Categories Obituaries, Obituaries | 1940-1949Posted on

Eugene “Gene” F. Loveland ’43, P’68

Eugene “Gene” F. Gene Loveland ’43, P’68, passed away peacefully in his sleep on November 6, 2025.

Gene was born in Anderson, Indiana, in 1920. An only child, his life was emblematic of the Greatest Generation. He grew up during the Depression and came of age during World War II.  He was tested and emerged with optimism and purpose; he was committed to his family, his country, and to causes larger than himself. 

Gene was a member of the Class of 1943.  He joined Chi Psi fraternity and made a name for himself as a sprinter in 220 and 440-yard dashes.  In March of his senior year, he was called to active duty with the U.S. Naval Air Corps.  He served as a fighter pilot on board the USS Ticonderoga in the Pacific Theater and earned the Distinguish Flying Cross and two air medals.

In the spring of 1946, Gene returned to Wesleyan with his bride Joan (King) to complete his final semester.  After graduating, he joined the Shell Oil Company as a sales trainee in aviation sales.  His career with Shell encompassed sixteen assignments and ten moves (including two years in London) and culminated in 1968 with a promotion to vice president.  His last assignment brought him to Houston in 1971, and it was to be his home for the last half century of his life.

Following retirement from Shell, Mr. Loveland spent eight years as president of Transworld Oil USA, Inc. The company, formerly known as T.W. Oil Inc., is a holding company for businesses providing services to the oil, gas and energy industries. Mr. Loveland joined the company as president in 1981 and served as chairman and chief executive officer from 1983 to 1989.

Gene’s volunteer and civic activities—from which it seemed he never retired—read like yet another career.  An energetic and sought-after organizer and fundraiser, he was president of the Houston Ballet Foundation for four years (chairman for one); president of the International Contemporary Music Exchange; a member of the executive committees of the United Way and the Houston International Festival; a trustee of the Houston Support Center, the British American Educational Foundation, and the Cultural Arts Council of Houston; chairman of the development committee of the Fay School; chairman of the Greater Houston Ice Skating Council; commander of the Texas Commandery of the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem; Honorary Counsel General of the Republic of Malta; and vice dean of the Houston Consular Corps.  A founding member of the Wortham Theater Foundation, Gene personally raised $21 million of the $74 million secured in private funds to build and give the City of Houston a new opera house and adjoining theater for the performing arts.  The Texas chapter of the National Society for Fund Raising Executives awarded Gene its 1980 Fund Raiser of the Year Award.

Gene and Joan were married for 69 years.  They had four sons—Jeffrey ’68 (Sara), Peter (Kathy), David (Susan), and Mark (Jamie)—and a daughter, Laurie Daniel (Dan). Affectionately called Papa Gene and Gogo, they were blessed with 11 grandchildren and 21 great grandchildren.

Always a great storyteller, he wrote a 130-page book of “Papa Gene Stories,” with recollections of his boyhood, his service during the War, his career, and his many adventures with notable characters around the world. In the book’s forward he wrote, “Through some of the stories and experiences, I hope the reader will have a view of the 20th century and what my generation refers to as, ‘the good old days’.”  His legacy will live on in the City of Houston and across the United States through the generations of family and friends who loved him.

Categories Obituaries, Obituaries | 1940-1949Posted on

John A. Benson Jr. ’43

John A. Benson Jr. ’43 passed away on September 16, 2025. Obituaries can be found here, here, and following:

JOHN ALEXANDER BENSON Jr., MD  1921 – 2025

John Alexander Benson Jr., MD, a 1943 graduate of Wesleyan, died September 16, 2025, in Portland, Oregon. He was born July 23, 1921, in Manchester, Connecticut, and raised in a tight-knit family in Windsor, Connecticut. His parents instilled in him a lifelong love of education, which he imbued in his children and students. He often credited The Loomis School, a boys’ prep school where he was a day student, with instilling in him the joy of learning.

John had a long and distinguished career in medicine. A graduate of Harvard Medical School, he completed residency and fellowship at the Brigham and Massachusetts General Hospitals and the Mayo Clinic. In 1959 he joined the faculty of the School of Medicine at the University of Oregon Medical School (later renamed Oregon Health & Science University) as Professor of Medicine and became the first head of the Division of Gastroenterology.

John was appointed the first President of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) in 1975 and President-Emeritus in 1991. His emphasis on setting standards in graduate medical education strengthened the medical profession, enhanced the humanistic qualities of physicians, improved the competency certification process through continued research, and led the establishment of gerontology as a recognized subspecialty.

Prior to the ABIM presidency, Dr. Benson served as ABIM Secretary-Treasurer and as Chair of the ABIM Subspecialty Board of Gastroenterology. Among his appointments and awards, he was President of the American Gastroenterological Association, a Master of the American College of Physicians (receiving ACP’s John Phillips Award in 2000), and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. For the latter, he co-led the 1999 report on medical marijuana, Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base. In 2010 he shared the Abraham Flexner Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges. He authored or co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, invited articles and editorials.

 After ABIM, John served as Interim Dean of the OHSU School of Medicine (1991-93) and then as Dean Emeritus and Senior Scholar in the OHSU Center for Ethics in Healthcare. He was recognized with the annual Mentor Award in 2000 by the Medical Research Foundation of Oregon. In 2003, when his wife, Virginia Tilden, PhD, RN, was recruited as Dean of the College of Nursing at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha NE, John accepted appointments in medicine as Assistant Dean and Professor in the College of Medicine, where he focused on teaching, curriculum development, health care reform, and leading the University’s 10-year reaccreditation. On return to Portland in 2011, he continued professional activities through service to academic journals, The Foundation for Medical Excellence, and OHSU’s interprofessional education initiative.

Dr. Benson will be remembered for his practice and teaching of humanism and excellence, his love of family, and the values he modeled of service and integrity. He is survived by his wife, four children, two stepchildren, and seven grandchildren.

Categories Class Notes, GraduatePosted on

GRADUATES | 2023 | FALL ISSUE

While Bob Stepno MA ’83, MALS ’88, did not get to his double reunion in June, the former Hartford Courant education editor and journalism professor did invoke his Wesleyan studies while marking the 10th anniversary of his retirement from southwestern Virginia’s Radford University.

Bob, who once studied with ethnomusicologists Mark Slobin and David McAllester, gave a public lecture/concert at Radford’s university library, titled Dr. Bob’s Four-String Obession, playing and discussing a dozen mandolin and ukulele-family instruments. He did not bring his five-string banjo but reminisced about playing it as part of his last journalism lecture in 2013.

Since retirement, he has collected 13 ribbons (one of them blue) at old-time music conventions in Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina, playing various instruments, and reported considerable “pandemic woodshedding” in the past three years on his first fiddle, acquired at age 70. Radford’s mayor, David Horton, attended and live streamed part of the modest event. 

For those who might remember Bob, he received his MA in anthropology and music and performed in the Clean and Sober String Band with classmates. Bob went on to write for magazines, get his PhD from the schools of journalism and information science at UNC Chapel Hill, and taught at several colleges before retiring from Radford.

Categories Class Notes, Class Notes | 2020sPosted on

CLASS OF 2025 | 2025 | FALL ISSUE

Hello, Class of 2025!

Welcome to your section of the Class Notes! If you have any updates to share, please email classnotes@wesleyan.edu. And, if any of you would like to become your Class of ’25 secretary, please reach out. It’s a commitment of twice a year and a great way to keep in touch with classmates as you launch into your lives post Wes.