A big “thank you” to John Sheaff for playing the role of Acting Secretary and submitting commentary on our 60th Class Reunion! His submission is quoted verbatim!

“The Honor of the Wesleyan Class of 1955 was upheld by the presence of five members at our 60th Reunion this past weekend. Loyal Class Members George Edwards, Charles Smith, William Gordon, Theodore Stein and John Sheaf had the good fortune of being able to attend and enjoy the pleasures of reviewing past good times, wonderful weather, and college-provided events. The enjoyment of our gatherings was enhanced by the presence of Wesleyan staff members who were able to answer questions regarding Wesleyan’s programs. The Class of 2015 has 799 (hope I got the number right) members. The largest ever.

“At meal times our group was joined by alumni of other years close to 1955, which added to the enjoyment of the gathering. In the Alumni Parade we had ahead of us one member of the Class of 1951 and ahead of him two members of the Class of 1950. We are getting near the head of the line.

“At the end of the parade we attended the Annual Meeting of the Alumni Association which include the presentation of awards for service and an address by David B. Potts ’60, which covered the history of Wesleyan presidents.”

John wrote that he and Lois were pleased with the entire program and commented that, as Wesleyan is only approximately a three-hour drive from their home, the whole trip was not a problem for them.

Sadly, this month (June), I received notices of the passing of two of our classmates. Charles Little died June 20, 2014, in Albuquerque, N.M. Charles was an advertising executive with Foote, Cone and Belding until 1963, when he became chief executive officer of the Open Space Institute and then on to several other executive positions involving land use issues. His entire life’s work was dedicated to the appreciation and protection of American landscapes. He authored many books devoted to his life’s passion.
Arthur Coppotelli passed away March 5, 2015. He received a MA in literature from Yale University in 1960. During the course of his career he was a speech writer for President John F. Kennedy Jr., and he authored the proposal for the youth training corps used in President Kennedy’s State of the Union Address. He also was an instructor of English and humanities at Wesleyan. Please see magazine.wesleyan.edu for a more detailed obituary.

I continue to swap notes with Gail Clarke, George Edwards, and Brad Miter via Facebook and invite you to say “hello” when you get a chance.

Marianne and I continue to enjoy life in Florida and are well. As you might imagine, biking is still a major part of my routine and at this point (June 11, 2015) I’ve logged just a tad less than 2,700 miles for the year. Always hopeful of reaching the 5,000-mile annual target.

To you and your loved ones, my sincere best wishes for health and happiness.

Greetings to all my ’54 classmates as we cruise through our 83rd year, and 61st since graduation…

Here’s latest from some of us: John Binswanger has been traveling again, to Panama and Colombia in May, then to Aspen in July for three weeks. John is still involved in Fairmount Park in Philly, and he’ll be in Middletown next year for a grandson’s graduation.

Eric Cone has shifted to a retirement home in Oakland, but still travels back to Northwest Ohio twice a year to visit family. Eric says he prefers California’s climate, despite the drought.

Ed Dewey and bride Joyce enjoy living in Big Canoe, Ga, where they enjoy golf, tennis, swimming, exercise and hiking (among others). In July, they traveled to Switzerland and England.

After six years of living alone, Bill Drury sold his house in Chelmsford, Mass., and moved to Hunt Continuing Care Community in Nashua, N.H., where he is both pampered and independent! Bill spent the first half of last July at “my beloved Eagle Camp on Lake Champlain, where I have gone every summer but one since I was born.” Eight family members joined Bill there for the second week.

Al Flynn called to report he’s now in Asheville, N.C. In June he visited Rocky Hill School in R.I., where he was headmaster.

Terry Hatter is still on the bench in California, but left there in June for graduation of oldest grandson, Eric, from (get ready)—Williams! Prior to that, Terry and bride were in Santa Monica for a granddaughter’s graduation from middle school.

Bud Johnson and Lynn are off to Munich to join a 10-day Tauck Tour of mountain adventures in six countries…

George Klein sends greetings from Guam, where he’s been retired for nearly two years. George says it’s a tropical paradise, 9,000 miles from Connecticut, as the crow flies.

Bob Schnuer and Vickie Sanderson were married in Florida last May. Bob reports “a wonderful five-plus year ‘trial period,’ and says he’s both lucky and blessed to have discovered a second wonder woman willing to put up with me.” Of note is that Vickie attended our last two Reunions.

Jules Schwaber is now three years retired from medical practice. Wife of 59 years, Evelyne, recently celebrated her 60th college reunion at Radcliffe. Family still thriving.

Marshall Umpleby reports mostly on medical issues, including a new chemo, Dacogen, “which seems to be working, but it’s too soon to tell.” Life is okay, he says, but they can’t go on any trips longer than a week. As for Marshall’s Bucket List: “New Zealand and Australia are out!”

Your ink-stained scribe: Bob Carey and bride Libby returned from six weeks on Sanibel Island in February, relaxed at home in March, traveled to Bentonville, Ark., in April to visit the famous Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, then on to Philadelphia in May for youngest daughter’s doctorate ceremony at Temple, then to Boston for granddaughter’s graduation from Boston University. In June to London for grandson’s graduation, at Westminster Hall, from the American School in London. And in July to The Villages, Fla. for Bob’s sister’s 80th birthday celebration.

All the best to us in 2015–2016, and stay healthy!

Never too late to write a “Dear John” as did Sandy Millar from Camden, Maine, after 62 years. A year ago Fran and he found Omaha Beach especially moving while enjoying cruising on the Seine. This fall they will travel Portugal’s Douro River. When not cleaning up a portion of Wellfleet’s ocean beach or participating in Rockland Kiwanis Club activities, keeping up with four grandchildren and their parents in Norwalk and Darien, Conn., makes life interesting.

Former White House physician and retired brigadier general John E. Hutton Jr., died Dec. 12, 2014, from complications of Parkinson’s and Lewy body dementia at a military retirement facility in D.C. A biology major and member of Eclectic, John wrote in 1993 that he could easily make his 177 lb. wrestling weight class with no effort. After serving in the Marine Corps as a helicopter pilot, he attended medical school and served in Vietnam, becoming an authority on bullet wounds and managing wartime casualties. John served in the White House for two years before being named physician to President Reagan in 1987. He retired from the military in 1992 and then taught at the Uniformed Services University until 2010.

Word has been received of the death of John Seelye, of Palatka, Fla., April 20, 2015. He was an English major and member of Alpha Chi Rho, where he served as secretary. After receiving a doctorate from Claremont Graduate School, he taught at a number of universities: Cal Berkeley, North Carolina, Dartmouth, and the last being Florida in Gainesville. John enjoyed restoring historical homes and buildings, his most recent the Veterans’ Memorial Hall in Eastport, Maine. During the summer of 1953 I remember John and my college roommate, Jan van den Berg, on their way to graduate schools in California, driving through Denver, where I was working, seeking housing and dates.

Tom Plimpton ’56 notified us of the death of his brother, James David “Jim” Plimpton, Dec. 7, 2014. A native of Dyer, Ind., (Chicago area) Jim was a physics/math major (Phi Beta Kappa) and a member of Delta Tau Delta, where he and Charlie Hoyt became close friends, and Jim played trombone with the High Street Five. After receiving a Ph.D. from Iowa State in ’61, he joined Sandia Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., and worked in the area of nuclear physics, later becoming an administrator before retirement. As third generation Wesman, his grandfather 1891 and father 1921, Jim was the fourth of five family members to grace the campus. Our condolences to his wife, Donna, their two children, and three granddaughters.

Condolences of the class are extended to the wives and families of the three classmates. For further details see online obituaries at magazine.wesleyan.edu.

We promised more on Dick Mayer in this issue of the magazine. Dick left Wesleyan after his sophomore year and enlisted in the U. S. Army. Following graduation from Officer Candidate School, he became a platoon leader on the front lines of Korea, was seriously wounded, spent a year in a hospital in Japan, and was awarded one of the Army’s highest medals. Beyond this, Dick has forbade me (Hal) from providing any details of his military exploits, so my hands are tied. I am pleased to add, however, that Dick recovered satisfactorily from his wounds and says that he is still in pretty decent shape. He walks three miles a day and exercises for 45 minutes every morning. He has had a great life, especially his 61-year marriage to a very special woman (Ginger). He is still very active in the insurance business he founded, Executive Compensation Systems, Inc. (see issue 1, 2015, class notes for more details), and despite not having graduated, is every bit the epitome of the Wesleyan liberal arts-educated citizen Vic Butterfield so successfully molded.

Ken Taylor and his wife, JoAnne, reside in the same Seabury Retirement Community, Bloomfield, Conn., as Joyce and I, and we often dine together. You might think that we’d run out of old Wes stories by now, but recently Ken bowled me over with a tale I had trouble believing. Ken related (actually regaled) how his fellow Sigma Chi pledge, Russ Doolittle, was sent off on a quest to ride a horse across the Boston Common, lantern in hand, à la Paul Revere, shouting that the British were coming. I e-mailed Russ to find out if Ken was hallucinating, but Russ told me that, although it was probably not as sensational as Ken recalled, it was mostly accurate. Happily, Russ (and the horse) survived the event, and happily also, it turned out not to be the greatest accomplishment in his life. In fact, he says that he would just as soon forget it at this point.

In the course of tracking down the truth of the Doolittle quest, I learned that Dunc Nelson had had a quest on the same weekend and that he had actually accompanied Russ on his Boston Commons escapade. Dunc’s quest assignment was to parade a goose in front of the library at Wellesley, which he did. However, he was also supposed to inquire after the “measurements” of any young women he encountered there. That was a bit too much for Dunc, who wrote, “Flamboyant as I pretend to be, I suspect that I—keeping the ‘fowl’ imagery—chickened out.” On the way back to campus, Dunc’s borrowed car ran out of brake fluid. Having no money on him, he was forced to exchange the goose for two bottles of brake fluid at a gas station. You can’t make this stuff up!

Tom Collins and wife, Mary Ellen, were seen this past May after a performance at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Conn. Tom still goes to his law office in Glastonbury, Conn. daily. He is in great shape for one significantly older than the rest of his classmates—92. Tom was in the service during the WW II era before entering Wesleyan with us.

Walter Pories checked in recently with news of life in the springtime on his North Carolina farm, including a new crop of soybeans, baby goats, emerging pears, rhubarb ready for the table, “show-off magnolia with its huge white blossoms,” etc. Interspersed with that was, “To my absolute surprise, I was asked if I would like to serve as the second vice president-elect of the American College of Surgeons, a small organization of only 70,000 members [note Pories’ humor] and the strongest surgical society in the world.” Then, with his typical modesty and wit, he added, “As I see my job, it’s to get on my knees every morning and pray that none of the officers die. So far, I have a 100 percent success rate.” Amen, Walter!

More sad news. Dick “Sherry” Sherwood, of South Dartmouth, Mass., died on April 7, 2015. Sherry was part of the five-year Wesleyan/MIT program leading to a degree in architecture and civil engineering, so he left to attend MIT after our junior year. He was well known at Wesleyan as a sailing aficionado and, also, he possessed the first lacrosse stick and ball many of us had ever seen. He had a long career as a construction manager of projects in Jamaica, Iran, England, Denver, and other U.S. locations. Later on, his interest in sailing led him to write A Field Guide to Sailboats, and his keen sense of citizenship involvement led him to be selectman and to serve on various town committees of Amherst, N.H., where his wife, Janet, and he then resided. Dick is survived by his wife, two sons, and five grandchildren, to whom we extend our sincerest condolences.

Our class president and class agent, Bill Wasch, reminds us that our class has established the Class of 1952 Endowed Wesleyan Scholarship. It is presently held by Michael Glasser ’16, of Forest Hills, N.Y. Michael is a molecular biology and biochemistry major who says his favorite class last semester was Techniques of Poetry, which he took in addition to five science and math courses. Vic Butterfield would have loved this student! We can all build our scholarship fund for the benefit of future Wesleyan liberal arts students by designating our annual Wesleyan Fund contributions to the Class of 1952 Endowed Scholarship Fund.

John White wrote from Minnesota that the times had been flying by so fast, he couldn’t believe he had truly graduated from the old alma mater 64 years ago. John said he’d been married twice, had four children, who in turn had seven kids, who are turning into being gray-headed themselves, who in turn have three kids, two of whom came into this world in Australia. “All this means I’m a great-grandfather to those three,” John wrote. John was unhappy that the Minnesota driver’s liscence bureau had revoked his driver’s license. He was trying to get it back, so far without success. “I am qualified as a senior citizen,” he wrote, “and am now at the mercy of my dear wife Mary and a couple of friends to chauffer if I want or need to go someplace.” I know the feeling, John.

Bob Mack’s wife, Mary, wrote that Bob has become seriously handicapped by his Parkinson’s Syndrome and can do very little for himself. The family has a wheelchair-accessible van, and they can take him out occasionally. They also have excellent home health and Mary wrote that the family has been of great help also.

Jack Pfeiffer reported sad news from Jonesboro, Ga., in the death of his wife, Nancy, earlier this year. Consequently, Jack wrote, he has moved to a senior citizen’s homestead, where he has a two-bedroom apartment. “My health is fair,” Jack wrote, “and I try to exercise fairly often.” Jack said he wouldn’t be able to make our 65th Reunion but wanted to wish his classmates good health and a great time.

I don’t know if I included a very newsworthy letter from a fraternity brother Roger Stimson in Okemos, Mich. At the time he wrote, Roger was recovering from total knee replacement on both knees and hoped to be ready for the sailing season. Other than the knees, Roger said his health was good and he was working out regularly with a group of ex-Michigan State professors. He was still a ham radio operator. For anybody who has the appropriate equipment, you can see some of his handiwork on QRZ.com. Enter his call letters (K8RS) in the little box on the upper left and you’ll see his web page.

Dave Welsh wrote from Fort Myers, Fla., where he and his wife, Kathy, retired to in 2002. “We still travel to see our family by driving or flying to see sons, daughters, grandchildren and, in just the last few years, great-grandchildren,” he wrote. “Our lives are centered on our country club, playing many rounds of golf, going to the fitness center, reading and spending time with our friends for dinner a few times a week.” Dave said that he and Kathy were enjoying amazingly good health for their “young” age.

In my letters to classmates, I’m asking everyone to indicate whether they would be able to make our 65th Reunion next year. I think we’d need at least 10 to make it worthwhile for the university to do anything for us.

In a letter I received from Dave Richards he makes reference to a previous class note I wrote concerning the diminishing number of ’49 classmates. He made the point that he can still be counted as one of those still with us. He also made the point that he is one of the older members of our class, apparently 91 years of age, which makes him a year older than I. Dave further states that he walks a couple of miles a day and is in good health.
Dave and his wife, Mary, traveled through a “good bit of the world,” as he puts it. As a former architect he developed artistic skills and applied those skills to drawing pen-and-ink sketches of places through which they traveled. He has incorporated those sketches in a book, Some Thoughts on Sketching, and is sending a copy to Wesleyan for its creative arts classes.

I appreciate the letter from Dave, as I get very little information from classmates and his was an interesting and succinct description of his career, travels, and current activities. How about the rest of you who remain on this earth: Your friends and classmates want to hear about you…and don’t leave me hanging like this, begging for something and someone to write about.

The editors are saddened to report the death of longtime secretary Charlie Hill, who died June 7, 2015. He was 90. An obituary in the New York Times noted that he “taught French at Brooklyn College for 30 years, where he was a loved and respected teacher and colleague. He served as chairman of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures during the turbulence of New York City’s fiscal difficulties. He would give junior faculty members choice teaching assignments if he felt it would help their careers, since he was securely tenured. He was active as a leader in the New York-area American Association of Teachers of French, a role for which the French government honored him as a Chevalier des Palmes Académiques.” His son, Nick Hill ’85, observes: “Obviously, Wesleyan was a special place to him. Although many of our family members were Wesleyan graduates, that was not what mattered to him. He appreciated how well Wesleyan embodied the liberal arts. He would sometimes point out that he and Victor Butterfield started in the same year. I like to think that my time at Wesleyan gave him a renewed appreciation for a Wesleyan education. … As a longtime N.Y. Jets fan, he would jokingly gripe about Wesleyan’s embrace of Bill Belichick ’75!”

Douglas Dorchester writes, “I sent in an article on racism to the Cape Code Times. The editor liked it and waited for the right moment. When the tragic murders in Charleston, S.C., occurred, he said, ‘Now!’ He modified the article and printed it as their official response to Charleston. The article analyzes how racism develops in all of us.”

You can find his article at capecodtimes.com.

The preceding issue of this magazine included notice of the 2013 death of Gene Noble ’47; but before leaving for WWII service, he was a member of our class. He was also one of the 13 of us from Wesleyan who enlisted in the Tenth Mountain Division, which distinguished itself in combat in Italy and revolutionized the post-war ski industry. So far as I know at this June writing, four of us may still be alive; of two I am certain. That division was unique in military history, and its story and Wesleyan’s chapter of that story deserve a place in the college archives.

My last column generated no influx of news from you out there, but I did receive one unsigned scribbled note telling me, “A curse on your nonsense blessings.” Alas, that anonymous curse lacks spirit, lacks sting; it has no hint of elegance. Consider, if you will, how the ancient Irish curser had a fearsome power. To offend him or her was to flirt with a fate that could last four generations. Every chief had his personal bard whose function was to eulogize his employer and to curse without end his employer’s enemies. Next to the bard in cursing power came the widow woman, and a widow’s curse is still greatly to be feared. The orphan’s curse was no joke, either, and the priest’s curse was to be avoided like the plague. There’s a whole litany of curses in the Irish tradition: the hereditary curse; the reverting curse; the ceremonial group curse; the historical curse (probably the best-known historical curse in Ireland is ‘the curse of Cromwell’; the saint’s curse; and the poet’s curse. They take too many words of explanation for these notes’ allotted maximum, so I’ll end with my favorite delineation, the cursing contest, which has an underlying hint of good humor today. In Sligo town I witnessed a cursing contest between a shopkeeper and a woman of the Travelers. They went at it with vigor until the shopkeeper delivered this curse: “May the seven terriers of hell sit on the spool of your breast and bark in at your soul case.” The Traveler woman defeated him with, “The curse of the goose that lost the quill that wrote the Ten Commandments on ye.” American English has no elegance or imagination in what we coyly call four-letter words. The loss of powerful cursing is appalling.

Slán go fóill

I’m sorry to have to report two more losses. George McFarland died Jan. 5, 2015, and Art Snyder died Nov. 11, 2014. Art was a member of Psi U and a fellow soccer player. They will be sorely missed, and our hearts go out to their families.

Hope you are surviving the weather all right. A little too hot for me, coming from New Jersey! On my follow-up visit to the surgeon, they found some more cancer, so I’ll have to go back for another operation—maybe this time they will get it right!

From Jack Ritchie: “You do good work. I recently got to the campus (in May). I went to hear the president do an update on the state of the college, at lunch in the ’92 Theater for old folks. I was the only ’43 graduate, and the oldest there. The lunch was free.”

I received a nice letter from Fred Mellor, in which he writes, “It’s been years since I reported in to you or your predecessor. You deserve a deal of credit for your effort on behalf of the class of ’43. My wife and I are still in our same home since 1954—in good health, except I fell down a set of stairs and injured my left leg—so that I now walk slowly with a cane. It forced me to give up golf at our country club—now we play bridge there instead—men with men, women with women. I still can drive the car easily, but no sports. Ben Buffham ’41 is the only Wesleyan and Beta Theta Pi fraternity brother I have left to communicate with anymore. It has been years since the last visit to Wesleyan. Well, Fred—keep up the good reporting—I enjoy your effort.”

Dick Ferguson writes, “Always so good to hear from you, and the Wesleyan news. There are not any ’43 guys here at Cranes Mill. There is Bob Foster ’45, who was two classes behind us. He, also, likes news! Both of us send our best to Bobbie.”

Gene Loveland reports: “All is well. Tried to win back the cup in the spring putting championship, but bowed to my nemesis who had five aces to my four. A great match, and another crack at it in October. Also, news for the fall! Labor Day weekend I will marry an old friend of ours from Hartford and resident of the Hallmark. A beautiful 93-year-old who went to Wes house parties in our era, with a Deke whose name she can’t recall. [Congratulations, Gene!] Five days later, on Patriot’s Day, I will be 95. Should be a good year. Onward and upward into the 21st century!”