Tag: 1959

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

The Great Class of 1959 continues to be active and adventuresome!

We will start with a special “shout out” to members of Eclectic and other Wesleyan representatives. About five years ago, Eclectic alums from our class (and others) expressed dismay at the condition of one of the great buildings on campus. Designed by L. H. Bacon, architect for the Lincoln Memorial and several other Wesleyan buildings, the Eclectic House had fallen into a state of disrepair and near ruin. Bing Leverich took up the torch, organized what became the “gang of 10” and persuaded the University to meet and discuss the situation and possible solutions. After several years of hard work and productive negotiations, the beginnings of a solution are emerging, involving current student members, the University, and the alumni.

At the same time, Bill Moody applied for and received both Connecticut and National Historic Places designations for the building. These designations helped change the nature of the debate and put matters on a very constructive course. Many have worked hard to get to this point, but for this edition The Great Class of ’59 salutes Bing and Bill.

Your scribes have heard from many other classmates and will insist on hearing from more. Alan Brooks writes that he had been pulled from retirement two years ago to direct the year-long 125th anniversary celebration of Westminster School, from which he graduated in 1955 and at which he taught for 52 years. He has retired again and thinks it will stick this time. He attempts to delay the results of age by competing with weights in senior events and coaching the sport in the spring.

Bill Moody and wife Janet have moved into “winter quarters” at D.C.’s Knollwood, a retirement community for military officers, although they retain their main residence in Incline Village, Nev. At Knollwood they have reconnected with a couple Bill knew in 1966 at the U.S. Naval Activity in Edzell, Scotland, validating again the concept of the “small world.”

We heard from Hugh Lifson, who reports a life-changing month. His wife of 52 years died after a protracted bout with cancer, while, at the same time, he is getting ready for a big show of his work at the Hudson River Gallery in Iowa City and another show later this winter. We are sorry for Hugh’s loss but having his artwork to lean on is a huge help. Hope the shows are great successes!

Ellen and Herb Steiner report visiting with Sibyl and Tim Martin at their family farm in Connecticut. All is well there, Herb having been an usher at their wedding. Tim is an architect, their two sons are architects and they both married architects. They recently saw Diane and Joe Vander Veer in Philadelphia for some art watching and they also see Amanda and Bob Ogren. Herb and Ellen will spend the winter in Delray Beach.

Owen Tabor writes: “Delighted you and Skip have taken the reins…Bill Moody and others did a fine job with ‘the Few, the Proud…’ It seems, John that you appeared before me somewhere in the last 20 year, Memphis for a wedding, perhaps? [It certainly was, and Owen was in his kilts, playing the bagpipes for the bride and groom in immense style, as always—see below]. Wesleyan ties have been thin to non-existent, and a recent denial of a granddaughter’s application didn’t help. She is happily settled as a freshman at UVA. Anyhow, I am grateful for those years long past. I am retiring from my orthopedic surgery practice, (office only for the last 10 years), leaving my oldest son in charge of a six man group. Four married children, 13 grands, married 52 years to Margaret, a Conn. College girl.

“The wedding in which I was kilted was, I believe, our daughter Mary, marrying Rob Engel from New Jersey.” The couple had originally met at Princeton, but re-met 10 years later, in NYC while she was with the Times. “They are married, now, with four children, and living in Charlotte, N.C. Rob was a Deerfield guy, too, and still with two younger pre-college guys, one or both may go that way. Oldest boy doing gap year at King’s Academy in Jordan, a Deerfield model, and plans to go to Middlebury next year, he thinks. Rob and Mary lived in London for three years, youngest born there, and during those years Margaret was a gold medallion flyer on Delta! Cheers!”

Lastly we heard from Dick Cadigan about a “near miss” with their twin 6-year-old grandsons. While it will take a long time, Dick believes all will come right after they were jammed into a wall by a 90-year-old driver using forward instead of reverse. Dick is a believer in mandatory driving tests for all over 80, probably a very good idea.

Looking forward: Mark your calendars for May 22, 23, and 24, and plan to attend our 55th Reunion; when the Reunion questionnaire arrives, fill it out and return it; send your scribes notes on your activities and whereabouts. Let’s keep the Great Class of ’59 together!

Skip Silloway and John Spurdle
ssillow@gmail.com; 801-532-4311;
jspurdle@aol.com; 212-644-4858