits with John Driscoll. And while his hair is no longer red, (it’s white), he is still called Red.

John “Jack” Jarzavek retired 10 years ago after a 40-year career teaching (art history, French, English) at the River School in Weston, Mass. After graduating WESU, on a Fulbright he studied Elizabethan literature in the UK at the University of Bristol and then on a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship returned in 1964 to study at Yale where he met his life partner, Norman Dobbs. He and Norman have shared their lives ever since. They got married in 2012. Norman got a degree at 16 from the Royal Toronto Conservatory of Music. And while

Jack was teaching, Norman was in publishing for 36 years, first at Addison Wesley and then Houghton Mifflin. They now split their time between Jamaica Plain, Mass., and an apartment in a 17th-century convent in Tuscany in the town of Arezzo, Italy, which is conveniently between both Rome and Florence. (And hot tip, they are planning to sell it shortly!)

Norman, who plays both the piano and harpsichord has played the Bach Goldberg Variationson Italian television. Both are passionate about classical vocal and operatic music and try to listen to new operas and voices every day.

Jack writes: “We travel extensively throughout Italy and Europe. We will make our first trip to Poland this coming March. We also like to explore the Italian Islands off the Tuscan Coast and Sicily. We will target the large island of Ustica this summer for 10 days. Boston is a very fine opera town so we go to many performances, probably three concerts or operas a month. I lecture at the New England Opera Club once a year and have done so for several decades.”

John Corn died last July after a long progressively worsening, undiagnosed illness. I talked with his older brother, Joe, who said that he was initially not at all that happy with John as his parents had never “asked my permission to have a second son! And all too soon John grew way too interested in my belongings and was slow to understand that he should not mess with them.” Joe said that that beating on John did not seem to have that much of the desired effect he hoped for. Eventually, with time those early problems disappeared and peace prevailed.  Joe said that after WESU, John enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, served for six years,

and was discharged as a captain. John considered the highlight of his Air Force service the time he served in Iran heading up a detachment that maintained the Shaw’s beloved F4 Phantom jets.

John was married twice and had one son, Scott, who sadly died at age 51 a few months before John himself died. John had a second child with his second wife who now lives with her mother in Texas and is much loved by the Joe and the rest of the Corn family. After a successful career in real estate in Chicago and his two divorces, John moved down to Panama in 2015. But as his illness progress, Joe convinced him to move back in 2017 and live with him and his wife Wanda on Cape Cod which John did for eight months. However, as his disease progressed he finally moved to a senior residence in Falmouth, Mass., in 2018.

However, after only a few months, his illness progressed and he had to be hospitalized and he died very quickly. Joe says John loved Wesleyan, college athletics, the Chicago Bears and Cubs, and lived to see the latter finally win a World Series, something many Cubs fans never saw in their lifetime.

Byron S. Miller | tigr10@optonline.net
5 Clapboard Hill Rd., Westport, CT 06880

Class of 1962 Endowed Wesleyan Scholarship Fund
Joseph Scancarella ’21, Wayne, NJ

Robin Berrington writes that 2019 for him will involve “down-shifting into a lower gear.” (As readers of prior reports from him know, “lower gear” for Robin still puts most of us to shame.) He wants to “shed many of my activities” and “focus” on his work as a docent at the Freer/Sackler Gallery in D.C., and a board member of both the Contemporary American Theater Festival and of the Japan and Korean/American Student Exchanges. Highlights of the year included a trip to Umbria in Italy “with a group of old Japanese friends who had hired a guide to take them from Bologna through Urbino and other cities, ending in Rome,” and a return trip to Japan to announce his retirement from the Noguchi Foundation, where he visited Nagano, Kanazawa, and Kyoto.

Bruce Corwin writes that the movie business runs well in the family. He reports his nephew, Brad Fuller ’87, a Hollywood producer, won the 2019 Critics Choice Award for best Sci-Fi or Horror Film—A Quiet Place.

Ever the diligent class president, Bruce reminds us that we are “Aiming for our 60th—but need help.” (Assume he means the planning committee, not getting to the site in walkers!)

David Fiske: “Mary Ann and I in January celebrated our 50th anniversary. I’m still enjoying the beach life in Rehoboth Beach, Del., doing freelance writing and editing, and enjoying granddaughter visits to Washington, D.C.”

Mike Riley wrote to share with classmates his “2020 vision of marital hospitality and Christian neoteny” that he will engage with “online outreach.” He writes, “My card will say: Michael H. Riley, PhD / T’INKER / Christian Neoteny & Marital Hospitality / Theory and practice of visits by self-appointed Quixotic Young to self-respecting Married Couples with a Camelot, Eden, or M-anger to share. 904/315 8945.” He has a very interesting website at maritalhospitality.com.

Finally, a sad note: In the fall, John Magee, who was living in Sequim, Wash., passed away after battling cancer. He is survived by his wife, Bobbie. Dave Hedges heard the news from John’s brother-in-law, Bob Jaunich ’61. Dave writes that John “led a rather free-spirited life, mostly on the West Coast, and including several jobs.” Dave, Phil Calhoun, and Ted Hillman connected with him by phone a few years ago, but “could never entice him back for a Reunion.”

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

Numerous replies were received regarding class members’ participation during the Vietnam era. Readers are referred to the class notes’ previous publication for the initial comments sent in. Additional replies are listed below.

“I’m glad your idea of focusing on Vietnam is bringing in many responses,” writes Larry Wiberg. “Wesleyan was an intense experience and I can still conjure up memories that seem only like last week! I received a medical school and medical training exemption during the Vietnam War.

“For 20 years of my 50-year psychiatric career, I was a psychiatrist for the Denver VA Medical Center Posttraumatic Stress Disorder program, serving a large population of male and female PTSD patients. Some were Korean veterans, but the majority were combat veterans (the women patients from that time were mostly in nursing or medical specialties serving in Vietnam and had taken care of the terminally wounded). The male PTSD patients in our Denver program were primarily combat veterans or veterans who had dealt firsthand with the results of combat. Treatment modalities were medication (marginally helpful; primarily antidepressants, nonaddicting anxiolytics, and sleep aids) and group and individual psychotherapy. When present, substance and alcohol use had to be dealt with concurrently. In doing the talk therapy part I would introduce myself as not having been in combat, but had I been, I am sure my remaining life experience would have been totally altered. It turns out that group therapy with me present, but not that active, was most helpful. The veterans were their own best therapists.

“Imagine being trained to kill, being threatened to be killed, or seeing others killed at an age we all were in our years at Wesleyan. This was the recurrent theme they all shared in one way or another. Granted there were veterans seemingly untouched by the experiences who did not present for treatment at any facility. Among the worst cases I dealt with were service personnel stateside who had to go to the doors of loved ones to announce a death. Vulnerability to PTSD has been hard to pin down in studies. For myself, I joined and retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve Medical Corp. I was a general medical officer for the Denver Marine Corp Reserve. I support some form of mandated federal service though it certainly does NOT have to be military. I look forward to what others in our class have experienced and a hearty ‘hello’ to all my Wesleyan buddies.”

Spike Paranya comments: “I was not really aware of anything to do with Vietnam at first when I entered the Corps. We had visiting officers from several countries in our class at Basic School, and I believe a few were from Vietnam. Of particular note was our End of Basic School Problem. The problem involved leading an amphibious assault onto the shore of a Southeast Asian country. Only two years later did I realize that it was the beginning of plans for actual landings on the shores of North and South Vietnam. I left the Corps in December 1964 and, as the war began to heat up, I went through a period of questioning myself as to where my loyalties lay with or against the growing war. It was about a year later when my Marine Corps loyalty separated. I joined my grad school roommates against the war. About 10 years ago I went to a reunion of Quantico Marine Corps athletes of the ’60s and heard many stories from those on the track team for whom I was the administrative coach. Most were in Basic School at that time, so many went to Vietnam. All the guys I knew returned alive, but everyone there honored one Marine who didn’t, a super guy and athlete who came from New York’s inner city. I watched every bit of Ken Burns’ special on the Vietnam War and was appalled with the politics going on behind our backs.”

Spike goes on to add: “In alumni news, Kathy and I twice got together with classmate Paul Vouros and his wife, Irene, this summer. Paul is just completing a gradual retirement from teaching in the chemistry department at Northeastern University. He has had a wonderful career there and his many graduate students have made him proud with their accomplishments in the field of chemistry.”

“I missed the Vietnam experience, but served five Navy years, including the Cuba blockade instead,” writes John Rogers. “We helped turn away Russian ships and brought U.S. Marines ashore, so I’m really grateful this crisis didn’t lead to something more. I still appreciate Wes, Navy, and business success despite some personal strife, although my 56-year marriage with five kids and 14 grandchildren have led to a wonderful life.”

It seems only yesterday that Bob Johnson and your class secretary were performing on the Venice Symphony stage. Bob died last fall, leaving a void in the southwest Florida community and its musical world. Word has also been received that Foster Morrison died peacefully at home in North Potomac, Md., on Oct. 13. His wife of 48 years, Nancy Lewis Morrison, was at his side.

Stay tuned, classmates, for an exciting conclusion to our Vietnam series in the next class notes.

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

Charles W. Smith Class of 1960 Scholarship
Joseph Ellis ’19, Government, Film Studies

Richard H. Huddleston ’60, P’90 Wesleyan Scholarship
Glenn Smith III ’21, Roxbury, MA

Nici and John Dobson are having a small home built in Trilogy Ocala Preserve, Fla. They look forward to enjoying some warm weather in that location. In early January, John underwent lumbar spinal fusion surgery and is doing well while complying with requirements for very restricted activity. Our best wishes to him for continued recovery.

We are fortunate to have Dave Hohl as our new class agent, since he has always been a strong advocate of Wesleyan. Dave continues to teach two classes in the Baruch College (SUNY system) Great Works Program as an adjunct associate professor. He would like to retire, but recent losses in the stock market and maintenance on his six-bedroom beachfront house in the Hamptons are straining his budget, so he will wait at least another year. Wife Anne continues as director of the French program at Seton Hall University.

Harvey Hull passed away peacefully at Connecticut Hospice on Dec. 17 at the age of 81. He retired after 35 years from the Lillian Goldman Rare Book Library at Yale University School of Law. After retirement he assisted the staff of the Guilford Keeping Society in cataloging their library collection and volunteered at the Guilford Free Library book sales. He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Sara, four children, as well as 10 grandchildren.

Mimi and Rob Mortimer arrived in Hanoi on Rob’s 80th birthday last October to begin a visit of Vietnam and Cambodia. Rob commented as follows: “The U.S. war in Vietnam was one of the great issues along with civil rights facing our class in the decade after our graduation. In some sense the trip was a vindication of my opposition to that war. The good news is that Vietnam is today a dynamic society with a growing economy and beautiful landscapes. Traveling north to south from Hanoi and the lovely Bay of Halong to the pre-colonial capital of Hué and on to Ho Chi Minh City (ex-Saigon) and the Mekong Delta, the names of battle places became the sites of a grand culture. Then we flew on to the longlost Khmer kingdom of Angkor Wat, surely one of the wonders of the world. We crossed paths with Buddhist bonzes, remembering their sacrifices in protest of the war. We returned assured that our activism against the war was the right thing to do in that first decade beyond Wesleyan.”

Ira Sharkansky recently celebrated his 80th birthday. All four of his children and most grandchildren came to Jerusalem from their homes in the States and elsewhere in Israel to join Ira and Varda. It was a time of memories, pictures, and looking forward.

In June 2018 Janet and Bill Walker moved from New York, where they had spent the past 40 years, to Cape Cod. They are both very active and have a large ground-floor apartment that suits them. It is not really retirement, as Bill is actively tracking projects in the Middle East. Janet and Bill will celebrate their 58th wedding anniversary in June 2019. He encourages us to “savor the gifted life we’ve all been privileged to experience since that long ago welcoming address by Vic Butterfield in the chapel in September 1956.”

The big trip of the year for Ann and Bob Williams came in August, when they joined their Russian surrogate family, Elina, Sasha, and two children, at the seaside town of Murter on the Dalmatian coast of Croatia. Their relationship started at Davidson, where they were Elina’s host family in ’94, and they have remained very close. Despite the heat and humidity, it was a marvelous look at another culture where the eastern half of Europe likes to play in summer.

Back in the States, Bob had a scary car accident on Sept. 1, in Maine, when he somehow drove off Route 1 into a signpost, which resulted in a bruised sternum and ribs, and a totaled car. Despite that they managed to have two weeks in Lovell on Kezar Lake at their family camp, Birch Lodge, where they honeymooned in 1960. Time does fly by.

Bob has written a timely book, Useful Assets: The Trump Family, the Russians, and Eurasian Organized Crime (Dorrance Publishers), which will soon be available at Amazon.com.

My deceased wife left an IRA that has been used to fund the Sal and Judy Russo Biochemistry Research Endowment at Western Washington University. It honors my contributions to the early development of the biochemistry program. In addition, it honors the memory of Judy and her devotion to family. The endowment funds will be used for the education of future biochemistry students.

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

Foster Morrison ’61 died peacefully at home in North Potomac, Md., on Oct. 13, 2018. His wife of 48 years, Nancy Lewis Morrison, was at his side.

We thank Foster’s wife for this information.

Douglas H. Sprenkle ’63 passed away on Aug. 16, 2018. A full obituary can be found here.

Jack Meier, Essex, remembers “wonderful Septembers when we arrived back in Middletown—the friendly smiles, feeling happy, and a little nervous. Claudia and I are contemplating warmer places. Our Reunion should have some good music and a counting of our blessings.”

Jim Adkins “is moving from the family home we built. Big, emotional task. Med school reunion, skiing, and diving in future.”

Darius Brubeck’s quartet is “performing in Poland, 60 years after my dad was the first jazz group to go behind the Iron Curtain. I was on the 1958 tour and debuted in Szczecin, so it’s quite personal.”

Andy Cohen is a “nephrologist at the Providence VA and teaches at Brown’s Alpert Medical School. Partially retired, I write op-eds for the Washington Post. Rich Kremer, Orrin Baird, and Andy Burka are friends, and I hope to see everyone at Reunion.”

Jim Weinstein “lives in Hollin Hills, Alexandria. Glass galore on half an acre. Left the heart of big cities for a more bucolic lifestyle. Still maintain a Dupont Circle office, ugh, to commute.”

Steve Knox “found Barlow’s Mother America Night enjoyable and interesting. Wish I had known him better.”

Al Cover is “now in Rockville, Md., to be closer to three grandkids.”

Alex Knopp “visited WWII museums and sites with son Andrew, who’s completing a D-Day screenplay. I serve on the Connecticut Retirement Security Board, which protects workers not covered by a savings’ plan. Still lecture at Yale Law and preside at Norwalk Public Library.”

Charlie Morgan’s “grandson, Jordan Chaussepied, and 414 other young men and women graduated Aug. 24 at Parris Island. Our country is in good hands.”

John Mihalec directs the class “to New York Times article about Gordy Crawford’s Olympics memorabilia collection. Search: private collector donates.”

Harold Davis is “alive and kicking. Do some board work to help inner-city youth. Hang out with grandson Julian. Life remains a blast.”

Barry Checkoway is “the Arthur Dunham Collegiate Professor of Social Work and Urban Planning at University of Michigan, where I direct programs addressing segregation and diversity in Detroit.”

Bill Sketchley “still enjoys West Palm Beach life. Health good. Still have my hair. Probably won’t make the 50th but best wishes to everybody, whether they attend or not.”

Jim Drummond is “back in private law practice and working on a novel with unprecedented momentum. I augment Austin’s fabled weirdness and support progressive causes. I’m in touch with Cliff Saxton ’68, my predecessor as Argus editor, as well as Jeff Richards and Bruce Hartman. I hope to make my first Reunion in 2019.”

Bob Watson “has retired from Columbia but keeps a private psychology practice. Super busy Jane promises to cut back. Daughter Joann is a psychology postdoc in Seattle. Son Mark is in business in Cartagena and getting married in January.”

Mac Thornton “transferred to Stanford the middle of our junior year. Still working, as I have a junior and senior in high school.” Mac and I share a Sept. 6, 1947 birthday.

Bruce Hartman has retired from law and published several novels, one, The Devil’s Chaplain.

John Bach believes “one major benefit of a liberal education is preparing people for lifelong partnerships and sustaining love.”

Mike Fink wrote, “Susan and I sold the family home and moved to a townhouse in Philly. Excited but so much stuff. The city is fun. Katey graduated cum laude from University of South Carolina, passed the boards, and is now a certified athletic trainer. We are dismayed by the tone of political discourse on all sides. This is not how a Republic should be.”

Jay Edelberg wrote, “After graduating from Wesleyan, I attended UConn dental and medical schools, getting both a DMD degree and an MD degree. I then did a residency in emergency medicine in Jacksonville, Fla., which I completed in 1978. I practiced in Jacksonville and St. Augustine for 29 years. We moved to Baton Rouge, La., in 2007 where I took a job as a medical officer for The Schumacher Group, providing leadership training, setting up trauma centers, and practicing emergency medicine. I practiced full-time as an emergency physician for nearly 40 years until November 2017 when illness forced me to stop. We moved back to Jacksonville, so I could receive care from Mayo Clinic there.

“Personally, I remarried in 1981 to Caral, and we have been married 38 years. Between us we have three kids. Erik ’91 is from my first marriage, 48, living with wife Amy and two grandchildren in Portland, Ore. He’s a PhD chemical engineer. Michael, 50, lives outside of Atlanta with wife Vicky and two grandkids and is CEO of a healthcare company. Tracey, 47, lives in Baton Rouge with a grandchild. We raised Tracey’s first two sons. Tyler is a rapper and musician. Josh is a senior at Southern University in Baton Rouge. Caral and I have been so blessed to have had the opportunity to raise them and attend Tyler’s performances and cheer on Josh as an all-star basketball and baseball player.

“On a personal note, I was diagnosed in 2014 with multiple myeloma, a type of bone cancer. After four rounds of chemotherapy, then a stem cell transplant, I was in full remission. But my disease is aggressive and has relapsed twice. But the oncologists at Ochsner (in Louisiana) and now Mayo in Jacksonville have enrolled me in clinical trials that seem to be working. I am lucky to be getting great medical care. I feel very blessed. I hope to attend our reunion in 2019, but that will depend on my health.”

Gail and Jim Martello “enjoy winters in Sarasota with daughter Jenny. See Patty and Paul Nimchek. Hi to all.”

Peter Pfeiffer wrote in after my deadline: “. . . an old friend gave Nick Browning and me tickets to seats right behind home plate in Fenway park last September. (Too bad I don’t follow baseball . . . and I was nominated for Logger of the Year which is quite an honor for a Maine woodcutter. We’ll find out in December if I won. Nick and I are both thinking of coming to Reunion. I’m sure there will be some interesting conversations there.”

Rainy, cold, fall morning. Pants and turtleneck for the first time in months. Carol and Maurice Hakim ’70 stop on their return from West Palm. We plan Thanksgiving at their historic manse in Clinton. Professor Buel has returned from a U.K. walking tour. A get-together with him, Phil Dundas ’70, and Rich Frost ’70 looms.

Finally, praise to Joe Reed, I open As I Lay Dying. Then Katy Butler ’71 for Knocking on Heaven’s Door, a memoir/polemic about her parents, Jeffery and Valerie Butler’s, final years. “Knock, knock, knocking on heaven’s door. Knock, knock, knocking on heaven’s door.”

Love always,

Charlie Farrow | charlesfarrow@comcast.net

11 Coulter Street, #16, Old Saybrook, CT 06475 

Let us here plunge willy-nilly into the Reunion, noting only that while I made a point of circulating, I know I missed dozens of classmates and apologize: Ted King—a surgeon unable to practice his art for some time due to a stroke—spoke to the class on doing what you can. Andy Gaus was there—editing and other literary endeavors in the Boston area. Steve Carlson, a lobbyist from Sacramento, looked 45. Said the chaos in Washington is great for business. Everyone wants him to assure them that the End Days are not upon us.

Talked to Eric Conger about the meaning of life and the structure of reality. He spoke for many of us when he said his kids were his biggest achievement: Eric and Stuart Ober performed a play—set in a jail cell filled with deep references—that Eric wrote and performed with Bob Helsel 50 years ago. (Eric said it was as slap-dash and juvenile then as it is now). Speaking of deep references: enjoyed seeing Mark Taylor—taught at Williams for years (and still living there) but now at Columbia—as he actually understands all those philosophers with whom I struggled during my div school phase.

Bill Carter was there, down from Hanover; remains active in international development through an organization he helped found back in the day. And Chris Palames was there with his wife—from Northampton. His life-work has been to enable independent living among those who might be viewed as handicapped. My Judy takes any chance she can to corner John Lipsky (recently retired from the IMF) for scuttlebutt about the world’s stage. Bleak.

Paul Jarvis, a Chicago-area psychologist in private practice, followed someone’s good advice: If you are going to marry an academic, make sure they are the author of a standard text that goes into multiple editions. Their kids are Carleton grads—a Minnesota school a lot like Wesleyan but a little better. Eric Blumenson is very happily still at Suffolk in a position that has no responsibilities and no compensation—writing and doing the kinds of things Eric always does. Talking about getting out of Boston winters to Santa Monica.

I caught up with John Steele, an architect/builder who has enjoyed his last 31 years in Burlington, Vt. Cap Cline is a physician whose work-life and retirement has been in the charming, historic town of Frederick, Md. Chris Thomas has a sweet story: He and his wife returned to their hometown of Meadville, Pa., where he was a primary care physician for 35 years. Don Logie, a retired Hartford-area insurance exec, got an alumni service award. Involved with Toastmaster’s and lobbying Wes to reinstate a public speaking requirement.

Chi Psis normally do not embrace the likes of me, but Wig couldn’t restrain himself. Barry Edwards, who worked in finance, was in from Portland, Ore. I’d give him the prize for the best head of hair. And Bob Knox, a still-practicing lawyer and still-running through the forests of Marin County, would garner my award for the most minimalist head of hair. Bob was a hockey player, on the same line as Peter Corbin, a renowned painter of fishing and wildlife scenes from Millbrook, N.Y., whose blonde/white hair has gone gray/white and looks great.

Frank Phillippi got an alumni service award for his many efforts on our behalf. A semi-retired journalist/reporter/videographer/blogger, he’s had fascinating career with stops at the Watergate hearings, Dukakis’ campaign, Kiplinger’s and the Newseum. I heard a lovely anecdote about Michael Roth ’78 from one of you and met him. Super-smart and personable; seems to be doing his level best to keep the place chugging along.

I must turn from celebratory frolics to more serious matters: In January, we lost Oliver “Rawley” Thomas; in April, Steve Kidd; and, in June, Ken Almgren.

Don Logie remembers Rawley, his KNK brother and sophomore year roommate, as a good basketball player and always interested in financial matters. Thus, it was no surprise that, after a degree from Carnegie Mellon, he chose a career in finance, working for the Boston Consulting Group, and the food distributor SuperValue outside Chicago.

Steve was drafted and spent two years at the Pentagon, followed by a stint at Brookings, then Wharton, some time at Cooper and Lybrand, and then to smaller consulting companies in the Washington area, where he specialized in federal financial accounting systems. Moving to Arizona five years ago to be near his only child and very much enjoying the Southwest, he suffered a series of medical setbacks after a fall. His wife, Elizabeth, observed “he died as he lived, quietly and with great dignity.”

Ken was devoted to his Swedish culture, gardening, and his show dogs. Noted for his accepting demeanor, humor, and style, he was a naval corpsman and then communications officer at Subic Bay and aboard the USS Waddell. He held a master’s in economics and, after moving to Annapolis in 1980, was the CFO of Arinc and then the National Association of Broadcasters for decades before retiring.

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

We begin with a tip and a paean, both from John Knapp. The tip is timely, a way to keep in touch with one another. “While we were at Wesleyan,” John writes, “Dale Walker, Bill Baetz and I were the best of friends, but time and tide took us apart. I live in Chicago, Dale in Albany, and Bill in Roanoke, Va. Recently, we tried getting together and were successful, but it was cumbersome, schedules were difficult to coordinate, etc. However, Dale, through his mission work in Albany, knew of the website uberconference.com, a service that puts up to ten participants together for free (at least no one has charged any of us money).”

As for he paean, it is John’s beautifully written 1,107-word account of “What Went Right” in our Wesleyan education during those magical years 1962 to 1966, the heart of that education, John rightly points out, being interactions with the faculty. John quotes Spike D’Artheny ’64 writing “to the Argus on the occasion of a campus-wide debate about whether or not George Lincoln Rockwell, an American Nazi, should be invited to speak on campus: ‘The aim of education is to endanger one’s soul in an atmosphere of enlightened discourse.’ That’s what Wesleyan did for me, it endangered my soul, not only in an atmosphere of enlightened discourse but also one of support that gave me the self-confidence to meet a rapidly changing world with confidence in my ability to handle its challenges. I was so fortunate to have that experience. Unless my experience was completely at odds with those of other classmates, I suspect that this is a widely shared perception.”

With the privilege of such an education comes, John writes, the obligations “to acknowledge the extraordinarily privileged place and time in which we found ourselves. We do this by more of us telling more stories about interactions with faculty from which broader themes of what excellence in education was might emerge. Second, we should reflect on and analyze those themes with an eye to recommending how they translate into promoting as valuable experience to our grandchildren.” Please read John’s entire paean online.

Essel Bailey is doing us proud once again, being selected to serve on the Wesleyan Board of Trustees. In commiserating with me about the forest fires in Colorado, Essel tells me, which I had not known, that last summer the “Tubbs Road fire in Calistoga, Calif. . . started just 1.5 miles from our house and eventually burned up to the edge of our vineyards but fortunately, vineyards are fire breaks, and except for the loss of grapes to the smoke overhanging Knights Valley, we were fine.” With that good news comes more, Essel writing that “both Robert Parker and the Wine Spectatorhave discovered Knights Bridge Winery and recently rated our 2015 and 2016 Chardonnays at 95 points!”

Congratulations as well to Rick Crootof, his daughter’s wedding having taken place on September 21 “at the Battery in NYC . . . She and Jason will move to their brand new home in the Raleigh area, providing us another way station on our annual migration to Sarasota.” After the wedding the peripatetic Dr. Crootof and his wife, Linda, will spend 5 days in Boulder and Estes Park with Norwich friends whose son’s wedding we missed last year when my pacemaker got recalled. Down to FL the end of October or early November (in time to vote!), followed by a month cruise on the east coast of Australia, from Tasmania up to Papua New Guinea joining two sets of friends we met on two previous cruises in the last 5 years.” Life is good!

Barry Thomas writes that he “Enjoyed [my] commentsabout 17th century English poetry. These days I am finding great pleasure digging deeper into the American economic history I studied oh so many years ago with Professor Lebergott.” I wonder how many of us continue to explore topics sparked by Wesleyan faculty. Barry along with classmates Frank Bell, Arthur Clark, Frederick Hausman, John Lapp, andJohn Neff live in North Carolina. We wish them well in this trying time.

A fitting closing in an all too short note from Donald Craven: “All the best to you and all of our classmates. I have great memories!”

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

P.S. Here John Knapp’s paean to our Wesleyan education.

I wanted to get back to you, reacting to your comments about cherishing the various faculty members who reached out to you while you were at Wesleyan. To both of us, and so many others, the faculty embodies such an important part of our “Wesleyan experience.” Most of us have our own personal Nathanael Greenes to thank for equipping us to cope with the complexities of the world in which we have lived.

At our fiftieth reunion, I attended a discussion about “Wesleyan: What went wrong.” It was a rather doleful, if accurate, presentation about financial missteps that frittered away significant financial resources. My reaction, then and now, would be to talk about “Wesleyan: What went right.”

My wife and I often reflect on the idea that, at least from the point of view of creature comforts, we have lived a life of unparalleled privilege in the history of the world. If you were to choose a time, place, and racial profile into which you would want to be born, it might be to be white, middle or upper middle class, and American in the post-World War II era. It seems to me that the same applies to education: if you were to choose a time and place to attend college, it might well have been Wesleyan University from 1962 to 1966.

It was a relatively simple world in September, 1962, wasn’t it? Three hundred classmates (all but three of whom, I think, were white), mixers with Smith and Mount Holyoke, fraternities to organize social lives, Saturday afternoons derisively cheering “Hey, diddle, diddle, Dooley up the middle.” But also a curriculum with innovations such as the integrated program, the colleges, and the well-beloved “Science for the Humanist.” I went to many of those classes and learned from Joe Webb Peoples how to read layers of earth. It was my only real experience with science.

By June 1966, the world had changed: the Cuban missile crisis, the Kennedy assassination, the civil rights movement, Vietnam, the beginnings of the sexual revolution, drugs, and other challenges to the complacent assumptions of 1962. As a matter of fact, I have often speculated on the value of a carefully drawn up sociological/psychological survey of the Wesleyan classes of 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, and 1968. The resultant book would make fascinating reading.

What is remarkable to me is not that we were sheltered from the world turning upside down, but that we were accepted so often as coequals by an exceptionally talented faculty that took the time to meet us where we were developmentally and enter into conversations that have equipped us to deal with change, whatever the topic. It wasn’t just high-profile events such as Martin Luther King’s well-publicized visit, as compelling as that was. It was hours over coffee in Downey House wondering with a professor about what T.S. Eliot actually was saying about Profrock, smoking cigars in Willard Wallace’s office as we sliced and diced what the “fog of war really meant, a seminar that Norm Miler, Joe Smith and I proposed to Edward T. Gargan that he supervised for a semester out of the goodness of his heart, dinners in faculty homes, and excursions to Honors College to sit and talk with the famous. Anne Freemantle once offered me a job in Ulan Bator on one occasion, and she was serious. On another, I spent a Thanksgiving with Jim Lusardi and his wife singing at their piano. I sat on a couch between R.R. Palmer and Hannah Arendt at Gargan’s home as they debated the meaning of the French Revolution. Nathanael Greene and his wife gave Al Burman and myself a dinner I will never forget after we shared the Dutcher prize in history. The list is endless. Spike D’Artheny said it well when he wrote to the Argus on the occasion of a campus-wide debate about whether or not George Lincoln Rockwell, an American Nazi, should be invited to speak on campus: “The aim of education is to endanger one’s soul in an atmosphere of enlightened discourse.” That’s what Wesleyan did for me, it endangered my soul, not only in an atmosphere of enlightened discourse but also one of support that gave me the self-confidence to meet a rapidly changing world with confidence in my ability to handle its challenges. I was so fortunate to have that experience. Unless my experience was completely at odds with those of other classmates, I suspect that this is a widely shared perception.

It doesn’t seem to be just happenstance that so many members of the Class of 1966 have repaid this faculty investment in us with lives dedicated to the service of others. When so many give of themselves to you, you, in turn, give back to others. It’s a generational hand-me-down.

As we get near the end, I think we have two responsibilities. First, to acknowledge the extraordinarily privileged place and time in which we found ourselves. We do this by more of us telling more stories about interactions with faculty from which broader themes of what excellence in education was might emerge. Second, we should reflect on and analyze those themes with an eye to recommending how they translate into promoting as valuable experience to our grandchildren. Where, for example, should resources go. It wasn’t fancy dormitories, seventeen different food choices at every meal, or state of the art athletic facilities that I remember about Wesleyan. It was Nat Greene leaning into the podium as you waited, pencil poised, for the dreaded “I would argue” to issue forth, knowing full well that the next question would be “what do you think?” It was Ed Gargan puffing on his pipe with his feet up in his office, starring off into space and saying “You know, Jack, you might be right about that, but you might also be wrong. Tell me more about what you’re thinking.” “Think well,” he used to say, “always think well.” That was Wesleyan for me.

All the best,

Jack

Dear Classmates, Thank you to the following for the great response to my request for news:

Brian Baxter: “For over 50 years I told myself to write about the impact Wesleyan has had on my life. So, under the heading of better late than never:

“After a 42-year career as a top executive in state and local government in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York City in areas ranging from city management to labor relations to finance to human services, I retired six years ago. I was amazed to discover that the world was able to move forward without my continuing contribution, and my only regret now is that I didn’t retire earlier.

“The day after I retired from full-time work, my wife and I left for a month-long home exchange with a couple from Amsterdam, who lived in our home in Sarasota, Fl., for the month that we lived in their home in Amstelveen, a suburb of Amsterdam, with their four cats and several fish. We also ‘inherited’ several neighbors who welcomed us into their lives, while we enjoyed having the time for a leisurely exploration of the music, museums, and culture of Amsterdam and several nearby cities.

“During the past six years, we have developed lasting friendships through month-long home exchanges with three families in Paris, one in Vienna, one in Dresden, one in The Hague, one in eastern Maine, and one in the Upper East Side in New York City . . .

“We split our time between condo communities in center city Philadelphia and on Little Sarasota Bay on the west coast of Florida, when we are not enjoying home exchanges or other travel. We have become very involved with an amazing community of . . . condos in Sarasota known as Pelican Cove, where . . . I am serving as president of the board . . . My wife, Ilene, is the chair of the steering committee . . .

“Building on my stint as a health care lobbyist for nonprofit human service agencies and urban hospitals serving large numbers of Medicaid patients, I have spent the last five years working as a part-time consultant for the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania, working on a campaign called #IWantToWork that is working to reshape public policy in Pennsylvania relating to employment for people with disabilities.

“Looking back, I credit my experience at the College of Social Studies for preparing me for a very satisfying career in public service. The five-page papers that we were required to submit each week, making an argument and supporting it, was excellent preparation for the many policy memos I wrote to governors and legislators over the years . . .”

Jeff Kessler: “. . . still in the active practice of neurology. Four married children and seven grandchildren help distract me from my deteriorating golf game. Have received really nice phone calls from members of the teams that I have been able to support in addition to the school itself. My daughter, Vicki ’07, and her husband, Evan Browne ’05, are constant reminders of the special gift of what Wesleyan imparts to each of us for a lifetime.”

Arthur Rhodes: “Still seeing patients at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, where I am professor of dermatology and senior attending. Mostly patients with melanoma, or at high risk. Leslie and I have nine grandchildren between us, both in Chicago and New Orleans.”

Clyde Beers: “Since retiring, I’ve become an avid (vegetable, fruit, and berries) gardener. Up to this year, almost no problems. This year, unfortunately, I’m at war with critters . . . I think it is all the rain we have had, but maybe it just took time for them to find our ‘food in a raised bed.’ The groundhogs and rabbits wiped me out of my first crop of broccoli, zucchini, lettuce, carrots, and cilantro. They later attacked the cucumbers and tomatoes, but by that time my defenses were vastly improved.

“Donna and I now are delighted to have three children and their families, including eight grandchildren. The latter are stretched out from almost in college to a three- and five-year old.”

Carl Hoppe: “In March this year I left my Beverly Hills office of 42 years and moved my office closer to home. In four-and-a-half years I will probably hang it up. Our youngest, Colette, has completed a two-year assignment at NIH and entered an oceanography program at USC. Our oldest, Kathryn, is tenured at Green River College in Washington. The middle girl, Anne, has left Rupert Murdoch’s Harper Collins and is senior book editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in NYC. Diane and I have reduced practices. Diane is active in community issues. I help her out with that and play tennis three times a week. Life is good.”

Gar Hargens:“. . . 1965 class notes in the recent Wesleyan. . . was particularly meaningful to me. Win’s account of building for Habitat took Missy and me back a year ago to a similar adventure in Northern Cambodia . . . we didn’t have wheelbarrows, but instead carried bags of sand and cement to the middle of the dirt floor and mixed a concrete soup. Maybe it was the 90-degree heat and humidity, but by next morning the slabs had miraculously cured enough to stand on for the final ceremony. The Cambodian family were moving from a shack that was constantly flooded. With a toilet and cold water tap, they were ecstatic with their simple space.

“We came home from those three weeks only to learn of Kirt Mead’s passing and jump right back on a plane. Dave Dinwoodey’s words beautifully described Kirt’s service and the fellowship and love surrounding his family. I spoke to Susan the other day and she had just finished reading your notes and totally agreed. She said the support of her daughters and the Meads’ great network of friends has helped deal with the shock and pain. She was about to head overseas and visit familiar places and friends there. We agreed to meet up in Nice next April, one of her favorites.

“Dave Good and I meet for lunch regularly. David was head of Austrian Studies at the University of Minnesota. He remembers interviewing one of our firm’s founders, Elizabeth “Lisl” Close who grew up in her parents Alfred Loos house in Vienna. Close Associates is 80 years old this year and I’ve been part of it for fifty. Missy says I can’t stop now because ‘architects don’t get good until they’re 80,’ like Frank Lloyd Wright. Great . . .”

Bruce Patterson:“Martha and I bought a condo in Florida in 2015. In Osprey, just south of Sarasota. Love it. Martha, the good one, walks early and regularly sees Stephen King on his walk with his dog. Nice, friendly guy. Still spend half year in Connecticut since both kids live in Stamford. We’re very lucky. Will probably downsize in Connecticut.”

Jim Stewart: “Thought it might be worth noting that this summer I was recognized for 50 years of service with my law firm of Pullman & Comley, LLC, in Bridgeport, Conn. Daughter, Kristen Stewart Barbarotta ’00, and daughter, Courtney Stewart Dutt, Trinity ’03, both practice in my field of trusts and estates here in Connecticut.”

Great to hear from Bird Norton, one outstanding athlete and friend: “Things going well as we all hit 75! My so-called depression has not come back since that wonderful 50th Reunion. Any one hear anything more about Bill Brundage? I wonder how he did through all those natural catastrophes on the big island of Hawaii.”

David Gross: “’Retired’ after 32 years as a professor of English at the University of Oklahoma in 2004. Returned to my home state of Maine at that time. Since then I have taught two courses in the Honors College at the University of Maine each semester, as well as two online for Oklahoma. I even served as interim dean of the UMaine Honors College for a while. As much as I love Maine, I’ve become sick of the winters . . . so at the end of this academic year I will really retire, and Stephanie and I will relocate to the Texas Hill Country . . . Because I started in the Class of ’64, it is with friends and fellow Betas from that class that I have stayed in touch. I see John Schacht ’64 and Ken Kekke ’64 on visits to Iowa City . . . and have had several nice long phone conversations recently with my freshman year roommate, Dave Best.”

David Osgood: “I just finished reading Bad Stories: What the Hell Just Happened to Our Country. Steve Almond ’88, the author, is a Wes Tech alum. Except for staunch Trump supporters, I think most will find this a good, thought-provoking read.”

Rick Borger: “Judy and I are enjoying life at Cornwall Manor in Cornwall, Pa., after having lived in Jerseyville, Ill., for a number of years following my retirement in 2004 from The Hill School in Pottstown, Pa.”

Bertel Haarder:Brief resume—“Junior year at Wesleyan 1964-1965; 37 years as Danish MP since 1975; seven years in the European Parliament.; 22 years as Danish cabinet minister, including 15 years as Minister for Education and Research. Educational reforms were deeply inspired by the Wesleyan experience.”

Steve Badanes: “Giving a lecture at Wesleyan in October. Invited by Elijah Huge, who teaches architecture at the college . . . Still running the Neighborhood Design/Build Studio every spring at University of Washington (ndbs.be.washington.edu) and teaching in Vermont at the Yestermorrow Design/Build School (yestermorrow.org) every August. (Saw Jim Bernegger there this past summer). Enjoying life on Whidbey Island and working in the studio, doing some woodturning, furniture, and trying to make some art. Linda is busy in her studio, beekeeping, and in the garden.”

Guy Archer: “Andrea and I took a trip to Winnipeg, Ottawa, Portsmouth, N.H., Boston, and Bristol, R.I., for the month of July. We’re keeping fit walking up and down Diamondhead Crater four or five times a week—better than joining an exercise club.”

Philip L. Rockwell | prockwell@wesleyan.edu