Class Notes | 1960s

I have been working on our class 50th Reunion committee and would like to acknowledge those classmates who have spent months working on the Reunion with e-mails, conference calls, idea sessions, and many hours reflecting on how quickly the time has elapsed.

We have been led by three co-chairs, Frank Judson, Steve Oleskey, and Bill White. Frank has been awesome in leading our conference calls and you can see that as a physician in the field of infectious disease, he has learned to share his ideas and opinions particularly in being a leader in his medical community in Colorado dealing with the HIV epidemic. Success has been realized with HIV treatment and protocols, and I can see where Frank Judson has been a contributor.

Steve has complemented Frank’s leadership with his attention to detail and his attorney training to lend concise suggestions and keep the committee on course. Bill adds his organizing skill to our leaders and his commitment to seeing the Reunion achieve success serving classmates who find their way back to Wesleyan.

Others involved with the committee include Steve Baker, Clark Lambert, Edgie Russell, Bill Medd, Nick Puner, David Skaggs, and Don Ware. I was editor for the class book, which will be available at the Reunion, but I contacted Peter Sipples many months ago and he did most of the work putting things together. He lives in the Connecticut area and his availability has been invaluable in reviewing all the elements displayed in the publication.

Michael Palmer was a member of our crew but his untimely death was an unwelcome reminder of our vulnerability. I have communicated with Michael over the years and we were pointing to the 50th Reunion as a significant milestone. He will be sorely missed.

Fred Motz missed the opportunity to submit to the 50th Reunion book, because we had an incorrect e-mail address for him. He sent what he would have submitted—which we’ve excerpted below. (The full version is on the Class Notes web site: classnotes.blogs.wesleyan.edu). He also adds, “I was only at my Reunion for one night but I very much enjoyed walking around the campus and seeing my friends who were there.

“The past 50 years: I went directly from Wesleyan to the University of Virginia Law School from which I graduated in 1967. In 1968 I clerked for a judge on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. In September of that year Diana Gribbon (whom I met at UVA) and I were married, and she has put up with me ever since. We have two wonderful children and two grandchildren, who brighten our lives. After unsuccessfully trying to become a Marine, I joined a law firm in Baltimore, then became an Assistant United States Attorney, and later rejoined the same law firm. In 1981 I was appointed as the United States Attorney in Maryland, and in 1985 I was appointed as a United States District Judge by President Reagan. I have served as a District Judge since that time, and I have enjoyed every minute of the job. Longevity has provided the opportunity to be on several national committees and to try many interesting and complex cases…

“Memories of Wesleyan: Being a member of a talented and fun-loving team that put Wesleyan on the lacrosse map. Listening to Ray Charles in the Harriman Hall room I shared with Dick Colton and Gary Cook. Friendships—and attempting to develop the capacity to be alone. … Observing how old the members of the class of 1914 appeared when they led the reunion parade. Being grateful not so much for knowledge that was imparted to me but for being taught to try to ask good questions.”

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

Bob Gelardi is on the board, and chair of the Charity Relations Committee, of the Destin Charity Wine Auction Foundation in Miramar Beach, Fla. In 2013, the charity donated nearly $1.4 million to a dozen charities supporting children and was ranked as the #6 Charity Wine Auction by Wine Spectator, which Bob wrote, “for a small town known as ‘The Luckiest Fishing Village in the World’ isn’t bad.” He urges anyone interested to check out the website dcwaf.org

Dave Hedges reports that in February, Betsy and Ted Hillman and Janet and Phil Calhoun flew down to join Ann and Dave at Dave’s place in Naples, Fla., and “they were all glad to escape the cold and snow of up north.” Dave explained, “It was a reunion of the boat charter we three couples took in the British Virgin Islands eight years ago when we were younger and more agile. We enjoyed lots of fun, laughter, relaxation, and too much good food. Always good to get together with good friends from our Wesleyan years.”

Bob Saliba retired Jan. 1st after 47 years of practicing law. Bob practiced estate law in Morristown, N.J., and was the author of numerous publications on estate law.

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

Recent literary contributions from classmates have enhanced this class notes report, providing us with sufficient and gratifying updates. Pete Dybwad shows his own personal ecstasy, writing: “Life remains great. Still working, because I love what I do, and still living in Berkeley, because it’s 70 degrees outside in mid-March.”

Who could have guessed, as your class secretary is scratching away at his viola while viewing the audience before him, that a familiar Wesleyan face would appear? In his own words: “Bob Johnson writes that he has seen Jon Magendanz several times in Venice, Fla., as a violist in the remarkable Venice Symphony. A man of many talents, Jon contributes his musical talent to this renowned southwestern Florida symphony of more than 70 instrumentalists. Bob is also planning to see Jan Westerman, in Long Beach, Calif., during a visit to California later this year. Bob and his wife Suzanne live seven months each year in Nokomis, Fla. (just north of Venice), and the other five months in Pocahontas, Pa. (Two American Indians maidens—quite a coincidence.) They are both members of their Florida church choir, where his wife also solos and assists in directing as requested. He is vice president of his country club and is co-chairman of Men to Men, the organization for men with prostate cancer, providing support, guidance, and education. This September, Bob and Suzanne are planning a 16-day safari trip to Tanzania and Kenya, after which Bob will have visited 48 countries (mostly on business). He reports that ‘retirement is good. Only those who do not go outside their doors are not busy and active. Here’s to the future!’”

Terry Allen just cannot seem to capture the concept of retirement. In apology, he writes: “I know I should be retired, but I am now running three companies (Terry’s Tips, Da Vinci Body Board, and Coffee Can Investing) and just finished writing a book called Coffee Can Investing: Why Everything You Believe About Financial Planning Is Probably Wrong (in 2014).” Terry plans to take two two-week hiking trips in Europe this year, because he cries: “Otherwise, I’m just bored. Life is good!”

Dan Elliott writes: “Great time in the past year visiting my daughter, Maggie ’06, in Boston while she pursues her juvenile justice PhD at Tufts and my niece, Jessie Morris Adams ’04, and her husband Bryan ’04, in Nashville, while Jessie pursues a Vanderbilt PhD. Other (non-Wes-kid) visits have been to Germany where my son, Tim, works for Fuji Health Systems assisting roadside bomb victims from Iraq and Afghanistan; my son, Peter, in Nashville as a Vanderbilt athletic trainer and my son, Dan III, who is Obama’s chair of the Surface Transportation Board. Old age is fun with all of these accomplished progeny.”

Nancy and Paul Dickson’s son, Alex, was married last July 4th to Caitlyn Schnure. “Wesleyan celebrants at this wonderful event,” writes Paul, “included Tim Bloomfield, Doug Evelyn ’63, and Brian Murphy ’64. Alex’s brother Andrew Dickson ’95 was the officiant who performed the wedding ceremony.” Paul’s latest book Authorisms—Words Wrought by Writers was published by Bloomsbury USA on April 23, 2014, William Shakespeare’s 450th birthday.

Robert Hammond writes: “Still enjoying retirement, seven months in Florida, five in Rhode Island. Carol and I are enjoying Vermont’s late snow. We Nordic (cross country) ski on community trails that cross our back field, and Alpine (downhill) at Pico and other areas. We have a seasonal ‘camp’ in the Adirondacks.”

George Little provides us with a multi-faceted update: “I retired from clinical medicine when I reached 40 years of attending call as a pediatrician/neonatologist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. I miss the clinical and teaching team care of babies and their parents, but not the night and weekend call. It was time to step aside for those younger. Carol retired from her clinical and faculty position as a child development specialist. We are now enjoying our first grandchild and commuting to Oregon from Vermont to provide granny-care. Ellis was born in October. His mom is a pediatrician. I continue to have more than enough to do and am very involved in global pediatrics through and with the American Academy of Pediatrics. Helping Babies Breathe (HBB), a neonatal resuscitation program for resource limited areas is my main focus. I’m bookending my career in Malawi, where I served as a Peace Corps physician in the 1960s and now mentor the HBB program there. I’ve been to many countries, mainly in Africa and the Middle East. Carol and I have done training together in Mozambique, Sudan (Khartoum), and Kenya, as well as Malawi. Bob Carey, Jack Woodbury, and I, along with spouses, have enjoyed getting together since our last Reunion. We’re planning on Montreal via the Adirondacks this summer. I see Dom Squatrito and Carla quite regularly. Enough. Thanks, Jon, for getting us to submit info.”

Classmates’ submission of material that did not appear in this column’s publication will appear in the next issue. Thank you for your patience and please, keep writing.

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

Sue and Jim Dover went on a 10-week trip to Belgium, the Netherlands, and Norway from mid-April to June 2013. They were on a riverboat at tulip time in Holland and Belgium and later took a maritime cruise along the coast of northern Norway. Jim is working on a Shutterfly book that will document their travels and that will be useful for reliving the experience in their “old age.”

Chris Campbell wrote the following: “When I was a kid there was a radio announcer in Providence called Ernie Anderson (1923–1997). He was very funny and was a really popular radio personality. He did not stay long in Providence before being lured away by WHK in Cleveland.

“One of the songs that Ernie often played is etched in my memory and it comes back whenever I read about persistence in the face of enormous difficulty. The song was the sound of a military bugler during a charge. Every time he sounds the charge, his bugle is struck by a bullet or some other missile. For a moment there is no sound, and then the bugler sounds the charge anew only to be struck down again and again and again. The music becomes more and more ragged, but the charge continues through the song’s fade-out. The bugler seems almost impossible to halt and the listener gets the feeling that the bugler is indeed damaged but unstoppable. Every time Ernie Anderson played that song I laughed, but I also got a strong sense of how important it is to keep chugging ahead because none of the alternatives seems any better.

“After 65 we all become bugle players, charging into a fresh battle each time we step out of bed in the morning. It is what we do because the alternatives are dismal. Damaged or not we charge into battle because we never live so well as when overcoming something that could do us in.”

The 5th Bolivian Conference on Development Economics was hosted by Universidad Pravada de Santa Cruz de la Sierra on Nov. 14 –15, 2013. It was attended by about 330 persons (a 64 percent increase compared to last year) from 13 countries and consisted of three keynote lectures, a round-table discussion on energy, and 50 contributed research papers. The Bolivian Academy of Economic Sciences selected the best papers at the conference and was represented by President Enrique Garcia-Ayaviri.

The following message was received from Mario Damiata (mddamiata@aol.com): “My father passed away on the Wesleyan campus in June 1960 when he went into sudden cardiac arrest. He was an employee of the university at the time. I am writing to try and locate the two seniors who were on campus that day and tried to revive him. After all of these years I would like to express my gratitude for their efforts. I am sure those involved will remember the incident. Could you please pass along this message to members of the Class of 1960 in the hope that those students might still be alive and may contact me. Thank you. P.S.: I was accepted into the Class of 1970 but elected to attend another college.” Please contact Mario Damiata if you know anything about this incident in June 1960.

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

The Hon. Judge Leonard Edwards, now retired, writes: “I had lunch with Bill Needham recently. Very interesting. He is involved in a gold-digging project in Colombia. We had a great time. He is a bundle of energy and very jolly, hugging everyone in sight. He says he’ll be a billionaire when the project gets going!” (Alumni Office take note!) But further info on Len, somewhat disquieting: As a somewhat belated wedding gift, I gave Len and his wife Marcia a fine, Liberty jigsaw puzzle depicting their home state, California. I had found that they were fellow jigsaw puzzlers. They were delighted and apparently agreed to only work on it together. Well, it was with shock that one morning Marcia discovered that someone had slyly snuck in and had been working on the puzzle during the night! Hell to pay! Accusations! Flimsy denials! All leading to total caving. Decision: as it was not a felony, only a misdemeanor, Marcia was granted equal, solo catch-up puzzle time. Peace restored. I must add that it pains me to drop a dime on a fellow classmate like this.

From the L.A. area, Lew Whitney says that he has “nothing exciting to report.” Of course, at our age, that’s probably a good thing. He was sorry to miss our 50th but a pre-existing one month trip to France got in the way. His missing the 50th was somewhat made up for, as he attended the Pre-Reunion gathering down at Bill Roberts’ place in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Lew is semi-retired now and will fully retire in March. He will probably continue as he is now doing, with some consulting and design work on the side, which he says he does “for wine money.” Lew got into sailing at 7 with his dad. In ’84 he got this first boat and has had many since, most in the 40-foot range. In his current 40-footer, Ventana, he and his wife of 20 years, Toby (“a wonderful sailing partner!”) frequently sail the 20 miles out to Santa Catalina. Last year they spent 36 nights aboard Ventana, generally moored off Santa Catalina. You might recall Lew’s picture of himself in our Reunion Book, paddle boarding, something he had taken up relatively recently. After getting over the falling-off part of the learning process, he now goes for long paddles up and down the coast. He says that in the past it was very common to see lots of sharks along the coast and on the way out to and around Santa Catalina. But the Asian love of shark fins has led to the shark population being decimated, which has led to an ecological crisis as unchecked seal populations are now overrunning the shores, taking over docks as haul-out spots and climbing onto any moored boats they can get up onto. He says for a long time now he hasn’t seen a shark large enough to eat him on any of his frequent paddle board trips. Lew and Toby have four children between them (he was divorced and she was widowed) and five grandchildren aged 1–15 years. While he does not race himself, he used to do a lot of exciting crewing on a friend’s steel-hulled, 54-foot race boat, working as a grinder opposite one of the bigger and stronger youngsters, thereby making Lew’s job easier. He vividly recalls the frantic start of one fleet race when they lost their steering and rammed the Committee boat.

Robert Gallamore writes: “My book co-authored with my Harvard mentor, American Railroads: Decline and Renaissance the 20th Century, will be released by Harvard U. Press 6/2/14!” (You can read more about it at HUP or Amazon websites under his name.) “This was a 15-year project, the roots of which were in my study of economics and government regulations of industry under Prof. Joseph Palamountain and Prof. Richard Miller at WesU. It brings together material from my academic studies and teaching, a first career in government, and a second with Union Pacific in NYC and Omaha.”

A tidbit of info on the son of a former stalwart of Chi Psi, Jim Reynolds. His son, James IV, has been a Major League baseball umpire since ’99. He graduated from the Jim Vans Umpire Academy in ’92, taught there for three years, and then worked his way up through several levels of minor leagues to the big leagues in ’99. Since then he has umped four Divisional series, two ALCS series, and an All-Star game. Not bad for a kid who didn’t follow his father to Wes, though he did at least go to another college in Connecticut, UConn. The elder Jim now lives with his wife, Nancy, in Gilbert, Ariz.

Walt Donaghy sent in some sad news: “Jim Mattson passed away quietly in his sleep 7/22/13. He was with his family (children and grandchildren) on a family vacation in N.C., when he died. Jim and I were roommates all four years, members of Sigma Nu/Kappa Nu Kappa, and lived on the top floor of our fraternity house our last three years. We’ve been friends ever since the fall of ’59, our freshman year, when we were assigned to a double room in Andrus Hall on Foss Hill. Jim ‘Matt’ played football (halfback and punter) freshman through senior year. A few years ago he was told that he’d held the punting record at Wes until very recently. Of course we had to have some serious losing games then to establish a punting record—too many ‘3 and outs.’ Matt wrote a very nice, brief and modest bio for our 50th Reunion Book. He couldn’t make it to the Reunion because his grandson was playing in a very important baseball tournament that weekend. As always Matt had his priorities right. Family comes first. He will be missed.”

BYRON S. MILLER | tigr10@optonline.net
5 Clapboard hill rd., westport, ct 06880

Foster Morrison has regularly updated your class secretary with a variety of subjects. This Class-Notes edition is dedicated to Foster for his continuing support and creative delivery of timely news bits ranging from science to math to religion. One recent topic was based on the NASA studies on warp-drive technology, as reported in the Sigma Xi SmartBrief (8/21/2013): “The dream of warp-drive technology in space travel may become a reality, thanks to research at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. In small-scale experiments, the scientists imagine a football-shaped spacecraft encircled by two large rings, which would contract space-time in front of the craft and expand it behind it. These experiments are the first step in determining if these concepts can be applied practically, according to NASA physicist Harold ‘Sonny’ White. Space.com (8/21)” Foster queries: “Will this work? Does it explain UFOs, which already have it working?”

On a later theme, Foster writes: “There are at least three kinds of logic in current use in math, so it certainly is not the case that the ‘truths’ of mathematics cannot be erased. Math must be used carefully. For example, rational and irrational numbers have very different kinds of ‘existence’. You can keep approximating the square root of 2 for as long as you wish, but you will never get it right. God knew this, so He made the universe out of discrete particles so he could get the job done in six days.”

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

Robin Berrington continued his international travel with trips to Japan, the Baltic Republics and Slovenia. He saw the area in Japan devastated by the earthquake and tsunami and commented, “Sadly, much remains to be done there.” He also said, “The other two trips were in the fun category and I encourage all of you to consider them when thinking of European travel. Slovenia in particular was quite something—clean, orderly, and with friendly people all of whom speak English very well. But Lithuania was also a revelation to this old cold warrior. So parts of East Europe are just not what they used to be!”

Bruce Corwin reports that he took his two sons back for Homecoming to be there in person to watch Wesleyan’s football team beat Williams to win the Little Three “for the first time in 43 years!”

Jim Gately also noted the success of the football team in this year’s Little Three championship. Jim may have set a class record for retirement—three times from the company he worked for his entire career. After his first retirement from the investment company Vanguard, he was pressed back into service to launch Vanguard International and helped oversee its growth in many countries around the world. (He passes on this “Note to Robin Berrington: my course with Professor Abosch on Japanese culture and history paid big dividends some 45 years later!!”) Following his second retirement, he was then asked to return again to serve on the Board of the Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, a donor-advised fund organization. In September, he offered his third retirement from the company. He said he and Kay intend to remain engaged in several non-profit ventures in the Philadelphia area and try to keep active with “travel, family, and the like.”

Naftaly “Tuli” Glasman retired as professor emeritus and dean emeritus from the University of California, Santa Barbara, after 44 years of teaching, research, and publications, including the just-finished My 75 Years of Managing Mental Disorders and Coping with Life. He volunteers at the Center for Successful Aging in Santa Barbara, which provides counseling services “to seniors who are facing the challenges of the aging process,” and is on the Board of Advisors of the Rieger Foundation, which offers scholarships to Israeli students studying in clinical academic disciplines. He also says he is active in helping his grandchildren coach soccer.

Bob Hunter is now senior fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He was just made an “Honorary Anciens,” (a sensitive term for classmates now well past our 50th college Reunion!) of the NATO Defense College in Rome, and serves on Secretary of State John Kerry’s International Security Advisory Board. Shireen continues to teach at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, and has just finished her 16th book.

Scott Lowden has published a comprehensive guide to U.S. customs law and import practices, Import Transactions and Customs Compliance.

Steve Trott reports on a trip east where he spent time with Cathy Burnett in Providence, and Marion and Steve Butts in New York City. He noted an unsuccessful attempt for them to go to Carnegie Hall because the stagehands were on strike. Steve commented on news reports that the stagehands struck despite earning $400,000 per year, and offered an editorial comment that he “may have discovered a great way to burn off student loans. Join the stagehands union for four months, work at the hall watching from the wings, and you’ll be debt-free and full of culture!”

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

From Schenectady, N.Y., the one-time Deke, Peter Tobiessen is appearing for the first time in this column! He has been married for 45 years to Joanne who, like Peter, has retired from Union College, where they both worked. She was an administrator and he taught in the biology department for 36-plus years. Their son is a playwright who has written three plays, each of which was produced in different cities around the country, one off Broadway in the Big Apple. John, still an ardent biologist, has written a book well reviewed in nature/ecology/outdoor circles titled The Secret Life of a Lake, The Ecology of Northern Lakes and their Stewardship (Graphite Press, 2012). His goal was to help lake users and lovers and non-scientists to understand how a lake works, stays balanced and how to keep lakes that way. Not just a good wordsmith, he was also part of a group of hands-on history buffs in the Albany area who built from scratch a 52-foot, 29-ton white oak replica of the first covered deck ship built in what we now call Manhattan. Named the Onrust, it was finished in time to join a fleet of 15 historic vessels and countless private and commercial boats that all joined in a 140-mile reenactment of Henry Hudson’s trip up the Hudson River, 400 years after his journey. The Onrust also took part in a renewal enactment of the 400th anniversary of Two Row Wampum Treaty, which was the first treaty between white settlers and America Indians, in this case the Haudenosaunee. Some of the simple, hopeful words of that treaty are: “As long as the grass is green, rivers run down hill and the sun still rises in the East and sets in the West…” There are many interesting pictures and write ups about it on the Web, as there are about Peter’s book.

For 35 years Dick Donat worked for Marshall Field’s, eventually becoming manager of their flagship store in Chicago after being very successful in increasing the income of Marshall Field’s stores in smaller cities. Dick says that when he arrived in Chicago, the flagship store was very conservative, with very little diversity in its staffing and customer base. This he worked hard, and with considerable success, to change. One result was that the store that had made a steady $1,000,000 a year from ’36–’84, started growing its income to $5,500,000 a year over the next eight-and-a-half years. Dick was in Chicago during a period when the downtown business hub went into a terrible decline, eventually reversed as the Millennium Park development brought business back to the downtown area. Dick and his wife, Charlotte (who also worked at Marshall Field’s, where they met), have been married for 35 years and have four children, two from a previous marriage and two from their marriage. They are now very involved taking care of their aging parents and one son who is disabled. They live in the Glencoe suburb of Chicago and Dick is quite interested in studying the history of changes in the Chicago headquarters of Marshall Fields, where he worked for so long.

From Walt Donaghy: “Jim Mattson passed away quietly in his sleep on July 22, 2013. He was with his family (children and grandchildren ) on a family vacation in North Carolina when he died. He will be missed by all of us

“Jim and I were roommates all four years at Wesleyan. We were members of Sigma Nu/Kappa Nu Kappa and lived on the top floor of our fraternity house for our second, third and fourth years. We’ve been friends ever since the fall of 1959, our freshman year, when we were assigned to a double room in Andrus Hall on Foss Hill.

“Jim (‘Matt’) played football (#22, halfback and punter) freshman year through senior year. A few years ago he told me that he held the punting record at Wesleyan until very recently. Of course Wesleyan had to have some serious losing games in those years to establish a punting record! Too many ‘3 and outs.’

“Matt wrote a nice, brief and modest bio for our 50th Reunion Book. He couldn’t make it to our 50th Reunion because his grandson was playing in a very important baseball tournament that weekend. As always, Matt had his priorities right. Family comes first.”

John Driscoll ’62 adds: “A call to our sports information office yields the following: Jim established the record for punting average in a single game against Middlebury in his sophomore year (1960) with an average of 44.5 yards, a record that stood for 37 years , until the ’97 season.

“I remember a tall, rangy and talented teammate who was known for his poise and performance, more than noise and excessive emotion.”

Walter Pilcher has also written a book: The Five Fold Effect: Unlocking Power Leadership for Amazing Results in Your Organization. And in mid-November he appeared on The 700 Club TV show to discuss his book. In the book, he draws on his and others’ church and business experiences to lay out the steps that could help create highly successful leadership teams. Walt’s wife of 49 years was a RN student at the nursing school in Middletown, which is where he met her. (And no, he did not meet her on one of our freshman panty raids on their dorms. So put that thought right out of your heads!) They have three children. After graduation they both attended Regents University in Virginia Beach and later for 12 years they were involved with its board of trustees. He has been retired from “gainful employment” but is active on the Board of Global Awakening. Walt also writes short stories and songs that he sings for groups while accompanying himself on the guitar, which he has learned to play. Recently he and Carol took a river cruise in Europe from Budapest to Amsterdam, which was very relaxing with plenty of good food and local wines.

For 44 years Jerry Berka has practiced law. He has a general practice, so he’s handled a very wide range of cases. At Wes he had started out pre-med but changed his mind along the way and has had no regrets about that. He is quite pleased that one of his daughters, after studying clinical psychology for two years, has switched over to law and is now on her way to becoming a partner in her firm. She has been attached to Family Court, where her psych background is very helpful. He and Mary Ann, his wife of 45 years, have a second daughter who is a veterinarian in California. Mary Ann was a professor at Nassau Community College for 44 years and still works part time. They live in the small village of Brightwaters, a small enclave of Bayshore, N.Y., on Long Island. They have had a house in the Adirondacks on Schroon Lake for 30 years. There was a time when Jerry did a fair amount of mountain climbing, but those days are past. They like to sail and have been “all over the Caribbean” and along the West Coast. And for 40 years he’s owned a motor boat on Long Island Sound. After law school, he entered the USN, one of only 41 law school graduates selected by the USN for JAG that year. Lt. Berka served from ’66–’69. He thinks that his frequent pre-Wes summer jobs on Long Island ferry boats helped his prospects with the USN, as they might have felt that unlike most other law school graduates, he was already somewhat used to “the sea” (if that term can be applied to Long Island Sound). Jerry feels that public service is very important. He has worked long and hard on school building funds projects and served many years on the Bayshore Board of Education, and he was a long time chair of the Student College Aid Fund. Apparently his work was noticed and there is now a Jerry Berka Building at the public school.

If any of you know of anyone who has never appeared in these notes, or of whom you have not heard in many a long year, please contact me and I will try to track him down.

BYRON S. MILLER
5 Clapboard hill rd., westport, ct 06880
tigr10@optonline.net

The heat and humidity finally broke here in central Florida and the cool dry breeze felt good to this old Brooklynite. November also brought the undefeated Wesleyan football team facing Williams at Homecoming. The Cardinals were looking to capture their first Little Three football championship since 1970. I watched the game over the Internet and was delighted with our 16–14 triumph.

Wesleyan’s accomplishment came on the heels of the Boston Red Sox victory at the World Series, as the Sox clinched the crown at Fenway Park for the first time since 1918. I was thinking of Michael Palmer and his passion for the Sox at the end of the game. I was devastated to learn that he passed away from a stroke and heart attack on the evening of October 30th in New York City as the last out was recorded. He will truly be missed.

Russ Messing has just finished and self-published his first book of poetry, A Convergence of Unanticipated Consequences. I quote from his e-mail: “I am quite proud of and happy with it. I will soon start on my next book. Having been a ‘secret’ writer for many, many years, I finally decided to come out of my dark room and take the plunge into the light. It was a humbling and exciting experience. I love the focus, the whimsy, the challenge, the hard work, and the finished product.” It is available on Amazon.

David Skaggs reports that after leaving Congress in 1999, he worked in DC for several years on democracy-building, political reform, and civic education issues. David and wife Laura moved back to Colorado in 2006, sharing a small farm north of Niwot with a Scottish Highland cow, several chickens, and assorted vermin. The intervening years have included a stint as head of Colorado’s department of higher ed. for Gov. Ritter and, now, teaching and practicing law and co-chairing the Office of Congressional Ethics. He hopes to see a bunch from ’64 at Reunion in May.

Allen Ames has been retired for a few years and lives in Clinton, Conn. He still boats (now with a 31-foot trawler) and sings in a local church choir.

David Townsend communicated that he is happily retired in Chattanooga, Tenn., with wife Gale and their two Shelties. After having both hips replaced, his athletic activities center around swimming and bicycling. They have made several bike tours with Vermont Bicycling Tours and the last one touring the vineyards in California. They have also done the Dolomites, Hungary, and Slovakia, and Costa Rica. Last year he reestablished contact with Paul Eschholz and visited him at his home in Naples, Fla. It had been over 25 years since they last contacted each other.

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

Dear Classmates, Members of our class gathered on campus over Homecoming weekend and had an enjoyable and productive two days. Attending were Dave Dinwoodey (and Mary Ellen), Rob Abel, Bob Barton (and Prudy), Jay Clapp, Win Chamberlin (and Lee), Mark Edmiston (and Lisa), Bill Knox (and Carolyn), John Hall, Kirt Mead (and Susan), and Hugh Wilson. We had a pleasant Friday dinner in the spacious and attractive Usdan Campus Center, a wonderful addition to the campus. For those of you who haven’t been on campus lately, Usdan is located just beyond center field of the baseball diamond. On Saturday morning we met first with the Alumni Association and heard from several faculty members and President Michael Roth ’78, who spoke about Wesleyan’s involvement in a new online education initiative, Coursera, which offers courses from many leading universities. Coursera gives people of all backgrounds and ages from around the world the opportunity to learn from Wesleyan professors and gives the university positive global exposure.

We then met for several hours to discuss early planning for our 50th Reunion (May 20–24, 2015). In that regard, please e-mail me if you’d like to be involved in the Reunion in any way or would like more information about opportunities to help with the Reunion itself, class seminars, outreach, publicity, our class “book” or gift, etc.

Following our meeting, we all enjoyed the football team’s exciting victory over Williams to capture the Little Three Championship! Mike Whalen ’83 has done an amazing job of building the football program in the four years he’s been head coach. The team finished 7-1 and, despite a disappointing final game loss to Trinity, shared the NESCAC championship with Amherst and Middlebury who were also 7-1.

Earlier in the day, there was a well-attended ceremony at which the Phi Nu Theta (Eclectic) House was named a state and national historic landmark. Dave Dinwoodey and other loyal Eclectic alumni were in attendance.

Further news: Hugh Wilson writes: “Well, I’ve finally taken the plunge. As of Jan. 1, 2014, I have decided to become professor emeritus, the academic equivalent of retirement. I get to keep my university office and lab, but I will no longer have to teach or serve on university committees. Thus, I’ll have a lot of time for research plus time to write and travel extensively. The Centre for Vision Research (of which I’m former director) held an international conference in my honour last June. The speakers included my wife, Fran, (a scientist in the same field) and colleagues including two former students who are now professors at Columbia University and Glasgow, U.K. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, including a hilarious roast by one of my closest colleagues from Vanderbilt. Hope to see everyone at our 50th Reunion in 2015.” Congratulations, Hugh!

Bedford Bonta is professor, division of neonatal medicine, at Quillen College of Medicine in Johnson City, Tenn. Bedford is a graduate of the Medical Center of Vermont and previously at the naval hospitals in Portsmouth, Va., and San Diego.

Ellen and Ted See sent a welcome and informative card and family letter early in the year. They are busy and happy in their Connecticut and Rhode Island communities: volunteer and church activities; racquet and water sports; travel to visit their four grandchildren in Seattle; birding trips (Ellen had 80 sightings in Arizona) and a visit to Nova Scotia. Ted reconnected in Gabon (Central West Africa) with a Peace Corps buddy with whom he served 45 years ago. They built a school, teachers’ houses, and a brick kiln. (Ellen saw some photos of them at the village and remarked that they were certainly “hunks”!) Their children are doing well: Kevin is restoring salmon in the Columbia River basin; Virginia is pursuing her master’s in speech therapy while working for an environmental consulting firm; Greg is building and restoring various structures in Seattle; and Tyler is teaching at a Quaker-based alternative school in Nevada City, Calif., that focuses on global awareness, peace studies, and sustainable living.

A recent seminar at Wesleyan, Narrative in the Age of Distraction, featured Molly Barton ’00, daughter of Prudy and Bob Barton. Molly is global digital director for Penguin Random House. She leads digital business relationships with global partners for Penguin and oversees their digital publishing efforts, including apps, deluxe eBooks, and more. She will teach a course in Wesleyan’s Writing Certificate program this spring.

Steve Badanes continues to be in the news as he was featured in a new movie about Seattle’s Freemont Troll, known as one of America’s “five strangest roadside attractions.” It’s a great example of unusual public art (a huge troll under a bridge) and is typical of Steve’s cutting edge and witty creations. (For more on it, simply Google “Freemont Troll.”)

PHILIP L. ROCKWELL
860/693-1832; prockwell@wesleyan.edu