Class Notes

Hello ’56 Classmates! I have been taking essay-writing courses at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, so I thought it might prove fruitful to request that you put on your artist hats, too.

That radical suggestion stemmed from my current writing efforts, and a distant goal to publish a personal memoir of travel, nature, and family (Seven Continents before Incontinence). It is to be a family legacy document, perhaps of primary interest to my two grandchildren and a handful of others. Surprisingly enough, all of those to whom I mention the above intended publication, react with a hearty belly laugh, followed by the query, “When can I read it?” That spurs me on.

As you may remember, my artist’s query went out on Friday, Dec. 5th, and it began like this: “You have a story. Tell it now. Let me speak to your inner Artist. I believe that we are all artists…”

On Saturday, Barry Passett was the first to respond with a quip: “My inner artist doesn’t work on weekends.” An earlier note from Barry to George went like this: “Your travel sounds wonderful. We went to Alaska some years back and consider it one of our most wonderful adventures. We had all six of our grandchildren (with parents) here over the weekend. Two would be perfect candidates for such a trip. I’m the uncertain one. Eighty has not been good to my back and legs, and I’m unsure I could handle a cruise ship. Wanted badly to go to Norway, and same problem applies.”

With great delight, I also fielded this comprehensive update below from our long-serving Class Notes editor Don Ritt: “Dear Classmates, Many of you are already there. 80! I join the club tomorrow. 80! ‘Congratulations’, they say. ‘Swell’, I say, ‘What do I do tomorrow?’

“I will not complain because all the males in my family were dead by 72, but it is a challenging time. I have been very lucky—married for 52 years, three successful kids, four grandchildren, productive career. I even became the first medical director of the Palliative Care Program at Scripps Memorial Hospital, La Jolla at age 75. But now, there is less for me to do…play the piano, sing, watch TV, read, talk to neighbors, help care for my wife (a retired attorney with dementia), walk and walk and walk some more, go to medical functions and look important. I will find something tomorrow, probably related to palliative care. But I have learned stuff, and I do have my message: ‘We have but one day. It is today. Enjoy it and live it completely.’”

Somewhat earlier, Don sent this to George: “80 80 80 80 80. You are old, man. I, however will not reach that level until 12/13. Am planning a party for >100 people around that time at a nearby country club. I do things for palliative care in San Diego and do not have the amount of work I want, but I really cannot complain. My wife had a brilliant career, including going to law school in her 30s and then serving as research attorney in the state appellate court for 15 years. Now her life is hard, due to the development of a dementia. I am the caregiver on weekends and after 5 p.m. I am getting better at it. I stay busy, walking three to four miles, three or four days/week, playing the piano at two hospitals, consulting, etc. We cannot travel due to the dementia. Lillian wanders at night. Our kids/grandchildren are marvelous: a lawyer in LA, a high level graphic artist in SFC, a PhD psychology instructor near Denver. Thanks for your note. Enjoy to-day. Best always. DJR, DNR, DNR (Donald J. Ritt, Damn Near Retired, Do Not Resuscitate).”

At Homecoming last fall George saw Jay Jenkins, who looks good, hinted that he might have something for these notes, and gave him his card. The card says “Ship Models Re-stored”—intriguing, but unfathomable to George and his several thumbs. After watching another excruciating overtime loss to Amherst, George was able to purchase a “Wesleyan not…” T-shirt from the softball team, which has acquired the franchise.

And Jay came through: “Some of our 1956 delegation have had reunions here on Buzzard’s Bay several times since 1991. Our last was June 2014. Over those visits, we have hosted Jack Dunn, Spud Parker, Doug Northrop, Al Haas, Ed Johnson, Ken Spencer, Dick Boyden, John Gettier, Andy Mason, Dave Porter—with spouses or significant others—for two nights by the ocean. Plenty of yarns, songs, and talks of special memories. Lobster was king for most! To our distress, some of the wives are no longer with us. We were truly pleased by Wesleyan’s development and goals, although Eclectic’s seeming demise has been unfortunate. We are proud of the lead by Eclectic’s Bill Moody ’59 in devising ways to restore, use, and maintain the house for the future.”

Incidentally, recent contributors to this column have inquired why their pieces had not yet appeared in print. George explains that apparent anomaly this way: “I hope that our classmates realize that the magazine is not like the Internet, which is virtually instantaneous. It could take a year before what we receive shows up in print. It’s all about timing and circumstance.”

Speaking of which, George writes, “After my modest but lovely birthday celebration, Ann mused, ‘I can’t believe I’m getting in bed with an 80-year-old man!’ Ain’t it the gosh-darn truth!”

George Chien | gchien@optonline.net

Bob Runyon | rrunyon@unomaha.edu

The first to respond, almost instantly, to my request for news was Rev. Ed White, who after successful heart surgery two years ago, is involved in the Interfaith Conference in D.C.—a coalition of 11 faith communities—with a goal to unite in healing our planet: “There is no Planet B.” As a great-grandfather, he tracks the adventures of five married children and 12 grandchildren. One grandson, who mastered Mandarin in high school, is a WSJ reporter in Hong Kong. Ed’s concern about out legacy is stated partially as “Godless predatory capitalism is destroying a once great nation.”

After agreeing to put up with Ann Arbor, Mich., winters, rather than move to Florida, Grace and George Bacon “are doing fine (for senior citizens)” while still spending summer months at their “up north” Torch Lake cottage. In the retirement community of The Marshes of Skidaway Island, Savannah, Homer Eckerson and Sally, his wife of 63 years, are playing golf and bridge and are active on the residential council. They are blessed with three sons, their wives, and nine grandchildren. Homer expects George Anderson and his wife to move to The Marshes from their residence on the Island.

Nice to learn that others remain active in our ninth decade, such as Steve Friedland and Anne, who travel once a year from their home in Poughkeepsie to Seattle to visit their son and family. Their two daughters’ families live locally. Steve serves as a docent at the Hyde Park FDR Museum and continues to chair the hospital’s Ethics Committee. Jerry Patrick remains a “devoted and active sailor” with bareboat skippered trips in Penobscot Bay, Maine, and the Sea of Cortez, Mexico. Since twice spending a month in Rome in recent years, he plans for May in France. His volume of short fiction, Voices and Other Stories, is published and available on Amazon. He is in frequent contact with one of our published authors, Cope Murray. A lengthy response from Milton “Snuffy” Smith indicates diverse activities, such as working five to eight hours weekly with live serpents and raptors at the Amicalola Fall State Park, Ga., allowing visitors to get close and to learn about local snakes and birds. He serves on the academy candidate screening committee of his local U.S. representative. Last August he and Gail celebrated their 60th anniversary at Pawley’s Island, S.C., with four daughters and five grandchildren among those present.

After University of Pennsylvania Medical School and naval service, Bill Rack and his wife, Barbara, moved in 1965 to Santa Barbara, Calif., where he practiced neurology. Out of private practice the last 14 years, Bill has done Locum Tenens around the country and consulted with Social Security in California. As parents of three married children, each with three children, scattered around the states, they remain “busy enough with music, church, golf, and dancing.”

Walt Cutler finds that in D.C. “instead of retiring, one talks of being in transition.” With his Middle East experience, he is a trustee or member of several organizations dealing with foreign affairs. With his wife of 33 years, Didi, they had recent trips to Chile’s Atacama desert, Europe, and, in January, Cuba. He is well and on the tennis courts. Walt stays in touch with his roommate, Steve May, who lives nearby.

Our class president, David Lee Nixon, died Nov. 1, 2014, in Manchester, N.H., following a long fight with cancer. An economics major and Chi Psi, Dave was a three-sport letterman and may be best remembered as a quarterback. He served as president of his fraternity and of the Board of House presidents. As a leader throughout his life, Dave was president of his Michigan Law School class, of numerous bar organizations, and was elected to the NH State House and Senate. At the three-hour funeral, fraternity brother Richard “Mouse” Levinson “delivered a eulogy, which was laced with Wesleyan and our classmates named.” As a fellow trial attorney, Richard spoke regularly with Dave and summed up his life with these words, “If you wanted to get something done, call Dave.” Also attending the funeral were Bob Lavin, Kim Zachos ’52, Bob Backus ’61, Bill Kordas ’70, and Paul DiSanto ’81 (from the Alumni Office) to say goodbye to “an exceptional human being”.

Dr. Herbert E. McGrew died Dec. 13, 2014, of prostate cancer. Herb, an Alpha Delt, was a biology-chemistry major earning a medical degree from McGill University. After naval service and practice in New York City, he and his wife moved about 1970 to the Napa Valley, Calif., where they have lived since.

In Boston Edwin “Mel” Higgins Jr. passed away Nov. 12, 2014. He was a Psi U and left at the end of sophomore year. He received a BA from Tufts in 1953 and an MS from Boston University in 1957. After military service and bank experience he started Higgins Associates, an employee benefits and investing company, which he lead for 40 years until retirement. See longer obituaries at magazine.wesleyan.edu.

Notification was received of the Dec. 2013, death of Donald P. Moffet, an Alpha Delt, who left at the end of freshman year. He received a BA and MBA in 1954 from the University of Minnesota. He retired as CEO, US Travel, and lived in San Diego.

Those who read my e-mail request are up to date with my activities. For those without e-mail, please write.

JOHN W. MILLER | Jwalmiller@aol.com
306 Autumn Court, Bartlesville, OK 74006 918/335-0081

Don Sanders was our faithful Class Secretary from shortly after we graduated until his death last November. He was the perfect fit for this position, as the bulk of his career was spent in writing and editing at IBM. He also co-authored two books that evolved from his geology major at Wesleyan, Volcanoes in Human History and Earthquakes in Human History. I shadowed Don as Class Secretary after his severe stroke four years ago, and now it has become my challenge to try to fill the enormous shoes Don left in this position.

Nothing is more painful than having to report the loss of classmates. We have several for this edition and I am afraid sad news of this sort is going to fill our class notes increasingly in the years ahead. Some, but not all, complete obituaries can be found online at classnotes.blogs.wesleyan.edu/obituaries-2/. The following recent deaths are reported here in chronological order:

Charlie “Birdie” Palliser died March 10, 2014, according to information obtained by Wesleyan. When last heard from, he was living in Walnut Creek, Calif., and was director of inventory systems for McKesson Corp. No obituary has been found, as of going to press. If anyone can provide further information, please let us know.

John Williams died in Winnipeg, Canada, on Oct. 30, 2014, from complications of a stroke. He spent most of his life in the New Rochelle and Larchmont, N.Y., area. An avid golfer and tennis player, he retired as a senior partner at Coopers & Lybrand in 1989. He was predeceased by his wife, Joan, and is survived by three sons and daughters-in-law and four grandsons.

Hugh Young died in Vienna, Va., on Nov. 24, 2014, after a completely unexpected heart attack. Hugh served 32 years in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations. He was a distinguished member of the CIA Senior Intelligence Service, headed CIA offices both international and domestic and provided direct leadership to CIA efforts in Northeast and Southeast Asian locations. Hugh is survived by his wife of 49 years, Reiko Young, and two sons.

Bob Wonkka died in Concord, N.H., on Dec. 10, 2014. Bob was a mathematics academician who taught, served as department head, and finally as division director at Vermont Technical College for 30 years. He was the first recipient of the faculty advising award, which now bears his name, and was named a professor emeritus upon his retirement in 1992. Always active in his local church and community, Bob and his wife, Nadena, had entered the retirement community of Havenwood-Heritage Heights in Concord in 1998. In addition to his wife, Bob is survived by three daughters, two sons-in-law and four grandchildren.

Kim Zachos died the afternoon of this past New Year’s Eve from a massive heart attack while on his way from his office to his car. He had just said goodbye to his office colleagues as he headed for home and had wished them a Happy New Year. No one in our class came from a more humble childhood and achieved greater success with more humility than Kim. From his Root-Tilden Scholarship at NYU Law School, to his longtime senior partnership in one of New Hampshire’s and New England’s leading law firms, to membership in the first class of White House Fellows and interning with Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, to being elected Deputy Speaker of the N.H. House of Representatives, to his decades of leadership of the Currier Museum of Art, to his chairmanship of the N.H. Charitable Fund, to serving on the boards of multiple educational, civic, religious, business and cultural institutions over the years, Kim exemplified the very finest of citizens and received more honors, awards, and tributes than space allows me to mention. A columnist for the NH Sunday News summed it up, “His legacy is a better state and profession.” Kim is survived by his wife of 55 years, Anne, three daughters, three sons-in-law, and five grandsons.

We extend sincere condolences to the families of these classmates who will ever be remembered and treasured as part of our Wesleyan experience.

We received a nice note from Don Stauffer when he alerted us to Hugh Young’s death. Don and his wife have been living at Avila Retirement Community in Albany, N.Y., for the past five years. They have stopped traveling to distant points, but are enjoying local culture, such as the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Tanglewood, Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, the Union College chamber music series, Albany Symphony Orchestra, and The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown. Don is still a Cornell Master Gardener volunteer, sings in a local choral group and is a member of the Schenectady Torch Club.

Before his untimely death, Kim Zachos forwarded an e-mail he had received from his and Bill Wasch’s freshman year roommate, Dick Mayer. This e-mail was filled with news and information. It made up, sort of, for years of his absentia from these class notes! Dick, a CLU, founded Executive Compensation Systems, Inc., Savannah, Ga., which designs and implements executive benefit plans for physicians, attorneys, other professionals and for highly compensated executives of several public companies. He has now turned the business over to his son-in-law, but from his e-mail one can easily detect that he is still up for selling life insurance. Dick has some interesting personages in his family tree, including Samuel Huntington, who signed the Declaration of Independence for Connecticut, was Governor of Connecticut for 11 years, and whose home was located on the site of Wesleyan’s President’s House. More important, Dick and his beloved Ginger recently celebrated their 60th year of marriage. Look for more on Dick in the next issue.

Hal Buckingham | hcbuckingham@daypitney.com

William K. Wasch | wkwash@gmail.com

Biff Shaw and his wife, Jean, have moved from their Middletown home where they’d lived for 57 years to a residential community in Essex 20 miles south. Biff described his new neighbors as a very congenial group from many places, but predominantly from the lower Connecticut River Valley. The facility has independent living, assisted living rehabilitation, convalescence, and long-term care. Biff and Jean go back and forth to Middletown but not to many Wesleyan events, especially those in the evening after dark. They did see the Bowdoin game but missed the narrow loss to Amherst and the cliffhanger with Trinity. Biff reports that he hears regularly from Dave Jones and that Bob Gardner, who was an usher at their wedding 62 years ago, remains in touch. Biff’s son, Jeff Shaw ’79, lives in Bloomfield, not far away, and daughter Deborah lives in New York City with her husband, a retired TV and theater costume designer. Deborah has developed skills in horticulture therapy; one of her assignments takes her to Rikers Island Prison where she works with the inmates. We hear interesting tales from both families, Biff reports.

Howard Goodrich, writing from St. Louis, reported that he and his wife, Darlene, were living a full life with travel, church, and community engagements, even a “fill-in ministry” in mid- America. A highlight of their life has been their summer family get-togethers at Estes Park, Colo., where they rent a four-bedroom place and invite members of the immediate family to come for a visit. “Usually we’ve had 10 to 15 show up,” says Howard. “It’s been nuts, but we have a great time.” If we have a 65th Reunion next year, Howard says he’ll try to make it.

Dick Lucas wrote from California that he and Joan were happy to be living in an “Old Folks Home” full of congenial people. They have two grandchildren and now five great-grandchildren living close at hand. He can still drive, Dick said, and participate in activities. Having grown up in Middletown, Dick could appreciate what we in the Northeast have been having to go through.

Dave Mize wrote that he continues to live in a house with seven fireplaces but he “froze” this winter. Dave has continued to be very active, lecturing in the continuing education program at Dartmouth. His topic was 5,000 miles around the Mediterranean in a Model A. At one of his lectures he was delighted to have four Wesleyan graduates in his audience. Last summer he attempted to drive from Milan to Trieste, only to have his car break down just outside a village in Croatia. It took him six months to get the car back to Vermont. “I’ll repair it when it gets warm and take it back to France,” he wrote.

Charlie Selig wrote from Boca Raton, Fla., that he was still playing a lot of tennis and bridge. His wife died suddenly in 2010 but he was fortunate to find a wonderful lady who has made his life “super good.”

Sandy Malcomson wrote from Philadelphia, feeling grateful that all the “rotten weather” seemed to be sliding by to the north. I think the weather caught up with him after he wrote. Sandy expressed enthusiasm about the prospects for a 65th Reunion of our class next year. I’d be glad to hear from any class member wanting to attend.

Bill Hillis and his wife, Barbara, moved to Ashlar Village, a retirement community in Wallingford, Conn. “We have been busy, happy and all the moving, plowing and trail maintenance have simply disappeared.”

DAVID M. PHILIPS | davephilips69@hotmail.com
100 Elena St., Apt. 618, Cranston, RI 02920-7620

I received a letter from Ken Williams in which he thoroughly chastised me for overlooking him as an attendee at our 65th Reunion. The only gatherings of the ’49ers my wife and I attended were Friday night and Saturday night dinners and, regrettably, I must have missed him at one or both of these. Audrey had knee replacement surgery only six weeks before the Reunion so we were mostly immobile that weekend and missed some functions that Ken may have attended. We left Middletown Sunday morning to travel north to visit our son, Bill Jr. ’71, in Grafton, Vt.

George Forbes was unable to attend our 65th Reunion but he sent a class note to Wesleyan in which he wrote of his 61-year-marriage to Shirley who, sadly, passed away in 2007. They had married when George was a freshman at Wesleyan in 1946. Recently, he married a long-time friend who had lost her spouse.

An appeal to my classmates….please send me a letter or an e-mail about yourself. My addresses are noted below.

William C. Brooks | williamcbrooks@comcast.net
9 Willow Pond Rd., Amelia Island, FL 32034

Please send updates to the editors.

Sandy Mclean | rmcleanjr@aol.com

2270 Melville Drive, San Marino, CA 91108

Jan and Doug Dorchester write: “This past year was difficult in some ways. Doug had a bad fall and cellulitis, followed by bladder cancer, and Jan had two surgeries. Our oldest daughter was divorced after a long marriage and our middle daughter was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s.

“On the positive side, we had another baptismal celebration and dinner on Oc.t 12. Doug baptized our twin great-grandchildren, Desmond Thomas and Evelyn Helene Currie, offspring of Tom and Rhobie (Langwig) Currie, of Ballston Spa, N.Y. We also had three grandchildren graduate from college in 2013 and all have good jobs: Marcus Engley in Seattle; Davita Cornfield in Albuquerque, and Christopher Dorchester in Bourne.

“We are 90; Jan has just completed Morse genealogy (her last). God’s love and grace have filled our lives, and joy is our constant companion as we approach our 70th anniversary on Dec. 15, 2015.”

Charles Hill| hillchas3@nyc.rr.com
Apt. 10-L, 115 East 9th Street, New York, ny 10003