FRANKLIN D. REEVE

FRANKLIN D. REEVE, a poet, translator, and former professor of Russian Language and Literature, died June 28, 2013. He was 84. A graduate of Princeton University, he received master’s and doctoral degrees from Columbia University. He taught at Columbia before joining the faculty at Wesleyan, where he taught full-time until he decided to devote more time to his writing and became a part-time faculty member. He published more than 30 books, including 10 volumes of poetry and translations of Russian authors. One book chronicled a trip to the Soviet Union in 1962 with Robert Frost on a good-will mission requested by President John F. Kennedy. At an early point in his career, while in graduate school, he began acting professionally, but gave it up because he feared that immersing himself in dramatic characters might erode his own poetic voice. He also founded the journal The Poetry Review. He translated Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s 1970 Nobel lecture and delivered the keynote address at the International Conference of Translators of Russian Literature in Moscow in 2007. His first three marriages ended in divorce. Survivors include his wife, Laura C. Stevenson; a son from his first marriage; a daughter and two sons from his second marriage; two stepdaughters; his sister and brother; and 18 grandchildren.

REGINALD BARTHOLOMEW

REGINALD BARTHOLOMEW, a senior diplomat and ambassador who taught at Wesleyan from 1964 to 1968 before joining the government, died Aug. 26, 2012, at age 76. Always interested in working overseas, he passed the Foreign Service exam as a sophomore at Dartmouth College. After graduating in 1958 with degrees in history and political science, he attended graduate school at the University of Chicago, where he received his master’s in political science, worked toward his doctorate, and taught, in addition to spending a year in France studying French politics. He then took a job teaching European government and politics at Wesleyan, where he met Leslie H. Gelb, a former New York Times reporter who worked with him later in the Defense and State departments, and who was teaching at Wesleyan as well. In 1968 Mr. Gelb persuaded him to join the staff at the Pentagon, from which he moved to and from various departments in different roles. During his long tenure, he served four presidents, negotiated for nuclear disarmament with the Soviet Union and for the preservation of American military bases in Europe, served as ambassador to Spain and Italy, and survived a bomb attack while ambassador to Lebanon in 1984. He received an honorary degree from Wesleyan in 1985. Among those who survive are his wife, Rose-Anne Dognin Bartholomew, three sons, a daughter, seven grandchildren, and his brother.

LAUREL F. APPEL

LAUREL F. APPEL, adjunct associate professor of biology, died Mar. 4, 2013, at age 50. A graduate of Oberlin College, she received a PhD in genetics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1993, when she moved to Connecticut. At Wesleyan, she also directed the Ronald E. McNair Program, which supports and nurtures first-generation college students and students in underrepresented groups for entry into graduate programs. She is survived by her husband, Wesleyan Professor of Biology Michael Weir, two children, her mother, two brothers, and three nieces and nephews. Her father died on April 19, 2013, six weeks after his daughter.

PAULA LEE SCHILLER

PAULA LEE SCHILLER, 61, an executive at the Southern New England Telephone Company who received an MALS from Wesleyan in 2001, died Oct. 26, 2010. She was a graduate of Vassar College and also received a master’s degree from Rensselaer. She was a volunteer and activist for many family and environmental causes. Her parents, her sister, and two nephews survive.

DOUGLAS W. MacKELCAN JR.

DOUGLAS W. MacKELCAN JR., 63, an independent school headmaster who received an MALS from Wesleyan in 1980, died July 30, 2012. The son of the late Douglas W. MacKelcan of the class of 1942, he received his BA from Hobart College. He taught in Maine and in Michigan, joining the administration at the University Liggett School there. In 1981 he became Head of School at the Louisville (Ky.) Collegiate School, a position he held for 30 years. Later, he was associated with the Columbus (Ohio) Academy, the Durham (N.C.) Academy, and the Sanford School in Hockessin, Del. He was also involved with a number of professional associations. Among those who survive are his wife, Deborah Garber MacKelcan, two sons, and three siblings.

STEVEN O. SARGENT

STEVEN O. SARGENT, a retired English teacher who received an MALS from Wesleyan in 1973, died Feb. 14, 2013. A graduate of North Adams State College, he taught English in Middletown, Conn., for nine years, and then moved to New Hampshire, where he spent more than 25 years teaching at Gilford High School. Survivors include his wife, Sharon Sargent; his two sons, including Scott Sargent MALS 2006; his daughter; and two grandchildren.

STEPHEN T. BOLMER

STEPHEN T. BOLMER, who taught at the Hotchkiss School in Salisbury, Conn., for 44 years, a school record, and who received an MALS from Wesleyan in 1969, died May 11, 2013. He was 87. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he received his bachelor’s degree from Union College and joined the Hotchkiss faculty. He spent most of career teaching mathematics. He also served as head of the department and spent several years as director of admissions. A member of the Board and past president of the Secondary School Admission Test (SSAT), he was active in the Salisbury community. Survivors include his wife, Margaret (Peggy) Yates Bolmer, three sons, two grandchildren, and two sisters.

JOHN KARAJANIS

JOHN KARAJANIS, who received an MALS from Wesleyan in 1959 and who was the assistant superintendent of the West Haven (Conn.) Public Schools, died Dec. 22, 2010. He received his bachelor’s degree from Southern Connecticut State University and his PhD from Walden University. A U.S. Air Force veteran, he was also adjunct professor of physics at Southern Connecticut for nine years. He served in the West Haven school system for 45 years in various teaching and administrative capacities and was the recipient of two National Science Foundation grants to study physics at Yale University. Survivors include his wife, Dorothy De Bridget Karajanis,; several children, including Tony Karajanis ’90; and several grandchildren, including Paul J. Tortora ’03.

RUTH T. BROOKS

RUTH T. BROOKS, 86, an analytical chemist who received an MA in chemistry in 1954 and later taught music, died May 3, 2013. She received a BA from Mount Holyoke College in French with a minor in music, and worked for Olin Mathieson before beginning her music career. Over the course of 50 years she taught piano, violin, viola, and guitar to hundreds of students. She also founded and played violin and viola in the Hamden (Conn.) Symphony Orchestra, where she was honored on the occasion of its 50th anniversary in 2012. She was still actively teaching 10 students until March 2013. Among those who survive are two sons, including Peter Brooks ’82, and seven grandchildren.

ELVA S. CREEGER

ELVA S. CREEGER, 84, a scientist whose research centered on such diverse topics as mathematical modeling of piezoelectricity in crystals, cell membrane permeability, and cancer research, and who received a master’s degree in physics in 1953, and a PhD in biophysics, died Mar. 29, 2013. She was the daughter of the late long-serving Wesleyan Professor of Astronomy Carl L. Stearns of the class of 1917 and the sister of the late Robert L. Stearns of the class of 1950. She received a BA from Vassar College and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and to Sigma Xi. After receiving Louise Hart Van Loon and NIH graduate fellowships, her career included teaching and research posts at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, the Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center in Newington, Conn., and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, Germany, where she worked with a team quantifying the DNA molecule. After retiring she became a policy editor for Hartford insurance firms. A certified Water Safety Instructor for many years, she was an avid, life-long swimmer and was also a consistent blood donor. A son, Carl Creeger, died. Survivors include her husband, Wesleyan Professor of English Emeritus and former Dean of the College George R. Creeger; two children; two grandchildren; her sister; and a nephew, Marshall E. Stearns ’82.