Tag: 1957

Earlier this year we reported the passing of your class secretary Bob Smith. In Bob’s last email to the Class Notes editor, he wanted to ensure that he shared with classmates that his beloved wife, Betty, to whom he was married for 64 years, predeceased him in March. With the news of Bob’s passing, we received the following remembrances:

Ken Travis: “It is indeed sad that we have lost another stalwart member of the Class of ’57. We will miss Bob’s good-natured humor and gentle, but persistent, solicitations for news. I will always value the times we shared as classmates, teammates, and summer camp counselors.”

Mark Feldman wrote: “Bob Smith will be sorely missed. His children and their progeny should know that Bob was among the salt of the earth. I first knew him as an Eclectic pledge in the fall of 1953 and was delighted to correspond with him as class secretary in recent years. Every time I saw Bob, he was calm, thoughtful, and helpful. He was one of my favorite Eclectics, and his loss is deeply felt.

“I also want to salute my dear friend and classmate Bill Shepard on his 90th birthday earlier this month [June]. My daughter, Ilana ’91, drove Mimi and me to celebrate with his wife, Lois, daughters Stephanie and Robin, and sundry friends at their lovely home on the Eastern Shore. Bill was a fellow French major and distinguished his Wesleyan degree with a notable career in diplomacy that included a tour as U.S. consul general in Bordeaux. It was great fun to reminisce with Bill about the glory days of Wesleyan in the Butterfield years. He recently showed his gratitude to Wesleyan by gifting a significant collection of French novels to the Olin Library. Thank you, Bill.” 

A link to Bob’s obituary can be found online at classnotes.blogs.wesleyan.edu.

George Willauer writes that he and Ed Porter realized a summer dream when Ed came from Nova Scotia to visit him in Lyme. It was a cultural weekend, with a trip to New York to see La Boheme at the Met, a new exhibit at MOMA, and the Cloisters. A special treat was a drive to Wesleyan to see the new Pruzan Art Center.

Here is a picture of Allan Kalb and his new toy, a recumbent trike. Next fall he plans to travel the Erie Canal Bikeway from Buffalo to Albany with his two sons, two grandsons, and a cousin. That’s over 300 miles! He must be in great shape for a nonagenarian-to-be.

Ken Travis reports that he and Janice have made it through another year and remain in “good shape for the shape they’re in.” They are impressed with the parenting skills of their grandchildren.

Mark Feldman and Mimi celebrated New Year’s Eve by babysitting their grandcats while his daughter, Ilana ’91, traveled. He’s grateful to be here with enough energy to bother the Supreme Court with opinions on issues he worked on in government in centuries past.

I got an email from Bob Anderson, who invited me to cull from his annual letter to family and friends. His youngest son, Peter, lives with him and does a lot of interior work, although Bob does up to two hours of low-level yard work on clear days. No cane or walker yet. He may decide this year to move to some place with less work and flatter ground.

Ric Winslow retired two years ago from teaching at Iona College. Although he lives alone, he is surrounded by several generations of family. He says he is in awe of the amount of history that people our age have lived through and continue to witness. 

Betty and I drove to visit our daughter and her grandchildren in Maryland over Thanksgiving. It was an arduous trip. The traffic in the D.C. area is unbelievable, but everyone up there seems to take it in stride. Here is a picture of me and our identical twin great-granddaughters.

Ken Travis is enjoying life in the Pacific Northwest, although he still has some New England withdrawal symptoms. In August he and Janice celebrated 65 years since they tied the knot in the Wesleyan chapel. They recently welcomed two additional great-granddaughters to the fold. 

Ed Porter sent along a picture of his latest acquisition, a 23-foot gaff-rigged yawl that even has some space below deck. He’s a regular sight sailing on Penobscot Bay in Maine. Ed hopes all our classmates had a fine summer.

For the past 31 years Jack Goodhue has written about 400 columns and feature-length articles for a business magazine. Those days are over, as he and the mag have agreed to call it quits. It was fun, but now he and Jane have more free time to enjoy life in Wilmington, North Carolina. They are another couple with great-grandchildren, living in Texas and California.

Jack also wrote to notify us of the death of Norm Miller this past July.  After his retirement from Tulane University, where he was a professor of Spanish arts, Norm moved to Tucson, Arizona. He served as a docent at the University of Arizona Museum of Art. Jack, Norm, and Trent Sorenson MA ’58 were the trio who absconded with the Douglas Cannon on a dark and dreary night just before our graduation. If you get back to Wesleyan, Jack’s scrapbook on the theft is in the Olin Library’s archives. 

I heard from Mark Feldman, who just recovered from a nasty bout of pneumonia. He’s thankful for that and grateful to the loving women in his life. Mark promises to let me know if he wins the lottery. 

Gordon Wilmot may have topped us all with four great-grandkids. He and Marilyn plan to celebrate their upcoming anniversary by flying to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and staying in a VRBO for a week. They’ll stop for another week in Key West, on their way back to Rhode Island. They go somewhere every November for their anniversary and again in March for their birthdays. 

We’ve had a few remote birthdays in our family. Our youngest grandchild, who now lives in Missouri, turned 8 in June. Halfway across the country is a long drive! Next time we’ll fly. Then in July our daughter and great-grandson had birthdays, two days apart. Hers ended in a zero. Naturally, we drove to Maryland for the occasion. 

Until next time, stay well. 

Bob