Class Notes

Let’s begin with friendships and Harold Potter’s account of a lunch he had (left to right) with Joe Pickard, Bill Machen, and Stan Healy at Mashpee Commons on Cape Cod.

“All were in Psi U. Joe, Stan, and Harry were roommates senior year. All met at Wesleyan and have been lifelong friends.  Joe is a retired investment advisor and lives in South Londonderry, Vt.  Bill is a retired partnership and tax attorney but continues as a consultant to the law firm, Holland @ Knight. Bill resides in Melvin Village, N.H. (Bald Peak) and also maintains a home in Newton, Mass. Stan is a retired small business owner and lives in Mashpee, Mass. Harry is a retired trial attorney also at Holland @ Knight and lives in Wellesley, Mass. The Red Sox fans (Stan, Bill, and Harry) outnumber the Yankees fan (Joe), but we still manage to get along!  We are getting older but getting together never gets old! It all started at Wesleyan.”

So many friendships did, but as Tony Alibrio reminds us: “Sad part about [our] age is losing many friends,” and we just lost one. Our classmate and my hallmate freshman year on Foss Hill, George Richards “Rick” Churchill Jr., died on July 3. Rick suffered from cancer for some years but never lost that wry sense of humor. Here is a link to his obituary. 

We are also losing those who taught and inspired us, often becoming friends: Joseph Reed, my mentor, Leslie Gelb, and Reginald Bartholomew, David McNally’s “two mentors—and heroes really,” having recently died. Cherish those friendships, the lives we are privileged to live. Tony has been doing just that: “Life is real good . . . Retired 18-plus years ago and split my time between Lakewood Ranch, Fla., and my lake house on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. Had two terrific and memorable experiences this past 12 months. Last October I took my four sons on a safari in Tanzania, Africa, and in June my entire family (21 strong) on a cruise to Bermuda.” In September Tony and some friends will “fly to South Dakota and are renting eight Harleys (I’m shipping my new Harley trike), and we will be based in Deadwood City and riding to Sturgis, the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore. Taking advantage of our life span since the view through the windshield is shorter than the view through the rearview mirror.”

Another retirement, Paul Gilbert, writing “after 40 years of service as an Episcopal priest, I have retired. I’m devoting my time to sailing, photography, starting a blog—of which you will be aware when it launches—and writing my second book.” That book, The Marriage Quest, is available on Amazon, and he promises to let me know when his blog is up and running.  Paul plans to attend our 55th Reunion; mark your calendar. For Robert Rockwell “retirement is…going well after so many great years in banking.  I’m still somewhat involved with chamber/eco development matters.  Best of all, my wife, Monette, is always here to support, help, and advise. But now that it is spring time and the trout are rising, those stars are also in perfect alignment. Hi to all the ’66ers and hope everyone is well.”Jeff Nilson, save for the tornado that tore through town, finds “most things in Harwich . . . okay. Marietta and our two daughters are nearing the end of their battles with breast cancer. They seem to have won. Grandson William will have his bar mitzvah next month. We are grateful for the beautiful summer we have had on Cape Cod. Our great white sharks agree. There are thousands of seals to feast on.  Life is good.”

Alberto Ibargüen’s important work with the Knight Foundation continues, his e-mail on July 21 telling us that the “Knight Foundation has long been focused on the decline of journalism organizations and the dangerous reduction of reliable and consistently reliable information available to citizens in our democratic republic.  Earlier this year, we announced a $300 million initiative around an informed society, seeking to rebuild trust in American society through reliable local journalism. Tomorrow we’ll announce the assignment of $50 million of that initiative to scholarly research and, ultimately, the development of policy options.”

Great to see Claude “Bud” Smith’s scholarly work is being drawn upon, Bud writing: “This November the PBS series “American Masters” will present “Words from a Bear,” a film featuring N. Scott Momaday, the acknowledged grandfather of Native American literature…With my late colleague Alexander Vaschenko of Moscow State University I co-edited Meditations After the Bear Feast: The Poetic Dialogues of N. Scott Momaday and Yuri Vaella (2016).

“Momaday wrote the Foreword to The Way of Kinship (Minnesota, 2010), the world’s first anthology of Native Siberian literature in English, which Vashchenko and I also edited. Another colleague, Susan Scarberry-Garcia, who did her doctoral dissertation on Momaday and who has taught with him at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Sante Fe, will be in the PBS film. Vaschenko and I traveled with Susan in Siberia, and she accompanied Momaday there with a group of Native American students, where he met Vaella and Yeremei Aipin, another author in The Way of Kinship.  All of us were together for a conference for Native

American writers and scholars at IAIA . For years I included Momaday’s The Way to Rainy Mountain in my English classes.  He’s now 85 and not in the best of health, so I recommend the PBS program highly

If you needed proof that Bob Dearth did catch that “189-pound swordfish,” here it is. “Best eating fresh fish ever!”

In closing, these words from Dick Stabnick: “Miss everyone and look forward to our 55th.”

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

Dear classmates, more welcome news:

Amertat Cohn (né Fredrick): “At Herbalife Nutrition was recognized as a leading distributor worldwide. Still playing basketball and participated in a 60-plus tournament in Hong Kong, representing Malaysia. Photographs exhibited at the Montserrat Gallery in NYC and finishing a documentary, SunSeed, The Awakening. Completed Al Gore’s Climate Reality Leadership Training and doing presentations to raise climate change and global warming awareness. Met recently with Swami Chitaitanya (né Bill Winans), now a major public advocate for improved cannabis laws in California.”

Bill Brooks: Emeritus professor of music, University of Illinois, co-editor of a collection of essays about music and World War I, published by the University of Illinois Press. Also, professor of music, University of York, England, and senior research fellow and series editor, Orpheus Institute, Ghent, Belgium.

Major Moise: “After two years in Washington, D.C., we decided to move back to California. Our move east was to be near the kids and grandchildren, who all live in the D.C. area. While that was great, the humidity and winters proved to be too much for my health. Now semi-retired, and wife Lexy works 30 hours a week. My company has a two-year contract with NIH to develop a smart phone app to assess chemo brain in cancer patients.”

Rod Gay: “Spent 25 years living and teaching in Vermont and then worked for a Swiss electrical engineering company. Then on to Reno for five years for work and skiing then back to my hometown, Winchester, Mass., to help out my parents who both reached their mid 90s. Elected to the housing association, which oversees the housing needs of our local senior citizens. Play tennis, golf, and ski. Fortunately, my sister and family reside in Silverthorne, Colo., where I visit to ski once the snow flies!”

Dutch Seigert: “Two full-time jobs: lawyer in NYC and professional poker player in Atlantic City on weekends. Wife is ‘okay’ with the poker if I return home on Sunday in time for Evangelical Presbyterian church services.”

Clyde Beers: “Retired 10 years ago. Do not miss my work as an actuary. That has been replaced by family, gardening, and painting. Followed the example of our daughter by starting a vegetable garden. Some of our plantings: Bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cantaloupe, kale, rhubarb, and four varieties of potatoes. Our salads now have more zing to them!”

David Osgood: “Now retired, which is clearly a life-changing, paradigm shift. On the board of the local mosque and volunteering with interfaith organizations. In touch with Bill Turner, George Adams, Larry Carver ’66, and David Griffith ’66.”

Steve Halliwell: “Wife Anne and I live in Irvington, N.Y., where we raised our two kids. For 10 years involved in two fine-art investment funds. Buy museum quality works and rotate them to the homes of investors over the life of the fund. Now introducing a way to safeguard fine art via a chip on the work. Spent much time in Russia, and write occasionally on Russian money laundering for Reuters and other outlets.

“In contact with Robert ‘Woody’ Sayre in Paris, who taught literature at the University of Paris and continues to publish, and Bill Hunt, professor emeritus, St. Lawrence University, and writing on George Orwell and Catalan politics. See Bill Blakemore in NYC. At Peter Kelman’s birthday party, saw Jim Frost, astrophysics teacher in New York. We see Ted Dreyfus, teacher at The New School. Finally, Tony Schuman, dean of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, is featured on YouTube announcing a major donation to the school.”

Peter Babin: “Life is good for wife Barbara and me! We are Hawaii residents, living on the Kohala coast, but spend several months on the mainland visiting our kids in Las Vegas; Boulder, Colo.; and Clancy, Mont. Our health is generally good and we stay active. I continue to focus on residential and commercial property development.”

Jerry Mellilo: “Lalise and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary in July. After more than four decades at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, I am ‘gliding’ to retirement. We look forward to visiting family and friends across the globe, and activities with our 6-year-old grandson, Simon. His dad, our son, Ted, is a history professor at Amherst. Plan to garden more and, in the winter, sculpt in my wood shop. Professor Risley introduced me to wood sculpting, and I am forever grateful to him. On the science side of things, I will volunteer at the National Academy of Sciences and teach and mentor student projects in MBL’s course in environmental science for undergraduates from liberal arts colleges, including Wesleyan.”

Jim Stewart: “Celebrated last year 50 years practicing trusts and estates law. Two eldest granddaughters have turned 8 and identical twin grandchildren turned 5; enjoy working and no plans to retire; taking up pickleball with racquetball. Two daughters, both trust and estate attorneys, one Wesleyan ’00 and one Trinity ’03.”

Philip L. Rockwell | prockwell@wesleyan.edu

There always seems to be something going on, other than the task at hand when I sit down to prepare my notes each quarter. It’s Labor Day and I’m concerned about Hurricane Dorian that is spinning in the Bahamas and threatens the southeast coast of the U.S. I’m sitting here in my condo in Savannah, Ga., concerned about my trailer in Central Florida. Oh well, I can’t get anywhere sharing my concerns.

I have an update from Mike Ehrmann after 19 years in Pittsburgh, with his wife, Esta, having just moved to Jersey City, N.J., to be close to their son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren. He texted, “During my time in Pittsburgh, I was president of the Squirrel Hill Historical Society, the largest neighborhood historical society in the city. On May 14, when I ran my last meeting as president, the Pittsburgh City Council issued a proclamation celebrating my leadership of the society and named this date ‘Michael Ehrmann Day.’ In October the local neighborhood planning organization for Squirrel Hill is naming me as a ‘Treasure of Squirrel Hill.’”

Lou D’Ambrosio shared some news: “My family is doing fine. Elder granddaughter just graduated from Vassar in June, now working in Seattle. Oldest grandson working in Denver, graduate of the University of Colorado. Wife Christy is still working as a psychologist (hooray!) and still lovin’ it (another hooray!).” He had lunch with Edgie Russell and enclosed a photo. I noticed what a great smile Lou has. Finally, Lou closed by texting, “Just lovin’ everything. Still singing! Waiting for offer from the Yankees to sing the National Anthem at Yankee Stadium!”

Karen and Chris Chase decided in early 2018, for various reasons, to move to a continuing care retirement community in Hanover, N.H. Chris added, “There is much here to enjoy: Dartmouth adult education, concerts, opera, lectures, trail hiking, etc. There are also political action groups. I leave the politics to Karen. I’ve gotten back into singing and, new experience, am part of a poetry writing group. Having extra time sure helps the revision process! More prosaically, I’m in the process of preparing a lecture on pidgin and Creole varieties of English.”

He concluded, “Regrettably, I do not think it likely Karen and I will be able to attend Reunions in the future. I’m sure the discussions would be interesting. When we were at Wesleyan the world seemed so potentially positive. Maybe that was simply a youthful take on things. That’s not the impression of things that one has now. And I don’t think that it’s simply a case of o tempora o mores.”

Roger Montgomery reported, “I am alive and well in London but am lucky to be alive. Suffered a stroke in May 2017 but was rescued by the fantastic U.K. National Health Service which had me in hospitals for three months absolutely free. Also lucky to have survived four years in Viet Nam where colleagues such as Peter Hunting ’63 (Alpha Delta Phi) died. Went on to become a Southeastern Asia expert, consultant to World Bank and Asian Development Bank through a U.K.-based consulting company (Hunting Technical Services). After retirement continue to live in London where I spent six years at the London School of Economics pro bono in the Asia Research Centre. Any Wesleyan alumni most welcome to stop by for a cold one at 25 Belsize Crescent NW3 5QY. We bend the elbow at 7 p.m. sharp.”

Brian Murphy and wife Ginny are well and currently living in Los Gatos, Calif., near their two daughters. They spend most of their time hiking, birding, and traveling to places to view wildlife. They just got back from trip to Congo to see lowland gorillas, forest elephants, and forest buffalo as well as other wildlife. Fun!

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

We will be seeing less and less of James Ferguson now, as he is successfully losing weight—over 40 pounds! Perhaps some remember that Jim was a football player back in the day. But now he is a serious fan of soccer, having turned most of his seven grandchildren into soccer players. He did this simply by telling them how dangerous football was even for young players. In the case of one small grandson he pointed out that his size would matter far less on the soccer field, which the boy has found out to be true and is now happily playing soccer. Jim likes to “write stuff.” Following a request from one of his two granddaughters, he wrote a short story. He’s also written two screenplays.

As we both served in the Army as well as in Special Forces in South Vietnam, we talked a lot about that. Jim said he generally did not feel comfortable in groups but that the most comfortable he’d ever felt in a group was with his Special Forces A-Team in Vietnam. “I may or may not have liked every single man, but I knew if something happened to me, someone would come to help.”

Jim Miller closed the Armstrong Department store in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1990. Founded in 1890, his family, had owned and run it for 100 years. For several years thereafter Jim had an Island Inkjet franchise, eventually quitting after writing out his 10,000th work order. He is now involved in various service clubs and is treasurer of his local homeowners’ association. He gardens a lot and, while still in high school, he got very interested in his own sound system and has more or less been upgrading it as ever improving equipment comes on the market. He and Marlene, his wife, enjoy the local performing arts (ballet, theater, and opera) and see lots of performances at their excellent community theater of both local performers as well as groups passing through. They have three children—two daughters, 55 and 52, and a son, 50­—and five grandchildren, ages 8 to 25.

After WesU, Tom Buxton went to Carnegie Mellon Business School and came out determined to “play with the big boys,” i.e. get a job with a seriously large company, which he did. Twenty years ago, after 32 years with Boeing, Tom retired. While there, he was part of the team that developed both the 767 and 777. Tom’s wife, Terra Anderson, also worked at Boeing. She worked internally coaching and training executives. While both are retired (he in 2000 she in 2004), both were very, very upset and embarrassed at the news of the serious problems in the 737. Tom recalled reading People of Plenty by David Potter in a humanities class at WESU. He feels it is right on now and that we are endangering the earth’s future and may well run out of vital resources. For that reason, he is developing his large farm on Whidbey Island to grow all the basic varieties of food resources Tom and his wife have two children, 45 and 42, and two grandchildren, 5 and 7.

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

Robin Cook just finished his 37th novel, and says that this year he will be attempting a new challenge of movie and TV producing. He writes, “Maybe in the course of my efforts I’ll run into Bruce Corwin, who undoubtedly learned a thing or two in the Hollywood world.”

On his Wesleyan experience, he says, “In order to get into medical school I stuck with those easier chemistry, math, and physics courses where getting an A was possible if you made it a point to spend the time to learn the material. With those harder courses—like writing or literature—one could spend weeks writing a paper and have no idea whether it would result in an A or an F.” He adds, “In many respects I wish I could go back to Wesleyan now that it has great writing and film courses.”

Robin makes another reflective point about the Wesleyan environment. He says his sophomore son is considering transferring out because he feels that the school “is so liberal that it cannot tolerate opinions to the contrary from fellow students and faculty alike.” Robin comments, “If true it’s too bad, as college should be the time to debate and question one’s beliefs.”

Not to turn the notes column into a philosophical debate forum, but I’m wondering if other classmates whose sons or daughters went to Wesleyan had similar concerns.

Walt Fricke continues racing his Porsche SC, officiating at races, and editing his Porsche Club rules. He says this involves often driving “a medium-duty truck pulling a 42-foot trailer, combined weight just shy of 26,000 pounds.” He is active in working on “coming up with non-invasive tests of engines and transmissions for forbidden improvements to performance.” He had to recover for two months from breaking his pelvis skiing last spring.

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

A question was posed to the Class of ’61 membership dealing with the future as we all foresee it, particularly in relation to advice for our grandchildren. Emil Frankel provided his predictions as follows: “We don’t have grandchildren (or children, for that matter), but my message to my grandnieces and -nephews and to your grandchildren is one of cautious optimism about the survival of the basic norms and values of American democracy. I wish that I could be hopeful about the quality of their physical lives. The catastrophic risks of climate change and environmental degradation seem irreversible and are already having effects on our lives. It’s hard to imagine how different (and unpleasant) the lives of our grandchildren will be. Sorry to be so gloomy.”

Emil continues: “Kathryn and I are living quietly in Washington D.C. I remain engaged in transportation policy issues, although at a reduced level, as a senior fellow at a small transportation policy think tank here in Washington, the Eno Center for Transportation. I continue to visit Wesleyan two or three times a year for various meetings and to attend the annual lecture on Jewish culture and history that we established at Wesleyan in my parents’ memories 35 years ago. Those lectures are always a source of great pleasure and interest, and provide me with the opportunity to reconnect with Wesleyan friends, faculty, and staff.”

An unexpected response came from Richard Poulton who wrote: “I doubt very much that you will remember me, but I had the privilege of being the Englishman who won a one-year overseas student scholarship in 1957-58, before returning to Cambridge in the U.K. and a lifetime of teaching. My year at Wesleyan was hugely enjoyable and extremely formative; I have been grateful ever since. My very best wishes to anyone who might remember me.”

Travel has played a significant role for a few classmates. Jack Mitchell writes: “Last summer Linda and I took six of our adult grandchildren plus a girlfriend (including Lyle ’16 and Dana ’18) to Australia for two weeks. First Sydney, then diving on the Great Barrier Reef, the rain forest, then Ayres Rock. A dream family fun trip of our lifetime. Three meals together every day. We shared and learned so much!”

Phil Rodd claims: “My wife and I just got back from 24 days touring Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. I wish I had something more exciting to tell you.”

A final comment comes from Pete Drayer: “I have been retired as a judge for three years. We still have our house in the Poconos in the same community where the children of Hank Hilles have a house. We have two wonderful daughters. One of them is divorced, and has two children. Hope things are well with you.”

Respectfully submitted,

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

Congratulations to Dan Freedman who is co-recipient of the 2020 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for the invention of supergravity, a deeply influential theoretical blueprint for unifying all of nature’s fundamental interactions. He will share the $3 million prize with collaborators Sergio Ferrara of CERN and Peter Nieuwenhuizen of Stony Brook University. Dan is an emeritus professor of applied mathematics and theoretical physics at MIT while currently a visiting professor at Stanford University.

Since 2008, Bruce Dow has been working as a psychiatrist (psychopharmacologist) on Cape Cod with a program for assertive community treatment. Their team consists of one psychiatrist plus nurses, social workers, and psychologists. They provide outpatient care for 80 clients referred to them by the state department of mental health, due to serious mental illness and heavy use of state services. They are salaried employees of a nonprofit corporation, Vinfen, funded by state and federal contracts.

Bruce lives in Osterville while his girlfriend, Rae Edelson, lives in Jamaica Plain and runs a studio arts center in nearby Brookline. They get together on weekends either at her place in winter or Bruce’s in summer. Several years ago, Bruce and Rae became couple friends with Dan and Miriam Freedman. Rae and Miriam were classmates at Barnard (’64). Social contact between the couples is less frequent because the Freedmans currently live in California.

Nici and John Dobson sold their condo in Big Sky, Mont., and moved to a small home in Ocala, Fla. They appreciate their new location in a warm climate that is closer to family.

Adrienne and Roland Bassett celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary. Their three sons, daughters-in-law, and grandkids all live nearby, and they see them almost daily. They have survived their share of major illnesses, medical treatments, and surgeries. They enjoy traveling a lot. This year they finally checked off their 40-year-old wish list item of touring Israel. They report that “life has been good to us.”

The highlight of my summer was being a participant in Orcas Summer Camp where we contra-danced on each of three successive evenings. At this event, some of us play music while others are the dancers or callers. During the day we are free to swim, canoe, or explore picturesque Orcas Island. It was a fun communal celebration in the Pacific Northwest.

Our 60th Reunion will take place in May 2020 so consider making plans to attend the event.

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