Tag: 1960

Class of 1960 Endowed Wesleyan Scholarship Fund

Joseph Ellis ’19, Manhattan Beach, Calif.

Bruce Dow is still working 20 hours per week as a community psychiatrist on Cape Cod, where he has a home near the ocean. He published his first book last year, Dream Therapy for PTSD (Praeger Press, 2015), and has a second book in progress, on the newer antipsychotic medications for schizophrenia. His partner, Rae Edelson (Barnard ’64), runs an art program (Gateway Arts) in Boston for people with mental disabilities. They shuttle between their two homes. Bruce has three grandchildren (in Seattle and Denver), and she has four (in Chicago and Washington, D. C.), so they travel around the country as well.

Rick Garcia is the current president of the Bolivian Academy of Economic Sciences (ABCE). See the Newsmaker for his update.

In February 2015, Peggy and Dave Hale escaped winter with two weeks in Chile and Argentina where they visited ranches, wineries, and a microbrewery. They heard interesting talks on a variety of cultural and historical topics, and took a tango lesson in Buenos Aires. In September they flew to eastern Europe where they boarded a ship on the Danube River to visit Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, and Hungary. They experienced four folk dance groups, castles, cathedrals, and much talk about the miseries of life with communism.

Bob Mortimer wrote: “Mimi and I moved around quite a bit in 2015. We were in France for three months in the spring and then again in the fall. As our research interests center around France and its former colonies, we are always happy to see friends whom we met throughout the francophone world. It’s always a little bit ‘Afrique sur Seine’ for us (to quote the title of one of the earliest African films). In June our daughter Denise ’93 brought her kids (who are in a French-speaking school) to Paris to confirm that there really is an Eiffel Tower and no end of bookstalls filled with Tintin. During the fall we were too close for comfort to the terrorist attacks and the rise of the ultra-nationalist Front National. There was a Dickensian feel to our visits: ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…’ We also visited Jordan with its magical sites of Petra and the Wadi Rum desert, but the regional chaos and Syrian refugee crisis weigh heavily upon that country. Only Iceland, where we stopped off for a week in June on our way back to Boulder, seemed a refuge from the world’s troubles.”

Chuck Olton has published a book, Heroic Vision: A Story of Revolutionary Art and Politics. Anyone interested can learn more at heroicvision.net. Chuck and Barbara have been dividing their time between a home on Shelter Island (a community of 4,000 in winter and 25,000 in summer) and an apartment on lower Fifth Avenue, where they have lived since the early 1990s. They plan to sell their island house soon and will move to a retirement community, but they are not giving up on New York yet!

I am sorry to report that Bob Votaw died Jan. 26, 2016, in Farmington, Conn., after an extended illness. He majored in biology at Wesleyan and then received a Ph.D. in microbiology from Case Western Reserve University in 1964. He was a member of the faculty at Case Western until his appointment in 1966 as associate professor of biochemistry and director of Multidiscipline Laboratories at the soon-to-be built University of Connecticut Health Center. During his tenure with the UConn Health Center, Bob was instrumental in the design of the multidisciplinary labs and the medical school’s first microbiology curriculum. Later he also served as an assistant dean of medicine and led the development of the school’s first computer-based education program. After retiring from UConn, Bob was an alternate energy project developer. An excellent researcher and teacher, avid outdoorsman, gardener, gourmet cook, gun enthusiast, and historic preservationist, Bob lived for more than 35 years in Farmington. He was married to the former Joye Lynn Dickens in 1961. The couple divorced in 1988. He leaves behind his three children and his close friend Norma Hartley. On behalf of the class of 1960, I express our condolences to his family and friends.

Ann and Bob Williams are passionate about their involvement with The Highlands Chorale, which performed another December holiday concert with selections commemorating Christmas, Hanukkah, and the winter solstice. Bob has gotten increasingly involved in the MidCoast Senior College, where he both teaches (last fall’s offering was Six Spies in the Shadows) and serves on the board. He also edits their newsletter. His history of Topsham (Topsham, Maine, from the River to the Highlands) has been well-received. His most recent book (Stealing Van Gogh) follows the intriguing story of the painting “Night Cafe” from 1888 to the present.

SAL RUSSO | salandjudy@hotmail.com

2700 Kentucky St., Bellingham, WA 98229

Ed Chalfant continues to enjoy an active retirement with bridge, reading, and directing a start-up mission out of Christ Church in Ponte Vedra, Fla. Winkie has emerged as a graceful painter in acrylics who shows her work locally and also plays bridge. They returned again to Maine this past summer to help ease the surplus lobster crisis.

Ira Sharkansky wrote the following: “More than a few indications of age, but the body keeps going with some physical activity, and other parts with the excitement that is never far from these fingers. I’ve stopped writing professionally, but the Internet provides an outlet for my blog, and my use of it to help me understand. There’s a small audience, and I’ve acquired a number of Internet friends. For a look at my Window on Israel, see jpost.com/Blogger/Ira-Sharkansky.”

Bob Williams wrote the following: “Ann and I welcomed our first granddaughter, Amelia Michael Enos, in June. Sad news was the death of my stepbrother, John Vinton ’63, in July. Still having lots of good conversations with Marilyn and Mickey Levine and hoping to cheer on the Cardinals at Bowdoin around Halloween. I am singing with our Highlands Chorale and trying to get a quartet together that can compare with the incomparable Reunionaires. Two weeks at our camp on Kezar Lake has centered us again.”

Bob mentioned the importance of getting centered. For me that involves hiking or contra dancing or yoga, all of which are readily available in Bellingham.

SAL RUSSO | salandjudy@hotmail.com

2700 Kentucky St., Bellingham, WA 98229

We were welcomed to our 55th Reunion by the sound of the bells of old South College. Dave Potts presented a WESeminar, “Only Yesterday? Wesleyan in the ’60s,” that was based on his recently published book, Wesleyan University, 1910-1970: Academic Ambition and Middle-Class America. At the Wesleyan assembly and annual meeting of the Alumni Association, Dave received the James L. McConaughy Jr. Award, which recognizes a member of the Wesleyan family whose writing conveys unusual insight and understanding of current and past events. In his acceptance speech in the chapel, Dave pointed out the stained-glass windows that commemorate past presidents and important benefactors to the university.

Myles Standish received a Distinguished Alumnus Award for his accomplishments at the California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he created and continually improved high-accuracy planetary ephemerides (orbital positions) that are vital to the successful navigation of planetary spacecraft. Those ephemerides are now the world’s standard, providing data to virtually all of the national almanac offices, astronomical researchers, and observatories.

At our class banquet, I led the singing of “Sentimental Journey,” which captured our feelings about attending the Reunion. That was followed by “Goodnight Sweetheart, Goodnight” which reminded us of those fabulous party weekends. The singing of some traditional Wesleyan songs was a fitting ending to the banquet. My thanks to Charlie Smith and Brittany Richard, our liaison on the Wesleyan campus, for all their planning that made it a successful 55th Reunion.

On the day after the class banquet, my extended family had a reunion in Cromwell at the home of my niece, Liz Pulling. With both college and family reunions, it was a memorable trip to Connecticut.

Chris Campbell wrote: “I recently read a narrative about a young woman who slips and falls concussively against a large boulder. She is diagnosed as suffering from either mild aphasia or dissociative amnesia. The main result of this situation is that she has great difficulty in speaking normally. Her mind is alert, but in trying to express herself she tends to use a steady stream of synecdoche, a figure of speech which the Greeks described as using a ‘part’ for the ‘whole’ or vice versa. I was inspired by that odd condition, and began looking for everyday examples of synecdoche in contemporary English. A very common example of synecdoche is the use of ‘wheels’ to mean an automobile or ‘packing heat’ to mean carrying a firearm. These days we say ‘plastic’ when we mean a credit card. Hippies customarily said ‘threads’ to mean clothes. Most of us will say ‘pigskin’ when we are thinking about football. Now I am trying to build a large collection of modern-day examples of synecdoche. If any classmate can think of an example, I would be pleased to receive it at crc@navpak.com. If I am able to build a big enough list, I will write an article about this interesting figure of speech.”

John Berry wrote: “My wife, Mary, and I are just back from two weeks in Greece, with a week spent on Crete, where we stayed in a 500-year-old house in the ancient port town of Chania, built by Venetians when they controlled that part of the world. Our daughter, Clay, who is the Treasury attaché in the U.S. embassy in Moscow, was there with her husband, Bikas, the International Monetary Fund’s resident representative in Russia, and our two granddaughters, ages 3 and 7. After their two-year stint in Moscow, this summer they will be back living close to us in Alexandria, Va., where we have lived in the same house for 45 years. For months Clay has been traveling regularly to Kiev because of the U.S. involvement with the beleaguered Ukraine. Earlier we spent Thanksgiving in Seattle with our son, Michael, a senior software manager for Adobe Systems, and his wife, Catherine Berkenfield, a professor at Bellevue College.

“Mary, a writer, has also become an excellent photographer. Two years ago a portfolio of her pictures of the Salar de Uyuni, a huge salt flat in Bolivia, won first prize in the fine arts division of an international competition, the winners of which were on display for weeks at the National Geographic Society museum in Washington. Meanwhile, she continues to row competitively, both sweep and sculling, and did so in the Head of the Charles Regatta each of the past two years. She plans to be in an eight again this fall at an international masters competition in Belgium.

“I continue to write regularly only for a quarterly magazine, International Economy, but also enjoy occasional free-lance jobs as they come along, such as book reviews for USA Today. And I’ll be at our 55th in May.”

John Dobson wrote the following: “Nici and I continue to love Big Sky, Montana! In early September, however, we traveled to the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland, Surrey in England, Normandy, Paris, and then back to the Connemara Peninsula, Ireland. Several days after our return to Montana, we ventured on to Kauai, Hawaii, for 11 days. In mid-October, we joined Caren and Dick Gorenberg in Durham, for our 50th Duke Medical School Reunion. Our fall travel was capped off by six weeks at our home in Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands. It seems like a lot of travel in a fairly short length of time, but we both thoroughly enjoyed each trip. We are now back in Big Sky and are fully embroiled in a great ski season!”

Jim Dover is active in the Bridgton Senior College, both as an instructor and board member. The highlight of 2014 for Jim and Sue was the trip taken to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. They visited Normandy, Brittany, and the Loire Valley of France for about two and a half weeks. They were then joined by two children and their spouses, along with three grandchildren, for a week in Annecy, their favorite town in the French Alps, and a final week in Interlaken, Switzerland.

Peggy and Dave Hale spent 12 days in Panama. In addition to transiting the Panama Canal on a small boat, they visited a number of places where traditional activities were happening. They made candy from sugar cane, corn, and cheese tortillas, along with traditional hats and dresses. They enjoyed a home-hosted meal in an Embera Indian village, where Peggy got a tattoo. Dave swam in the Pacific, kayaked on Lake Gatun, and briefly joined two traditional dance groups.

Wesleyan University: 1910–1970: Academic Ambition and Middle-Class America by Dave Potts has been published. It’s a sequel to an earlier volume that covered the period 1831–1910. Dave gives an unprecedented level of attention to the board of trustees and finances. These clearly related components are now introduced as major shaping forces in the development of American higher education. Extensive examination is also given to student and faculty roles in building and altering institutional identity. Threaded throughout is a close look at the waxing and waning of presidential leadership. All of these developments, as is particularly evident in the areas of student demography and faculty compensation, travel on a pathway through middle-class America. Within this broad context, Wesleyan becomes a window on how the nation’s liberal arts colleges survived and thrived during the last century. Dave says: “The fastest way to get a hard copy edition at the most competitive price is via the Wesleyan Press/University of New England Press website using the 30 percent discount code: W301.”

Stanley N. Katz, lecturer/professor, Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton, wrote this review: “This superb follow-on to Potts’ first volume on the history of Wesleyan University maintains the exceptional quality of its predecessor. College histories tend to puffery, but this one is a solid, critical, and knowledgeable account. Potts here establishes himself as one to the finest historians of higher education, and Wesleyan gets the sort of history a great institution deserves.”

Oscar Lanford III died Nov. 16, 2013, after a battle with cancer, at the age of 74. After his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan, he received a Ph.D. from Princeton in 1966 in quantum field theory. He began as assistant professor and later became professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley. This was followed by professor of physics (1982-1987) at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques in France. He moved in 1987 to the department of mathematics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, and retired in 2005. He continued teaching at the Courant Institute until 2012.

Oscar was an expert in quantum field theory, statistical mechanics, and dynamical systems. His publications were influential to the development of mathematical physics. He was the recipient of the 1986 U.S. National Academy of Sciences award in applied mathematics and numerical analysis and he received an honorary doctorate from Wesleyan.

Oscar is survived by his wife, Regina, and their daughter. On behalf of the Class of 1960, I express our condolences to his family and friends.

SAL RUSSO | salandjudy@hotmail.com
2700 Kentucky St., Bellingham, WA 98229

I read the notification in the most recent Wesleyan magazine that Rudy Kalin died on Aug. 16, 2011. Rudy initially came to Wesleyan from Switzerland as an exchange student. He served as a faculty member in psychology at Queens University in Canada for 33 years, which included 10 years as department head. He enjoyed playing golf in his retirement. He is survived by his wife, Jane, of 45 years, three sons and their spouses, and four grandchildren. On behalf of the Class of 1960, I offer our belated condolences to his family and friends.

Jay Levy was invited to be the keynote speaker at the annual science retreat at Wesleyan on Sept. 18, 2014. He reviewed the history of AIDS from discovery to future challenges. In addition, he met with students to discuss science as a career.

Congratulations to Dave Major, who received a Fulbright Scholar award to teach and do research at the University of Helsinki, Finland, for two months in each of the fall terms of 2014 and 2015. Dave’s research will focus on urban adaptation to climate change, especially in small- and medium-sized coastal cities.

Rob Mortimer wrote the following: “Mimi and I have been doing some academic tourism of late. Last fall (2013), we were in Algeria to attend a conference on the Algerian writer Assia Djebar at the University Mouloud Mammeri in Tizi Ouzou. The university is named for another Algerian author who was born not far from there in the Berber Kabyle region of the country. We knew Mammeri, who was an activist in the movement to celebrate Berber culture, from our days as grad students in Algeria in the 1960s, and we remain in touch with his widow and children. Then this past spring we traveled to the other end of the continent to give some talks at the University of Pretoria. Once a bastion of apartheid, the university now is a true rainbow institution celebrating South Africa’s diversity. We also spent some time at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and, of course, visited Mandela’s former home in Soweto, now a prime tourist attraction. We had been in South Africa in the early 1990s right after the release of Mandela from prison during the period that our daughter Amy ’87 was a Peace Corps volunteer in Lesotho. South Africa has come a long way since then but much remains to be done. We spend a fair amount of time in France as well, thanks to a house exchange that we do with a French couple. Indeed, we have seen Charlie Smith and Bruce Dow in Paris over the past few years, and would always be happy to see other classmates who might be passing through that great city.”

Paul Tractenberg edited the recently published Courting Justice: 10 New Jersey Cases That Shook the Nation (Rutgers University Press, 2013). In addition, he wrote the introduction and one of the chapters. He is spending his sabbatical year working on a comparative study of public education reform processes in Ontario, Israel, and Finland, where he was appointed as a visiting professorial scholar at the law and education schools of the University of Toronto, Tel Aviv and Haifa Universities, and University of Helsinki, respectively.

SAL RUSSO | salandjudy@hotmail.com

Sue and Jim Dover went on a 10-week trip to Belgium, the Netherlands, and Norway from mid-April to June 2013. They were on a riverboat at tulip time in Holland and Belgium and later took a maritime cruise along the coast of northern Norway. Jim is working on a Shutterfly book that will document their travels and that will be useful for reliving the experience in their “old age.”

Chris Campbell wrote the following: “When I was a kid there was a radio announcer in Providence called Ernie Anderson (1923–1997). He was very funny and was a really popular radio personality. He did not stay long in Providence before being lured away by WHK in Cleveland.

“One of the songs that Ernie often played is etched in my memory and it comes back whenever I read about persistence in the face of enormous difficulty. The song was the sound of a military bugler during a charge. Every time he sounds the charge, his bugle is struck by a bullet or some other missile. For a moment there is no sound, and then the bugler sounds the charge anew only to be struck down again and again and again. The music becomes more and more ragged, but the charge continues through the song’s fade-out. The bugler seems almost impossible to halt and the listener gets the feeling that the bugler is indeed damaged but unstoppable. Every time Ernie Anderson played that song I laughed, but I also got a strong sense of how important it is to keep chugging ahead because none of the alternatives seems any better.

“After 65 we all become bugle players, charging into a fresh battle each time we step out of bed in the morning. It is what we do because the alternatives are dismal. Damaged or not we charge into battle because we never live so well as when overcoming something that could do us in.”

The 5th Bolivian Conference on Development Economics was hosted by Universidad Pravada de Santa Cruz de la Sierra on Nov. 14 –15, 2013. It was attended by about 330 persons (a 64 percent increase compared to last year) from 13 countries and consisted of three keynote lectures, a round-table discussion on energy, and 50 contributed research papers. The Bolivian Academy of Economic Sciences selected the best papers at the conference and was represented by President Enrique Garcia-Ayaviri.

The following message was received from Mario Damiata (mddamiata@aol.com): “My father passed away on the Wesleyan campus in June 1960 when he went into sudden cardiac arrest. He was an employee of the university at the time. I am writing to try and locate the two seniors who were on campus that day and tried to revive him. After all of these years I would like to express my gratitude for their efforts. I am sure those involved will remember the incident. Could you please pass along this message to members of the Class of 1960 in the hope that those students might still be alive and may contact me. Thank you. P.S.: I was accepted into the Class of 1970 but elected to attend another college.” Please contact Mario Damiata if you know anything about this incident in June 1960.

SAL RUSSO | salandjudy@hotmail.com
2700 Kentucky St., Bellingham, WA 98229

Jim Corrodi sent the following: “Gladys and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary in August by renting a villa in Tuscany for a week, joined by our three children, their spouses, and seven grandchildren—15 of us altogether. It was terrific, but the hill towns were a bit exhausting for Pop-Pop. I slept well.”

Eliot Glassheim has written a book, Sweet Land of Decency, to “tell the story of American history as it illustrates centuries of struggle to move from darkness to light, from selfishness to common good, from exclusion to inclusion, from control by wealth to control by reason, from evil to good.”

Dave Major writes: “In Vienna recently for a Technical University review panel, I was delighted to have lunch with Sasha and Harald Kreid. Harald, an international student who was with us during our senior year and had many friends in our class, is now retired after a distinguished career in the Austrian diplomatic service. It was a pleasure both to catch up and to remember fine times at Wesleyan.”

Gus Napier writes: “In July, Margaret and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. Our daughter, Sarah, and her family came from Concord, Mass.; our son, Mark, and his family from Albany, N.Y.; and Julia and her family arrived from Buenos Aires. Including our six grandchildren, there were 14 of us for a week of hiking, canoeing, swimming, and team cooking. We had a great time together—the way we usually do, but enriched by our awareness of time’s fleeting passage.”

It is with sadness that I report the passing of Tad Bartlett on Aug. 6, after a three-year battle with cancer. After graduating from Wesleyan, he worked as a special agent for the Defense Intelligence Agency. He married the love of his life, Frances Matko, in August 1969.

Tad worked for W. R. Grace and lived in Europe before joining Chemical Bank in New York City. As a vice president he opened the first Chemical Bank branch in Calgary, Alberta, and lived there with his family from 1980 to 1983. While in Calgary, he loved to attend the Calgary Stampede and purchased one of his most prized possessions, a pair of cowboy boots.

After Calgary, Tad and his family moved back to the U.S., first to New York and later to Maine. Tad loved Maine and enjoyed many summers at their home on Southport Island. He and Fran moved full-time to Boothbay Harbor in 1995, where he was famous for his lobster dinners and blueberry pancakes. He worked as a realtor there.

Tad’s passion was music of all kinds, particularly classical and opera. He was very active in Lincoln Arts Festival, where he was a board member for over 15 years and served as president for two terms. He sang in the Lincoln Festival Chorus and Sheepscot Valley Chorus, as well as with the Our Lady of Peace choir and the Methodist Church choir for many years.

Tad is survived by his devoted wife of 44 years, Fran Bartlett; daughter Jennifer Valerie Bartlett and her partner; and son Philip Loomis Bartlett and his girlfriend. On behalf of the Class of 1960, I offer our condolences to his family and friends.

SAL RUSSO
2700 Kentucky St., Bellingham, WA 98229
salandjudy@hotmail.com