Class Notes | 1960s

The recent controversies around the playing of the National Anthem before NFL games has added a coincidental factor to my news from classmate Lou D’Ambrosio. Lou was invited to sing the National Anthem before a MLB game in Angel’s Stadium in Anaheim, Calif., in June. He also sang, “Take Me Out to The Ballgame” during the seventh inning stretch, and he included a video of the event. He said, “I had the honor and privilege of singing our National Anthem.” It is our National Anthem, and it’s always a choice in how to pay respect to the ideals it brings to mind.

Lou celebrated his 45th wedding anniversary with his lovely wife Christy, “reliving our past honeymoon in beautiful Carmel.” They also went up to Napa, Calif., to visit with Steve Humphrey ’63 and wife Ginny, where they played golf and sampled lots of tasty wines. Lou and I played with Steve on Wesleyan’s baseball team in 1962-1963, with Steve being a bulldog on the pitcher’s mound, and a pleasure for me to be his catcher.

I received a photo of Lou lunching with Wink Davenport and Jay McIlroy, all with wide smiles of retiree contentment. Unfortunately, they informed me of news about Jim Reynolds and his wife, Patty, who are facing serious health issues. Our prayers go out to them.

Oliver “Chips” Wood Jr. and spouse Crete have retired from the fast lane of real estate in Carmel, Calif. They are building a home south of Pueblo, Colo., on the Saint Charles River where Crete was born. They offered an open invitation to drop in and enjoy the vistas in their state.

And congratulations to David Skaggs on receiving the 2017 Distinguished Service Award from the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress at its annual meeting on September 27 in D.C.

My wife, Becky, and I drove from Florida to Lafayette, Ind., in mid August, to attend a fantasy football draft with my brother-in-law and other educators, in a league we’ve been a part of for a number years. The main reason for the trip was to attend the wedding of Becky’s nephew just east of Indianapolis two weeks after our draft. My wife came up with something to do in the interim gap of the schedule.

We took an Amtrak train from Lafayette to Union Station in Chicago, and connected to the California Zephyr heading for Emeryville, Calif. The latter leg of the journey took 51 hours which included meandering through the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and the Sierra Nevada mountains, while we rode and slept in coach seats. We adapted to life on board a train, and fashioned plans to take train trips in the future. We spent two evenings and a full day in the San Francisco area, returning to Chicago on the Zephyr for another 51-hour adventure. We’ve entertained friends by retracing our adventure for them.

After the wedding in Indiana, we delayed driving back to Florida, as someone named Irma visited the state in an unwelcome manner. Upon our return, we had lots of cleanup to do from the trees around our house that the winds thinned out. Our house somehow was spared damage, including the new roof we replaced in July.

I submitted these notes on the morning of the mass shooting in Las Vegas, with the loss of countless lives. Once again, I found myself praying for the victims of this ugly event. This is in contrast to some wonderful people I met in our recent adventure. I find in myself the value of having a personal relationship with the God of the Bible, beyond a religion about God. I find comfort in the good news about my Savior.

TED MANOS, M.D. | ted_manos@yahoo.com

Russ Richey and Merle are back in Durham, N.C., after 12 years in Atlanta. Their son lives in Durham within walking distance and their daughter lives out in Denver. Merle’s father held numerous public offices in North Carolina, including governor. On a regular basis, they go to a house in Sunshine, N.C., that Merle’s family owns. “It’s a tree farming area and that’s our business there.,” says Russ. When not tree farming, Russ is still researching and writing about American Methodism. Being involved in religion is practically an automatic occupation for Russ’ family.

Laman Gray works in an administrative capacity at the Louisville Cardiovascular Innovation Institute, overseeing financial matters and advising on ongoing research in stem cells aimed at improving heart functioning. He and wife Julie have three daughters and four grandchildren. Laman and Julie like to take one major trip each year and have been to the Arctic, the Antarctic, China, and Cambodia to name some of their trips. Laman has a rather unique and very time-consuming hobby. Working only from plans, not kits, he builds very large Royal Navy 17th- and 18th-century ship models.

George Kozlowski recalls his years at WesU as a “great experience, the second most important experience in my life (the first being my marriage!).” He was a math major, loved the College of Quantitative Studies, and worshipped Professor Bob Rosenbaum, then the head of the math department. George, a professor of math at Auburn, retired in 2007. He is helping two colleagues who are developing a computer program for mathematicians and still writes articles for math journals. George’s wife Yvonne, whom he met at Auburn where she worked as a librarian, retired in 2003. They married in 1962. The aforementioned number-one event in George’s life was life was his marriage. They have two daughters, one living in the suburbs of New Orleans and the other in the suburbs of Atlanta.

Living in Berkeley, Calif., Tom Hoeber spent most of his career publishing the California Journal. He retired in 2005, but still works for the alumni association of Cal State, East Bay, doing administrative work.  He and his wife of 52 years, Maru, take at least one big trip each year, frequently with the Sierra Club. A recent trip was to the Czech Republic, hiking from Vienna to Prague, 200 miles in 10 days, “with lots of bus rides and nice hotels each night.” They have three children and two grandchildren, and another on the way. They have a cabin up in the Sierra Mountains near the Donner Pass. Up there, Tom is president of the homeowners’ association. Tom and his former roommate, Bob Gelbach of Connecticut, see each other when either one visits to the other’s coast.

Sad news and memories: Robert Sloat passed away. After WesU, Robert got an M.Ed. from UConn, eventually becoming a teacher, administrator and chair of the arts faculty of Pomfret School in Connecticut. He’d been sick for two years, but when the doctors said there was nothing further they could do, Robert decided it was time to enter hospice. He died August 17.

Caroline, his wife, offered lots of recollections of her husband.  Robert’s father, Frederick T. Sloat, class of 1927, had been very interested in theater, and their family had gone to the opera when Robert was young. As Robert showed such an interest himself in theater, Jerry Newton, class of 1927 (later to be Robert’s father-in-law), noticing that interest suggested he seek work at Camp Pinnacle in New Hampshire which had a very strong summer theater program. There Robert was put in charge of creating a new production every week. He did a lot of directing and got very involved creating and conducting electronic music.

Upon his retirement from Pomfret in 1976, he continued to be very active in community theater, generously sharing his knowledge of technical matters with other groups in Northeast Connecticut. He directed and conducted productions at the Bradley Playhouse and served as a board member and technical director for P/Arts. After graduating from WesU, he returned a few times to work with Dick Winslow ’40, whom he admired. They worked together to create electronic music for productions at the ’92 Theater. Caroline recalls going to WesU to see the performance of one of their collaborative works.

Our 55th Reunion is coming up on May 24-27, 2018. It’s not at all too early to mark it on your calendar and consider attending, or perhaps even make your attendance plans now! I plan to attend “God willing and the creeks don’t rise” (an expression I learned years ago from the above-mentioned Russ Richey, when we were roommates).

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

NEWSMAKERS | 1960s NEWSMAKER EUGENE STANLEY ’62 Eugene Stanley ’62, received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Leicester in July. Stanley has had a long academic career teaching physics, physiology, chemistry, and biomedical engineering at MIT and Boston University. His main research focus is the statistical physics of materials. Stanley is an honorary professor at Eotvos Lorand University and at Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Pavia, and is a chair or member of several science organizations. Stanley majored in physics at Wesleyan and earned his PhD from Harvard University.

Jim Dossinger is living in a retirement community in Winston-Salem, N.C., near two of his three children and two grandsons and “a new grand dog.” His third child and two granddaughters are in D.C. He is involved with the Winston-Salem Symphony, where his “major project” at the moment is the selection of a new music director. He says, “When there is time I try to play golf (badly) and fly fish for trout.”

Bill Everett has published Mining Memories on Cyprus 1923-1925: Photographs, Correspondence, and Reflections in a Kindle e-book format on Amazon.

The book is based on his grandfather’s two-year effort to reopen the ancient mine that provided copper for Agamemnon’s armor (Iliad, chapter 11.) Bill’s efforts to put this memoir together “have led to many meaningful relationships with people on Cyprus as well as opening parts of my past that I never really knew.” He says he continues to be active “with writing, art, woodworking, and church and community activities in the Smokies.”

Naftaly “Tuli” Glasman retired from the University of California after 44 years of service, and says he “feels great physically and mentally” and is active with volunteer work. He says he is “more senior” than most of us because he didn’t join our class until after he had completed mandatory military service in his native Israel. He and Lynne have been married for 44 years, and are blessed with “three kids speaking lots of languages, and eight grandkids ranging in age from 3 months to 20 years!” He reports seeing Bruce Corwin when he visits Santa Barbara. He writes “Lynne and I wish the Class of ‘62 long years of continued healthy growth.”

Tony Scirica, senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, has been awarded the prestigious 2017 American Inns of Court Lewis F. Powell Jr. Award for Professionalism and Ethics for “exemplary service in the areas of legal excellence, professionalism, and ethics.” Tony was appointed to the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia in 1984, and then to the Circuit Court in 1987, where he served as Chief Judge from 2003 to 2010. He chairs the Judicial Conference Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability, and also is a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Dave Hedges sent in a Rochester, N.Y., obituary notice on a former classmate, Jim Snyder. After completing graduate school at the University of Rochester, Jim taught American history at Monroe Community College. He was especially noted for courses he created on World War II and the war in Vietnam. He is survived by wife Judy Peer, two daughters, a son, and a granddaughter. We offer our condolences to his family.

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

While enjoying an afternoon coffee at Wesleyan, Glenn Hawkes and his son, Jesse, conversed with Emil Frankel and Jack Mitchell. Glenn reports: “Both Mitchell and Frankel have somehow managed to retain their handsome boyishness while enjoying their long and successful careers: Jack with his fine and far-reaching clothing business and his book-writing, Emil with an amazing career in D.C. and his serving as transportation secretary for the State of Connecticut.”

Hawkes continues: “I came close to falling off my seat in the coffee bar when Emil shared with us his decision to become an Independent, thus abandoning a half-century of leadership and love for the Republican Party. I think it was when we roomed together, graduate school days at Harvard, that Emil created the Ripon Society. I’ve also since left the Republican Party, accomplished some decades prior to Emil’s jumping off the ship. I’m still struggling to fundraise school fees for about 40 Rwandan secondary school students, hoping that I’ll live until the last student earns a diploma. That would be in 2021. As always, I welcome any interest you (or perhaps a son, daughter or grandchild) might have in taking a trip to Rwanda, where my second family and I have a nice home and guest house.”

Foster Morrison regularly presents thoughtful insights that may interest classmates. He writes: “One thing that has been long known is that such things often can change rapidly and extremely with small disturbances. Stability often is achieved by resonances, such as the periods of Saturn and Jupiter being 29.65 and 11.86 years for a five to two ratio. Pluto and Neptune never collide, though they overlap, because of a resonance. The same side of the Moon always faces the Earth. God’s will? Maybe God knows how to build things that last, but man does not or doesn’t care.

“Climate change seems to be moving slowly, but Hurricane Irma may mark the shift to a new peak for the energy in such a storm. Complex nonlinear dynamical systems may be stabilized by resonances (ratios of frequencies being small integers), but if these are disturbed, rapid disintegration often occurs. So Irma may (or may not) be sending us a warning that the climate in the North Atlantic may be getting much more unstable and dangerous. I think I’ve heard about another dangerous hurricane (Jose) already forming. The general principle is that slow, gradual change may destroy a stabilizing resonance and it will be difficult or impossible to restore it. Most scientists and mathematicians, being specialists, do not seem to be aware of this. Politicians, economists, bureaucrats, and journalists don’t understand anything. Specialists in celestial mechanics usually have some awareness of this property of nonlinear dynamical systems. I started out my career with satellite orbits, many of which have helpful resonances thoughtfully designed.

“The general principle is that establishing stability in complex nonlinear systems is challenging, but now made much easier with high-powered digital computers. God has been doing this almost forever and now we have to do it too instead of destroying His creations with our ignorance.”

Respectfully submitted,

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

In June family and friends held a luncheon to celebrate the lives of Dick Huddleston and Charlie Smith and to dedicate the Huddleston Lounge in Downey House and the adjacent Smith Patio so that they would be forever memorialized on the campus they loved so much. The mood was bittersweet, as Barbara-Jan Wilson remarked, and celebratory. Spouses Lindsey Huddleston and Rita Smith spoke of how much Wesleyan meant to their husbands. Alan Wulff read a list of the 34 classmates who have died since 1959. Bob Williams, Tom McHugh ’59, Dave Hohl, and Chuck Olton reminisced about our days on campus in the ’50s.  It’s only fitting that these two close friends and extraordinary Wesleyan fundraisers were honored together.

Dave Larrouy expressed his sadness at the passing of Dick and Charlie. Dave and Maxine are enjoying his 25th year of retirement from Ford.

Nici and John Dobson had a wonderful month in the Dingle and Connemara areas of Ireland. It was great fun for John to return to the land of his heritage. He reported that their vacation home in Virgin Gorda received significant damage from Hurricane Irma, but parts of it are still standing.

Dan Nebert and his wife, Lucia Jorge, have retired to Charbonneau, Ore., which is mostly a retirement community enclosing three nine-hole golf courses. His career in medicine, pediatrics, genetics, and genomics now spans 57 years and is still going on. As a physician-scientist, he is semi-retired (still spearheading a genetics training grant at the University of Cincinnati). Congratulations to Dan on receiving the R. T. Williams Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award from the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics. In addition, he was notified by the Google Scholar Citation Committee that he is among the “Top 640 Most-Cited Scientists/Authors” in all fields of study, from 1900 to the present.

Jack Fowler continues as senior research fellow at the Center for Survey Research at UMass Boston. Jack has made significant contributions concerning social research methods, medical outcomes, and medical decision making. He was selected this year to give a heritage interview for the American Association for Public Opinion Research which provides insight into his career. It can be viewed here.

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

Visakha and Ken Kawasaki’s “Don’t know Whether to Laugh or Cry,” is posted at brelief.org. They have maintained a level of humility and compassion longer than most.

Bob Dombroski said, “Anita and I spent the winter in South Carolina lowcountry. Daughter Ariel is at Columbia pursuing a PhD in clinical psychology. Back to Traverse City, Mich. Check out the new biography of Richard Wilbur. I remember him as a teacher and neighbor in Portland.”

Lynne and Bryn Hammarstrom are “both retired, living on a side-hill farm in Tioga County, Pa. Active in blocking chemo-fracking. Can’t stop it, but try to make it less damaging to air and water. Daughters live in Greensboro, N.C.”

Harry Nothacker urges classmates to read the op-ed by President Michael Roth ’78 in The Wall Street Journal from May 11.

Pete Pfeiffer “hopes my black-sheepish behavior won’t hurt our class image. Politics is exciting these days. Nobody has any idea where we’re headed.”

Bill Demicco “retired after 47 years in medicine. Living in an old farmhouse in Maine. Painting watercolors, but undiscovered. Still married to Marie. In touch with Phil Wallas.”

Tom Earle is a “grandfather of three. Spent Christmas in Australia. June in Italy with wife’s Norwegian family. Recommend SPQR by Mary Beard for Roman history. Aloha.”

Ron Reisner “retired from New Jersey’s Superior Court after 15 years as a trial judge. Now part-time with a large North Jersey firm. Saw Wes beat Tufts in lacrosse. Played golf with Dick Emerson ’68, Pat Dwyer ’67, Jack Sitarz, Jim Martello, Bob Woods ’70, and Fran Spadola, who lives at Pine Wild Golf Course in Pinehurst, N.C., and other 1960s Dekes at the basketball golf outing.”

Paul Melrose sent photos on Facebook.

Steve Knox’s “daughter, Caroline ’03, gave birth to Jensen Knox Lindow on February 26, the first Knox boy of the new generation. Always a good turnout from our era at the men’s basketball golf outing.”

Fran and Paul Dickman “toured North and South Cyprus, focusing on archaeology. Multiple sites. Neolithic, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, French, and Ottoman buildings and ruins. Reducing my pediatric pathology work.”

Tony Mohr’s “60s are behind now, age as well as decade. Just finished a messy trial between mother and son. My essay, Rainy Day Schedule, is in an anthology of California writers—Golden State 2017.”

Alex Knopp “looks forward to 10th year of teaching in the Yale Law School Clinic, fifth year with NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and second year as president of the Norwalk Library. Wife Bette finished her first time-travel novel.”

Patty and Paul Nimchek send “congratulations to Jim Martello, who was inducted into the Wesleyan Baseball Wall of Fame. Jim’s 16-inning 1-0 shutout of Amherst was one of the night’s highlight stories. Jack Sitarz driving in Greg Wrobel was the difference.”

John Bach had a letter to the editor in The Nation.

Charlie Morgan “helped found the Hungerford Family Foundation, a genealogical association. I edit the Hungerford World Tree, which placed second at the National Genealogical Association conference in Raleigh. I am also an officer of the Mayflower Descendants and the Myles Standish Colony.”

Carol and Maurice Hakim ’70 bought an antique home in nearby Clinton. We get together for dinner and evenings out. They maintain a residence in Palm Beach Gardens. Maurice has a bottling plant in Toronto for his organic tea products, while Carol works in commercial real estate. Their daughter, Alexandra, lives in NYC and works for Omni Communications.

Darius Brubeck’s “granddaughter Lydia Elmer ’17 graduated Phi Beta Kappa.”

Bob Watson “has a new hip and resumed running. Daughter Joanna is a graduate intern at Yale-New Haven. Son Mark is in Cartagena, where he manages property and is opening a restaurant.”

Don Logie ’68 wrote, “There’s a September American Bar Association Journal article describing Jamie Kalven’s efforts to expose and combat what appears to be rampant police brutality in Chicago. Many years ago Jamie completed a law book started by his late father, constitutional law professor Harry Kalven.”

Doug Bell’s company “harvested 550 acres of hemp, whose CBD is not intoxicating. Skype me at Douglassbell.”

Bill Schroder’s blog, “YourInnerRhino.com going well. Close to 1,000 posts.”

John Wilson “works for Karma Automotive in California. First car delivered. First grandchild (son) arrived January. Visited him in Barcelona in March. Great trip. Best to all.”

David Siegel said, “After 22 years of college tuitions, sent in last payment. Attended son Leon’s graduation from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Retirement beckons.”

Steve Broker and Linda MAT ’71 enjoyed “Utah and Arizona with Louise and Tom ’62. Zion, Lake Powell, Bryce Canyon, and Colorado River.”

From Mike Fink: “Jenni, 25, lives in NYC, reports for IJR.com. Youngest, Katie, is a senior at the University of South Carolina. Oldest, Becca, still involved with competitive cheerleading. Whirlwind world keeps us young.”

Always love,

Charlie Farrow | charlesfarrow@comcast.net

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

Business first: Our 50th Reunion is coming up. I know I will be there, but am not so sure about you (May 24-27, 2018). Stuart Ober (ober@stuartober.com), Sandy See (alexander.h.see@gmail.com) and George Reynolds (greynolds@sandpointefunding.com) continue looking for guys willing to help out.

Local: I had an urge to continue walking, so I used this winter to get my right foot reconstructed. Made me house-bound which, especially in view of the great and amazing things seizing our nation, left me glued to the tube (in deep denial, watching countless Law & Order reruns). Judy, as her just desserts for steadfastly seeing me through, went to a French immersion program near Nice in March. And in May, we took my hobbling to Ireland for 10 days. There we spent two days with an erudite and entertaining Irishman whose granddaughter Beatrix Herriott O’Gorman ’19—would you believe it?—is studying film at Wes. Loves it.

I had a chat with Tim Polk’s widow, Lucy. She and the kids are managing. Still teaching in St. Paul. Taken up golf. I met Wesleyan’s Imam, Sami Abdul Aziz, and his wife. Bright, personable couple who are the center of a vibrant community. Report good support from the administration. Harrison Knight polished up his pickle ball game in Bonita Springs last winter. Paul Spitzer was the subject of a lovely magazine article in Cornell’s Living Bird. Michael D. Terry ’69 was very explicit that “you do not take me or yourself too seriously” as he continues to write about his cancer journey. His treatment center, Houston’s MD Anderson Cancer Center, is using some of his material in their outreach. Bob Runk ’67 has always impressed me as a particularly good-natured guy and I’ve attributed his good vibes to his love for music. Well, it continues. Check out his new stuff on iTunes by searching for “Bobby Runk” and “RunkRock.”

Wig Sherman—whose good cheer and gossip over the years has made him your unacknowledged associate class secretary—and I caught up recently. After Wes, he served in ‘Nam in the Army working with IEDs—a most unenviable assignment. Then Wharton, and a very successful run on Wall Street. Mid-life two things converged which changed his course: second thoughts about his career, and the prolonged illness and ultimate death of his daughter, Whitney, at 13. He then got a master’s in education and planned to teach in his hometown of Wilton, Conn., but instead got approached about joining the Board of Education, which he did. (That precluded his teaching in town.) He toiled mightily and with distinction on the Board (“more hours than I ever put in on Wall Street”). As its chair, he addressed the graduating class several years, most thoughtfully ruminating—as the son of a gas station owner—on the meaning and obligations of affluence to the high school’s graduates in this very upscale town. In Vero Beach for the last five years, Wig keeps up with a lot of brothers from the Lodge. Ralph Boynton ’69 lives in his complex, and Bob Newhouse is planning to move in.

I caught up with John Mergendoller, a southern California native, now in the Bay Area. (There was a picture of him online and he looked both well and very California.) After Harvard’s School of Ed, he did his doctorate at Michigan and enjoyed a Fulbright in Geneva. Most of his career was with the Buck Institute for Education, an outfit that works face-to-face with 15,000 educators worldwide each year, advancing project-centered learning. John is quite involved with music, playing acoustic guitar and mandolin in groups. His wife, Jessica, has a doctorate in anthropology and taught at UCSF’s medical school. Their son, Jacob ’11, lives in Brooklyn and works in the tech world, while their daughter, Julia ’07, works at Berkeley’s Latin America Studies Center. He keeps up with some of his Beta brothers: Frank Phillippi, Bud Bourke, Bob Knox, and Dick Cavanagh.

Brian Frosh, a Columbia Law School grad, is Maryland’s attorney general. An April 11 article in the Baltimore Sun opined that he “doesn’t have an A-list air about him. But late in the afternoon on the General Assembly’s final day, he was greeted like a celebrity when he walked onto the floor of the Maryland Senate. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Thomas ‘Mac’ Middleton threw an arm around him. Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Chairwoman Joan Carter Conway kicked up a foot, and all three smiled broadly for a photo. ‘We love our A.G.,’ Middleton said.”

The occasion for the article was that Brian had “emerged from the annual 90-day [legislative] session as one of the major winners.” Drawing on ties he cultivated as a 28-year member of the General Assembly representing the Silver Spring area, Brian succeeded in gaining for the attorney general position itself a considerable boost in power. In this newly empowered role, he is expected to defend Maryland’s reformed money bail system, to fight against sharp pharmaceutical price increases, and for the rights of emigrants. Though a trusted figure in Maryland politics, he has ruled out a run for higher office.

In closing, I’d note I am writing this on May 26 and, if everything goes as it should, we will be together next May 26 celebrating our 50th—which to my mind, leastwise, is a big deal. Humor me and show up.

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

Kudos to Mike Feagley, Rick Nicita, the Reunion committee, and Wesleyan’s Reunion and Commencement machine for so effectively putting together our 50th Reunion. For me, both the planned events and the unplanned events combined to allow for many memorable moments and meaningful encounters.

The planned events included, especially, Friday morning’s innocuous sounding “continental breakfast.” At that event, in a room on the second floor of Olin Library, Howie Foster (that rare quarterback who becomes a psychoanalyst) proposed to the group of 20-25 that we collectively address one of four questions. I don’t remember all four questions, but it doesn’t matter, as we didn’t really address them. We did, however, have a lively and engaging discussion about the meaning of a Wesleyan education, about whether Wesleyan had become too left and far out to attract students it should be attracting, about whether Wesleyan was no longer as committed to real diversity as it should be, about why Amherst and Williams and even Bowdoin and Trinity have done better than Wesleyan on various ratings, and much more, until we were kicked out of the room so they could set up for the next event (I am sure conversations about these issues continued throughout the weekend).

The planned events also included a memorial service for those of our classmates who have died, a session conceived and planned by Brooks Smith, Peter Kovach, and Ted Smith. Peter opened the gathering with a poem. Ted read each of the 37 names on the college’s list of those of our classmates who have died. For about half the names, one classmate or another had prepared to speak for a minute or two and did, and then he or Peter dropped a piece of glass into a large glass bowl (a Kovach-inspired eastern ritual). For the other names, there was either a moment of silence, followed by Peter dropping a piece of glass into the large bowl, or someone spontaneously rose to speak about that person (as the Quakers say, moved by the inner spirit). So there we went, alphabetically, remembering those who died long ago, a while ago, or more recently. Andy Ackemann…Jim Branigan…Myron Kinberg…Henry Regnery…Andy Ullrick… The remembrances were moving, thoughtful, and sometimes funny (he set a chair on fire and threw it out the second floor window of Clark Hall?).

There were many seminars taking place on campus. One of my favorites was given by former faculty member, Leslie Gelb, who went on to work in various high-profile jobs, including writing for the New York Times and president of the Council on Foreign Relations, about why those who conduct our foreign policy continuously make mistakes (Gelb was introduced by Professor Emeritus Karl Scheibe). Another was a panel on political dysfunction with three knowledgeable and impressive Wesleyan alumni, one of whom was Senator Michael Bennet ’87. Yet another was a panel discussion about Hollywood featuring (our own) Rick Nicita and Professor Jeanine Basinger.

The planned events also included three dinners, all set in choice locations—the Thursday night dinner in the Patricelli ’92 Theatre, the Friday night dinner with the president (“Dinner with the President! Dinner with the President”—see Woody Allen’s Bananas for the reference) in Beckham Hall, Fayerweather, and the Saturday night dinner in Olin, overlooking the football field.

But it was the unplanned events that led to many memorable encounters. I was a bit late to one of the seminars, and by the time I arrived it was so packed that I couldn’t get in. I got a cup of coffee and sat down at a table in the Usdan Center, and over the next hour, old (and getting older) friends wandered by, stopped and sat down, and we caught up—John Neff ’66, Dave McNally ’66, Dave Garrison (there was one that got away—I saw across the room, but did not get to talk with, Harry Shallcross). It was like sitting in Downey House in 1965 or 1966, killing an hour in a most enjoyable way, talking with whomever walked by after they got their mail.

My favorite comment? “I climb trees for a living” (but, Jerry Smith went on to say, even though he climbs trees for a living, his Wesleyan education has enriched his life in many ways).

My favorite outfit? At the Saturday night dinner, blue seersucker jacket, bow tie, shorts, leather shoes, black socks (Sandy Van Kennen ’66).

As those of you reading carefully have noted, there was a crew of guys from ’66 hanging around. They had such a good time last year at their Reunion that they came back this year for more (the three I have mentioned, and, also, Larry Carver ’66 and Rick Crootof ’66). It was great having them there. Also floating around the periphery on Saturday were Sandy See ’68, and Rick Voigt ’68, in part to attend the annual meeting of the Mystical Seven, but also to do some preliminary planning for their 50th next year.

It is quite a production, preparing all these Reunions AND Commencement on the same weekend. I always leave these events in awe of Wesleyan, a class act, in awe of Wesleyan alumni in general (who give such good seminars, and ask such interesting and informed questions in such an articulate way), and in awe of my classmates for all kinds of reasons.

Richie Zweigenhaft | rzweigen@guilford.edu

Congratulations to Gene Bunnell, professor emeritus, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Albany, on the publication of his new book, Transforming Providence: Rebirth of a Post-Industrial City, the subject being of pressing importance as we confront our nation’s decaying cities. Gene, who “studied for my PhD at London School of Economics and Political Science,” and his wife, Lynne, will “celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary later this summer by traveling to Scotland.”

A number of our classmates followed Gene into the academy, doing so with distinction.  David Luft, professor of history at Oregon State University and author of numerous books, tells me he will send a fuller update once he has finished his latest book, The Austrian Tradition in German Intellectual History: 1740-1938/1939. For 39 years James Russell, also a professor of history, taught at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he served as chair of the department before retiring in 2009. He and his wife now live in Worcester, Mass. He added, “I still like to give lectures in the community on American history topics.”

John Lapp, having “left Wesleyan to marry Linda Conner and pursue a PhD in economics at Princeton,” took “an assistant professorship at North Carolina State University,” where he focused on “monetary economics and financial markets,” being “equally drawn to research and publishing, teaching and curriculum, and various aspects of administration.” He writes that it “all worked out well enough.” I’ll say. John retired in 2011 as the Alumni Distinguished Professor of Economics. Professor of Psychology, Phillip Shaver, who retired from the University of California, Davis, in 2015, received this past September an “honorary doctorate in the social sciences from Stockholm University in Sweden. The award ceremony, formal dinner, and after dinner dance were held in the Stockholm City Hall, where Nobel Prizes are awarded. My wife, Gail, is receiving a similar honorary doctorate this September from the University of Oslo in Norway, where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded.””

We have professors, we have adventurers. Peter Monro, naturalist, newspaperman, and landscape architect, writes: “Although I was unfortunately unable to attend our 50th Reunion, its downstream plume brought me (and Jill) three mini-reunions here in Maine, with fellow Betas Jim Brink and Gene Bunnell and their wives. While the 50th Reunion was taking place, I was volunteering as an hospitalero, co-managing a refugee [camp] on the Camino de Santiago de Compostella pilgrimage route.  I had just completed that trek as my personal challenge at 71. Learning to unicycle was my 70th birthday challenge.”

Peter Spiller, now living on Anastasia Island, chairs the Board of Directors of the St Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum, a Smithsonian Affiliate.  This past April, he and his wife, Debbie, “took a repositioning cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Rome followed by slowly wandering through that city plus Florence and Venice.”  In August Peter took his “annual canoe expedition…from Sioux Lookout, Ontario, to and down the Albany River, fly[ing] out 22 days later from First Nation settlement Eabametoong.”

I I envy the Peters, and meanwhile, Richard John Rohfritch writes: “Larry, I’m jealous!   For several years, my wife, Marta, and I have wanted to retire in Durango—just down the road from you.” Richard, who “retired after 45 years of working for big chemical companies” in Houston, has “become literary after writing business emails for so long—I’ve starting collecting and reading poetry, and I am compiling a bibliography of Donald Hall’s writings…I took freshman English from Richard Wilbur at Wes in 1967, but it took me about 50 years to get back to poetry.”

Frank Burrows and wife, Carol, have retired, living with beloved dog, Mandy, in Boynton Beach, Fla. They plan to escape the heat this year, renting a water front cabin in Maine with thoughts of kayaking. Great note from Robert Dearth, who “continues to work with the Chi Psi Fraternity chapter at Miami University…in Oxford, Ohio, as an alumni advisor and officer of the Lodge Property management organization. I also facilitate the alcohol awareness and anti-hazing annual undergraduate educational program mandatory for all new brothers of the Lodge.” Our inspirational leader, Robert Crootof writes: “After 40 years in our 300-year-old house in Norwich, Conn., we sold it (finally) in March, and will now divide our time between Wolfeboro, N.H., and Sarasota, Fla., with travel to visit children in Manhattan, Bozeman, and LA. We had many tears at leaving the family home, but more memories of having lived in a house which suited us so well for those wonderful years.”

Let me conclude with a celebration of generosity and thoughtfulness. Essel Bailey and his wife, Menakka, recently gave $4 million to Wesleyan’s College of the Environment, their total gift to COE now being $7.5 million. Congratulations and thanks to Essel and Menakka for this gift to our students—this gift to our planet—that will serve both for generations to come.

Larry Carver | carver1680@gmail.com

P.O. Box 103, Rico, Colorado, 81332 | 512/478-8968