CLASS OF 1966 | 2026 | SPRING ISSUE

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We celebrate three of our classmates who have died: Percy H. Whiting III  (August 22, 2025); Randolph A. Wedler (August 25, 2025); and Andrew J. Kleinfeld (November 7, 2025).

Percy, who majored in physics at Wesleyan and pursued for three-and-a-half years graduate work in physics in Germany, went on to a career in data processing. He lived in Portland, Oregon, where he participated in a Vietnamese community that became a “major part of my life,” being “privileged to assist, to a modest extent, in quite a few success stories among my young protégés.”

Pat Curry “knew Randy well as our lives dramatically intersected in the ’60s and ’70s.” Percy was a “brother of mine in KNK” and “graduated Phi Beta Kappa as a German major . . .  In late spring of 1967, we hitchhiked for two-and-a-half months through Austria, Italy, and Greece sharing many adventures.” Pat goes on to write: “We met up again in New York City during the Vietnam antiwar tumult and the assassinations of King and Kennedy. We were both very antiwar and had avoided the draft successfully. Randy had turned his back on a likely position in the foreign service because he detested the war and found employment at an abortion referral service because he supported freedom to choose . . . Both of us became very involved with antiwar organizing . . . While others in our class were pursuing careers in medicine, law, and academia, Randy and I spent several years in the quixotic, failed quest for a new, more- left political alternative. Like many like us, we eventually had to cave into reality, leaving politics to pursue some sort of a living. Randy found a way to pay his bills by becoming an IT specialist. He married Barb, also an activist, and lived an extremely frugal life in Missouri. Somehow, they managed to send their five children to college, including two sons to Carnegie Mellon. . . .”

Andrew was a force of nature in our class, one of our most intellectually gifted members whom everyone seemed to know and admire. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he “intended to try to get a senate seat in Alaska. Nelson Polsby had shown us how this sort of thing is done.” That didn’t work out, but he found he enjoyed practicing the law in Fairbanks. After serving on the district court in Alaska, President Reagan having appointed him, the “first President Bush elevated me to the Ninth District Circuit Court of Appeals” where he served to the end of his life. I am one of the few who did not know Andy at Wesleyan, but I was fortunate to witness his intelligence, sense of humor, and common sense from participating with him in a monthly Zoom group convened by Rick Crootof. Though dying of prostate cancer, he bore it and the recent death of his wife, as Rick points out, “with realism, humor, and incredible calm.” As Rick wrote to Rachel (one of his three children), much to the delight of Andy, a Rhodes Scholar, your father “had a great life, career, and family, with universal respect and affection from all of his classmates, I’m sure at every level. I will always smile when I recall his surprise and modesty at how everyone in Fairbanks greeted him with friendly words and gestures.”

On to happier news. John Knapp had, on October 13, the “memorable experience . . . of attending Nat Greene’s seminar on the Spanish Civil War, giving my talk on Carpetbagger, and then a delightful dinner hosted by the History Department at a downtown restaurant. Rick Crootof drove me both ways, and Bob and Priscilla Dannies, and Tom Broker all attended . . . The seminar was just what you would have expected from Wesleyan students—thoughtful, somewhat argumentative, and well researched. Nat was excellent and a marvel at 90 plus. The talk went well to a smallish audience. I concentrated on how the book came into being rather than taking much time dissecting Mitchell’s life but did talk some about how clever he was in basing his lawsuit on the ‘equal’ provisions of Plessy and not the ‘separate,’  joined with his clever demand for equal accommodations that the railroads could not meet, a first-class Pullman ticket for Blacks. All seemed to go well, and the questions asked were stimulating. The dinner was a wonderful trip down memory lane, hosted by Cecilia Miller, the chair of the department . . . I did quote Spike Dartheny ’64 in summarizing my Wesleyan experience: ‘The aim of education is to endanger one’s soul in an atmosphere of enlightened discourse.’ The mission hasn’t changed much in 60 years.”

Gene Bunnell,professor emeritus, Geography and Planning, the University of Albany, writes that he and “his wife, Lynne, have relocated from Albany, New York, to Rockaway, New Jersey.” In September 2024, SUNY Press published his book, Buffalo’s Waterfront Renaissance: Citizen Activists, NGOs, and the Canalside Project. 

The highlight of Christmas 2025 for Robert Dearth was the assembly of his children, who came from around the world to celebrate in their new condo in Cabo San Lucas, BCS, Mexico—from Singapore, his oldest son Matt and his wife, Tracey; Sebastian from the NYC area; Nicholas (recently graduated from Gettysburg University) from Madrid; and Mateo from London. “Fishing and many dinners out together [were] planned amidst the sun and sand there.”  

Paul Gilbert and his wife have recently moved to “a senior living center that provides a life-care setting for its residents.” They “worked for two months cleaning out our small house of everything we thought was surplus . . . When the day for moving in arrived, we both realized that we still had too much stuff. We turned our two bedroom, two bath, [and] living room into what looked like someone’s attic. My advice to anyone considering moving into a small living space: burn your house down and buy just what you need as new! Our cats have made an unhappy transition too. The female is fairly comfortable, but the male is making trouble for everyone. I had a long talk with him before we moved, but he just rejected all my comments. We’re now (after some months) all better adjusted, and we’ve made many new friends. I’m planning to write a book about this relocation . . . to offer some of my insights about late-age moving. I had a few surprises, even after working with aging seniors in my pastoral ministry.”

Bud Smith shares the good news that his sonnet, “Butterflies,” is a prizewinner in the Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest.

Butterflies

Bud has written a beauty, so much to admire. As I wrote to him, “I don’t know of a sonnet that begins most of its lines with a trochee. And who outside of the masterful brings in proper names and gets them to rhyme, well almost, ‘let it be’ ‘Poincaré.’ The theme of the poem is timely and moving. Did you take a class with Richard Wilbur? I think he is the one who pointed out to me that Frost wrote ‘disguised sonnets.’ I have a feeling and hope there are many who ‘Do not scorn the sonnet,’ who will read yours and delight in doing so. Congratulations!” 

On perhaps a lesser note, Bud’s poem, “The Pool,” has been selected as a finalist in the One Condoms poetry contest, the winning entry to be on the boxes of condoms. Here is Bud’s poem, which I found by far to be the best among those trying to be the Poe of Prophylactics.

The Pool

David Luft’s writing career continues. Beyond States and Nations: Toward a Central European Intellectual History: Essays “has just been accepted for publication . . . I am also writing a book about my life, which I am calling An Education. The writing has gone very well . . . and I hope to finish it in the coming year. The third book on Czech intellectual history is a bit further off.” David ends with this note of nostalgia: “PS: Have I told you that when I was babysitting for Ohmann, I saw a book on the shelf called Silent Spring? The first I’d heard of it.”

Barry Thomas sends this good news: “2025 was an important year for our Dreaming for Change work in Burundi. The nutrition, health, preschool, primary school, and microfinance programs continued to grow, expand reach, and have increased impact on the lives of children and their families in the communities where we work. Most important, several new sources of support and funding have partnered with Dreaming for Change and made significant, multiyear funding commitments. What started eight years ago with provision of a daily cup of nutritious porridge to a few hundred malnourished children and their mothers has become a very substantial, well-organized, well-recognized, and sustainable community center dedicated to the improvement of human well-being in rural Burundi. I can say with pride that the U.S. friends of Dreaming for Change did a great job of helping to get it all started. Dreaming for Change is now providing a comprehensive and growing array of services that are helping a community of very poor people break out of their subsistence life. Education for children and adults is the theme that is driving all the programming. I cannot thank enough the Wesleyan classmates who have supported Dreaming for Change financially and with their thoughtful encouragement during these start-up years.” News to celebrate.   

We end with a great update from Jonathan Peter Monroe. “As a retired landscape architect, I am enjoying volunteering to repair a local, city-owned historic cemetery here in Portland, Maine. It has involved me in jackhammering out concrete post bases so new fencing can be installed and cutting of and coring out rusty pins holding tombstones to bases, and re-laying slumping brick sidewalks. I love being outdoors and staying fit. Be well classmates.”