Tag: 1959

Members of the great class of ’59 and their support forces continue to be actively involved with their families and communities. Ted Fiske and his wife, Sunny, have just returned from London, where they attended a chamber music concert in which Hugh Rosenbaum performed with his bassoon up to his high standard. Ted and Sunny will return to London for the month of October during sabbatical to study the English education system. Sunny’s older son and family also live there.

Hugh Lifson writes from Iowa: “Really enjoyed your report. I am envious of all the meet-ups people are having. Out here in the boonies, Wes alums are rare and classmates even rarer! The get-togethers made me think of your column and President Michael Roth’s ’78 article. I hate to say it, but it is an old Williams College slogan—‘a college is Mark Hopkins at one end of a log and a student at the other.’ Well…. if my memory is correct, we all had such experiences. One dared not go into Louis Mink’s office unless you were prepared to spend an hour or two. The same thing often happened with Profs. Schorske, Tenzer, Greene, Schwarz, McAllester, and many others. I have often bragged about the fact that the Wesleyan education c. 1959 was the best in the country. President Roth may be unwittingly (or wittingly) hearkening back to our golden days.”

Skip McAfee reports from Bradenton, Fla., where he resettled after the loss of his wife of nearly 50 years. They had been in Columbia, Md., for 40 years, where Skip was the executive director of The American Society for Horticultural Science. Thereafter he edited the Dickson Baseball Dictionary, weighing at more than four pounds with more than 10,000 entries. Bradenton appealed as his new location because his younger daughter and growing family live there. Skip is also the umpire of choice for youth baseball and senior softball.

Bill Moody reports on a couple of mini-reunions. First the Messrs. Moody, Chase, Gillette, and Leverich and their spouses met at the home of Bing and Luize Leverich for dinner and tall tales and memories. Bob Gillette told about his new book, a sequel to his first, The Virginia Plan. A second reunion took place at the National Museum of the Marine Corps where Tim Day was honored for his generosity in funding an overlook site named in his honor. For a number of years, Tim has also funded deserving Marine Corps captains at Harvard Business School. Bert Edwards, Ed Murphy and Bill Moody were in attendance.

The oft-wandering Eklunds are still active, having attended two high school graduations, one in Colorado, and the other in New Jersey, a week apart. Cornell and Brown are the next stops for the grads and Dave and Mary will repeat in four years. Dave and Mary are on Nantucket, then to Walpole, Mass., for Dave’s 60th high school reunion. Next to Bristol, R.I., for July 4th to see one grandson march in the oldest continuous USA parade. Then to Jackson Hole. Wow!

We now have two classmates who are members of the Wesleyan Athletics Hall of Fame: Fred Stone inducted last year, and Dave Darling this May. Dave Eklund and Tom Young were there in support in the Silloway Gymnasium! (All that and back-to-back NESCAC champions to boot!) Pictures of the event and the honoree are on our class site, thanks to Mary Eklund!!

Ed Roberts is retiring as the music director for the Lansdowne United Methodist Church after 14 years. He corresponds with Music Prof. Emeritus Dick Winslow ’40 who is now a spry 97. Prof. Winslow walks with two canes and refers to himself as “Citizen Canes.”

On a sadder note, Dr. Jim Browning died in March. He was a highly respected ophthalmologist, keen Steelers fan and renowned gardener specializing in azaleas, rhododendrons, magnolias and dwarf conifers. He propagated and hybridized hardy rhododendron, and had to miss our 50th as he was called on to hold forth at the American Rhododendron Society, which awarded him their highest honor.

Peter Rockefeller remembers Jim: “In the summer of ’58, inspired by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and other such visionaries, we bought a used Chevy in Hartford, with the help of Shive Shively, and eventually set off from Jim’s home in Pittsburgh to see the USA!
“We really bonded during our journey and many memories flood back now—his support during an awkward reunion with a no-show father in Florida, our nocturnal hike down the Grand Canyon and back up, staggering to the rim as the sun rose, descent into the Carlsbad Caverns at dusk as bats swarmed all around us, crossing the Mojave Desert in the middle of the night to preserve ourselves and the Chevy, observing the $2 betting limit in Vegas, discovering the magic of San Francisco, crossing the Rockies and peeing on the Continental Divide (doesn’t everybody?), and home.

“Jim was a private man, thoughtful and kind. I cherish the time I was privileged to share with him.”

Blanche Browning, Jim’s wife, responded: “Thank you, to all of you, for your kind words about Jim. Pete, I cannot tell you the number of times Jim talked about your trip, recounted exactly as you described it.

“Wesleyan can be credited for the number of books I counted in his library of Shakespeare’s works, more than 28. He listened every day to lectures of the Great Courses on all subjects: art, philosophy, religion, wars, history, and literature. When he passed away he was reading three books: Joseph and his Brothers by Thomas Mann, Plato and King Lear. He often reread many of his books.

“Finally, he was still working on hybridizing a new rhododendron to be named Wesleyana!”
Our thoughts are with Blanche and the family.

Ed (Dusty) McGrew passed away at the end of May after battling a number of things, including strokes and cancer. He and Carol were married for almost 56 years. Carol was at Conn. College; Dusty was an enthusiastic Alpha Delt and they obviously led an exciting courtship as they were married the minute the ink dried on their diplomas in June of 1959. They raised three daughters on the North Shore of Chicago. There are eight grandchildren, seven boys and one girl who are thriving. Three are college grads, one is studying medicine, and the rest coming along from grade school to high school. Quite a handful and a real achievement!

Fresh from a 55th Reunion, the Great Class of ’59 continues on. We drew a surprising number of returnees, noted many have been married to the same spouse for nearly the entire time since graduation and want to recognize those of whom we are aware. Your two class scribes qualify, Cyndy and John Spurdle (56) and Molly and Skip Silloway (50). Our class “insider,” Charlie Wrubel and his wife Myra (54) certainly qualify. Others include Margaret and Owen Tabor (50), Judy and Bob Hydeman (52), Joan and Ted Bromage (55) and Sue and Bert Edwards. We are sure there others and we will include them when they report.

Alan Brooks writes: “At the 55th Reunion in May 2014, three classmates agreed to get together that summer in mid-coast Maine, where each had a summer place. Spurred on by Joe Mallory’s efforts, he and his wife, Wendy, joined Bob Chase and his wife, Joan, and Alan Brooks and wife Marie-Pier for dinner at the Public House in Damariscotta. A pleasant evening was shared during which we did ‘tell the stories of the glories of dear old Wesleyan.’ It was decided that our little reunion should become an annual summer tradition.”

Walter Burnett, visiting friends in Friendship, Maine, in early September, paid a call on his former roommate, Alan Brooks, at his Capitol Island cottage. During a leisurely lunch looking out over the Boothbay Harbor area, Walter and Alan had ample time to catch up on each other’s lives before Walter hit the road again headed for D.C.

Linda and Dick Cadigan report productive and satisfying missionary work in S.W. Uganda at a community hospital and health complex, where he encountered “a sobering exposure to the way millions live in much of the world.” Equally satisfying was the ordination on 1/15/15 of their oldest child, Katie, as an Episcopal priest in Santa Monica. They witnessed a standing ovation for Katie’s first service. The church is fortunate to see three generations of this family: Dick’s dad, Dick himself, and now Katie are all Episcopal ministers. The proud parents are now off to Belize in February for additional missionary work.

Ted Bromage staved off the cold while blowing 20 inches of snow from his half-mile driveway by thinking of the warmth and friendship of our Reunion. Also heartwarming is the spring launch of his trawler, Landfall, and our upcoming 60th high school reunion.

Molly and Skip Silloway, as part of their 50th anniversary celebration, spent much of July in the United Kingdom. The highlight was a weeklong charter of a barge on the Thames River. Both sons, a daughter-in-law, and their two grandchildren accompanied them on a memorable trip. After this, the two senior Silloways fled to Scotland for two weeks. All in all, a wonderful trip with great company, scenery, and people. “Och Aye Laddie, as they say in the Highlands, quite an odyssey.”

Cyndy and John Spurdle headed over to England in the Silloway’s wake for a trip to London to see old pals and to celebrate their youngest granddaughter’s birthday with theater, dining out and her own room at the Sloane Club. They then headed north to Suffolk for Christmas with daughter Meg ’84 and her family, renting “Fig Cottage” in the nearby village of Pettistree, home of the classic Greyhound pub. They headed back to London for New Year’s Eve and then home.

Our roving “starving artist” Steve Pyle has been reported on Fisher’s Island, where he delivered a painting, played golf, and stayed with the Spurdles. After flying into Groton in a plane far too powerful to land on Fisher’s Island, John came across the bay in his boat. There he played two rounds of Texan Foursomes with all available Texans on Fisher’s Island in increasingly windy weather, and had to find a bigger craft to take back to Connecticut.

On a more sober front we report the death of Marty Jaskot in Hawaii. Marty was one of Middletown’s own and leaves a large family here behind. The funeral took place in Hawaii and was live-streamed to Middletown for his family. Among the many and generous comments made about Marty were that he was a gentle man, unless one confronted him across the line of scrimmage. Marty was a great member of the class of ’59 and will be sorely missed.

Dave Eklund also reported the sad news that his younger brother Dick, whom he went east to help care for, has passed. Dick was a fighter pilot in Korea and Vietnam and since then a long time pilot for Delta. Our thoughts go out to his family.

Ted Fiske lives in Durham, N.C., where his wife, Sunny Ladd, teaches public policy and economics at Duke University and Ted edits the annual Fiske Guide to Colleges. The two continue to write together on issues of education policy and travel, often combining professional duties and sightseeing in such trips as a conference in Segovia with stops in Madrid and Barcelona. The two also make “mandatory” annual visits to their grandchildren in London and Amsterdam, spending time with Liz and Jack Lambert in the former last May. Their most recent travel was a week-long excursion to Cuba, where the U.S. trade embargo limits the American car importation after 1960. This meant that the couple drove to a restaurant in a robin’s egg blue 1957 Chevrolet convertible with the top down. “Talk about bringing back memories!”

Harry Lerch and wife Sharon are now living in a fly-in community in Palm City, Fla. Harry is almost retired from his law firm in Bethesda. The couple make it clear that classmates living in or visiting Florida should reach out: “We’d be happy to host you for a round of golf, check out the beach, or just hang out and chew the fat.”

Bob Hydeman caught up from Texas. His oldest granddaughter, 18, is attending the University of Alabama. The next two, identical twins, were recruited to the Air Force Academy for their soccer skills. His 15-year-old grandson is a keen baseball player and the youngest granddaughter is just as great at volleyball.

Ray Simone writes, “Anyone traveling to or through Rhode Island, if you have the time, please come to our new restaurant, Simone’s, at 275 Child Street in Warren, R.I. My sons and I opened the restaurant in September of 2014. We are attempting to source our food from local farms and serve locally caught seafood: simonesri.com.”

Skip Silloway | ssillow@gmail.com; 801-532-4311

John Spurdle | jspurdle@aol.com; 212-644-4858

The photos below are from Dave Darling’s induction into the Wesleyan Baseball Hall of Fame, and submitted by David Eklund, who writes, “Please note the very special wall sign ‘running between the ears of Tom Young and Dave D.’ ”

 

 

 

 

 

The 55th Reunion of the Great Class of 1959 was an unbridled success. We had a good crowd returning, tremendous fun catching up and wandering around a campus that continues to change, capped by a lovely Class dinner. It was a great pleasure to have Nancy DiMauro with us for the weekend. Dave Eklund held forth in great style. (I have pictures!!). Dick Cadigan was our M.C. for the evening, and ran things with great enthusiasm and his usual panache. Doug Bennet and Midge were able to attend, which made the evening even more special. At cocktails beforehand, my wife Cyndy met Mike Whalen ’83. Her first comment was “What a big fellow you are!”

Cads has gone off to Uganda for three weeks for some well earned R&R after his great Reunion performance. He is on a mission with the Kellerman Foundation to work with the Batwa peoples, and then on to the Greek Islands in September! His last comments before departure were: “Great 55th! We can still laugh, sing, toast with and to each other. Great fun!!”

Larry Brick reports: “No need to invent a story about me. I am a first-class felon happily trapped with my wonderful deaf wife of 50 years. We ski bum for two months every year in the Rockies, scuba dive in the Caribbean, enjoy our extended family of three sons, six grandchildren, and close relatives. We live in a Continuing Care Community in Philadelphia. No housework, yard work, repair work, no work period. Deaf Community activist, career educator and administrator, living with the annoying and occasional aches and pains that are part of aging and which are much better than the alternative!”

Walter Burnett has just returned from a three-week trip of day hiking at the Mount Rainier, Olympic, and Pacific Rim national parks. Planning a trip to Indonesia this winter and Hawaii next fall. Walter is not slowing down at all, having just retired from the faculty at Emory University on July 1. He is still living in Western North Carolina, but spends time in Atlanta as well.

Marsha and Bob Gillette’s comments on our Reunion: “We glowed with warm recollections of the Reunion on our long ride back to Lynchburg. There is something special about our fellowship, which we seem to take for granted, but others notice. The genuine excitement of seeing each other and being together was palpable. We are so lucky to have been there to celebrate our 55th. Somehow we just cannot wait for another five years to pass. Having Al Haas ’56 with us for dinner was very special. He was my ‘big brother’ at Eclectic, and during those freshman days of self-doubt, he supported me. It took a bit longer for us public school folks to adjust to the demands of Wesleyan. I look forward to reading Dave Potts’ ’60 new volume on our years at Wesleyan and their historical context.”

Owen Tabor and Margaret summered on the Isle of Skye, to escape the Memphis heat. They had a cottage on a singlet-rack road by the sea. Lots of beauty, quiet, sheep, and a great pub not too far away in operation since 1790. All in all, a perfect setting. I asked O. if he had brought along his bagpipes and kilt. “The pipes have been on the shelf for a while, and the wee kilt is in the closet, as I have become less wee…but the rest is good, man!”

Phil Pessoni was included in the publication, Legendary Locals of Middletown. I guess the authors felt that his close 20-year relationship with Jackie Kennedy and Caroline was important enough to qualify for that honor. Phil’s grandfather, Patrick Michael Kidney (1877–1967), was also in the book. He held many town positions over 40 years and had a great influence over the lives of many Middletown residents. Congratulations, Phil.

Joan and Ted Bromage got back to Mt. Desert, Maine, and wrote: “It was a great Reunion and good to see so many survivors! Joan and I enjoyed ourselves, felt heartened by the return of singing, and intrigued by the ‘aggie’ program at Long Lane. Had some time to do some historical research and I think we located my old study hall, the Goodyear Tap!”

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of John Briscoe. Our classmate Marty Weil wrote his obituary in the Washington Post. “Congressional Aide, Nonprofit Director” was the subtitle, but John said it best about himself in our 50th Reunion Book: “Briscoe has served as a practical idealist, an entrepreneur, a problem solver and an unreconstructed early 1960s optimist.” His wife Kate, his children and all his Eclectic brothers will sorely miss John, Peace Corps volunteer, Congressional aide, development director of several nonprofits, Lakeville farmer, husband, father, great pal of many. John Alexander Holway Briscoe was quite a man!

We are also greatly saddened to report the death of Robert Jensen. Robert came back for our 50th, at which time he was still running his successful jewelry store, which he told us was the largest in the U.S. in terms of display area. Our sympathies to his daughter and family.

Dana and Dave Clemens have been covering a lot of ground lately, and in sensible places, given the winter in the Northeast. Three weeks in Hawaii in January, most of March in Florida sounds pretty clever. A trip to Thunder Bay in July for a family reunion rounds out the 2014 plans, but there was not a way to squeeze Middletown into the mix, sadly.

Carol and Shive Shively have just returned to their home in California after a wonderful family reunion in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with three of their children and assorted others. Carol writes: “Shive continues to meet the challenges of Parkinson’s and is doing quite well. He has started playing the trumpet again, and is busily teaching the gal who is looking after him to play, too—a great sign. More travel to the East was not going to be possible this year.”

Fred Stone wrote: “It was a great honor to be inducted into the inaugural Wesleyan Baseball Wall of Fame on May 3. My teammates Dave Darling and Tom Young attended the event in the Usdan Center, which gave the Class of ’59 good representation. I was grateful for their support. Tom and Dave drove to Maine last summer to check out my progress since my stroke in 2010. I walk with the assistance of a walker, but otherwise I am in good spirits and take life one day at a time. The Wesleyan facilities were very impressive, and the Wall of Fame program was a class act.”

Charlie Wrubel’s son Bill ’85 won an Emmy for his role in co-directing Modern Family which, itself, won the Emmy for best comedy series. Bill has won five Emmys and now moves on to Warner Bros., where he has a contract to produce his own material. Wow!

Since our last class notes came out, we are sad to report the passing of Bob Berls. We chatted about his coming back, and he said at the time that he was too frail to try it… Our thoughts are with Bob’s wife and family.

Note to all classmates who took pictures at the Reunion: Please e-mail them to Cynthia Rockwell (crockwell@wesleyan.edu) and she will make sure that they are posted on our Class Notes website. I have already sent mine in, and hope others will follow! This is the url for the site: classnotes.blogs.wesleyan.edu/class-of-1959/. We found Wesconnect difficult to access. Hopefully, this experience will be different!!

Skip Silloway | ssillow@gmail.com; 801-532-4311

John Spurdle | jspurdle@aol.com

Further adventures of the “Great Class of ’59”: Tim Day has retired from Bar S Foods, which he built and ran for years. He continues to be deeply involved in the U.S. Marine Corps. Tim has helped in the organization and funding of a chapel at Marine Corps Headquarters and has established scholarships at Harvard Business School for marines who are promising entrepreneurs. The Marine Corps will be installing a plaque honoring Tim’s service at the Mt. Soledad Veteran’s Memorial in La Jolla, Calif. on May 3, 2014. Congratulations, Tim! A high honor indeed.

In the “who knew” department, your intrepid reporters have identified a shy and elusive artist. A good football player and a better golfer who thought about the professional ranks. He worked in real estate and investments before taking up the paintbrush. After 9/11 he wished to pursue something he truly enjoyed and chose landscape painting. His love of golf and “old style” course architecture promoted an artistic awareness that has been financially rewarding. He has painted some of the most famous holes on the country’s most renowned courses. He has added duck and quail hunting scenes in South Texas as well as wildflower landscapes to his repertoire. This reporter has seen a portfolio of his paintings and they are good! We speak, of course, of Steve Pyle.

Having infiltrated Wesleyan’s board of trustees, Charlie Wrubel writes of an eye-opening experience regarding the operations of our University. The Trustees are diverse, energetic, and intelligent (would one expect elsewise?) and are actively engaged in the discussions and decisions that make the Wesleyan experience first rate. He is pleased to be on the Board and to represent our “age group.” It’s a generational thing!!

Skip Silloway reports that he and Molly spent some of October and much of November in Argentina and Chile seeing the sights of Patagonia with three favorite traveling partners. Two days in the old part of Buenos Aires, a wonderful example of the colonial era. The core of the city is very appealing. Next they went to Bahia Bustamante, on the Atlantic coast, which is a marine nature preserve. The ranch is devoted to sheep and the collection of seaweed, which is an ingredient in innumerable products shipped around the world. Next, on to Ushuaia, at the bottom of the continent. From this point, hiking and wildlife viewing. Next to El Chalten with more hiking, fabulous views of Mount Fitz Roy and a glacier walk complete with crampons and a bit of Bailey’s and glacier ice. A wonderful interlude at a small hosteria, the only guests in a charming oasis-like place. Next, Torres del Paine for more hiking and glacier viewing. Lastly to a wonderful small hotel in Santiago, another charming former colonial city.

Mary and Dave Eklund are back from Washington State, where they spent the night with Susan and Tom Young on Whidbey Island. He tried to convince Tom to stay longer at the Reunion beyond honoring Fred Stone and the baseball team! Dave and Mary will be here and then on to Nantucket Island, where they have had a home for years.

Irwin “Sonny” Barnet is about to retire as a partner of Reed Smith, with whom he merged his firm, after 50 plus years of practice on the West Coast. He is coming East for a board meeting in NY, planned too far ahead to be able to stick around for the 55th. We’ll miss him. When his wife answered the phone and I asked for Sonny, she said “You must be from the ancient past! Nobody has called him ‘Sonny’ for years.” Got that right!

Bob Berls can’t make it back. He is a keen fisherman, fellow member of the Anglers’ Club of NY and revered past editor of the Anglers Club Bulletin. Bob has fished here, there, and almost everywhere around the world. He still wants to get out west this summer, but health problems are slowing him down.

Dave Britt reports (after a paragraph of strong disclaimers) that he is leading a couple of discussion groups on US foreign policy options on world issues. We sure need his help! He learns a lot, enjoys getting folks to talk, and no one has yet walked out. Dave continues to serve on the Board of Children, Youth and Families at the Institute of Medicine, which addresses health and development issues facing kids and families. Dave is also on the boards of other nonprofits that help kids. Sue and he continue to work through their bucket list; last fall, a cruise up the Amazon and this spring, back to Botswana and Victoria Falls for photo safaris. Two grandkids in college, including one freshwoman at Fordham, rowing varsity crew (thereby proving that genes are not destiny). He is walking a lot, playing geezer tennis, swilling Chardonnay, watching sunsets, and feeling lucky.

Weg Thomas writes that he and Peg could not make it back to Reunion because of a granddaughter’s graduation from Wake Forest the same week. He has just opened a show of 30 of his photographs at the Volo Bog State Natural Area in Illinois. It will be up until the end of May. The gallery is sited on the only “quaking bog” in Illinois! Hope it doesn’t quake during the show.

Hugh Lifson, another of our artistic sons, has regretted Reunion as he has been given an opportunity to paint for a week in Gubbio, Italy. Good decision, Hugh!

Sue and Bert Edwards have returned from a 10-day cruise as part of their 50th anniversary. Bert has heard form Carol McGrew, a de-facto member of the Class of ’59 and wife of Ed “Dusty” McGrew, that they regretted missing the 55th. Dusty has not been well and is hoping to get back home soon. He and Carol were married on June 20, 1959, so it is 55th all over the place. We send our best to them both and will raise a glass to them at Reunion. Bert seems well-rested and ready to lead the class in contributions to the WAF.

 

Skip Silloway | ssillow@gmail.com; 801-532-4311

John Spurdle | jspurdle@aol.com; 212-644-4858