Tag: 1963

We will be seeing less and less of James Ferguson now, as he is successfully losing weight—over 40 pounds! Perhaps some remember that Jim was a football player back in the day. But now he is a serious fan of soccer, having turned most of his seven grandchildren into soccer players. He did this simply by telling them how dangerous football was even for young players. In the case of one small grandson he pointed out that his size would matter far less on the soccer field, which the boy has found out to be true and is now happily playing soccer. Jim likes to “write stuff.” Following a request from one of his two granddaughters, he wrote a short story. He’s also written two screenplays.

As we both served in the Army as well as in Special Forces in South Vietnam, we talked a lot about that. Jim said he generally did not feel comfortable in groups but that the most comfortable he’d ever felt in a group was with his Special Forces A-Team in Vietnam. “I may or may not have liked every single man, but I knew if something happened to me, someone would come to help.”

Jim Miller closed the Armstrong Department store in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1990. Founded in 1890, his family, had owned and run it for 100 years. For several years thereafter Jim had an Island Inkjet franchise, eventually quitting after writing out his 10,000th work order. He is now involved in various service clubs and is treasurer of his local homeowners’ association. He gardens a lot and, while still in high school, he got very interested in his own sound system and has more or less been upgrading it as ever improving equipment comes on the market. He and Marlene, his wife, enjoy the local performing arts (ballet, theater, and opera) and see lots of performances at their excellent community theater of both local performers as well as groups passing through. They have three children—two daughters, 55 and 52, and a son, 50­—and five grandchildren, ages 8 to 25.

After WesU, Tom Buxton went to Carnegie Mellon Business School and came out determined to “play with the big boys,” i.e. get a job with a seriously large company, which he did. Twenty years ago, after 32 years with Boeing, Tom retired. While there, he was part of the team that developed both the 767 and 777. Tom’s wife, Terra Anderson, also worked at Boeing. She worked internally coaching and training executives. While both are retired (he in 2000 she in 2004), both were very, very upset and embarrassed at the news of the serious problems in the 737. Tom recalled reading People of Plenty by David Potter in a humanities class at WESU. He feels it is right on now and that we are endangering the earth’s future and may well run out of vital resources. For that reason, he is developing his large farm on Whidbey Island to grow all the basic varieties of food resources Tom and his wife have two children, 45 and 42, and two grandchildren, 5 and 7.

Byron S. Miller | tigr10@optonline.net
5 Clapboard Hill Rd., Westport, CT 06880

Tom Spragens writes: “I recently retired after 48 years in the political science department at Duke. Also recently discovered that both my sophomore roommates and Eclectic fraternity brothers had offspring living here in Durham. That led to a recent reunion.” He enclosed a picture of the reunion and he, Fred Karem, and Alan Gayer are looking relaxed, well-dressed, and handsome.

And John Coatsworth writes: “I will be stepping down as provost of Columbia University this summer after eight years in the post. I plan to return to teaching in Columbia School of International and Public Affairs and in the history department. I’m looking forward to spending time with our two grandkids, Emma, 12, and Alex, 10, who live with their parents a few blocks from Pat and me in Manhattan’s Upper West Side.”

Sad news from John Kikoski. “My wife, Cathy MA’63, died recently after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s. We met at Wes in September 1962, graduated together in 1963, and married in Aleppo, Syria, in 1964 (where Cathy grew up). We were the Class of 1963’s first and longest married couple.” She had a remarkable life. To read of it, type Catherine Kano Kikoski for an internet search. “Right now, I am recovering from cardiac surgery (transcatheter aortic valve replacement or TAVR) at Columbia Presbyterian and will be in recovery for maybe two more weeks. Can’t believe how much better I feel with a new valve that pumps 100 percent (not 20 percent) of the blood and oxygen my body needs.”

From Fred Taylor: “Carole and I now have nine grandchildren; the most recent born April 24 in LA. Annslie Taylor Leikarts joins the group of five boys and four girls spread among our three children. Still working part-time at Evercore. Love to travel with Carole and also enjoy spending time with our grandkids. Visiting WesU soon for the emeritus trustee gathering. Look forward to being on campus.”

In other related news, Laman Gray was back on campus and gave a TEDx talk. “Very enjoyable,” he said.

Allen Tucker writes, “During the last 10 years, I have been developing free open source software for nonprofits, usually with a student team. In 2013, I founded the Non-Profit FOSS Institute (NPFI) to provide support for other faculty and students who want to do the same at their colleges (NPFI.org). My new book, Client Centered Software Development, will be published by CRC Press. The book describes this work and its outcomes. It has been a great joy for me to be able to contribute to nonprofits in this way, and also to keep my hand in the education and software games for so long after retirement. My wife Meg and I have two adult kids who both live in the D.C. area. As academics, we have traveled widely, teaching in Germany, New Zealand, and Ukraine (both on Fulbrights). We are blessed in many ways but I am especially thankful to WesU for opening my eyes to computer science as well as the notion of humanitarian service as an essential element of a liberal education.”

Don Sexton wrote, “In 2017, I retired from the full-time faculty at Columbia University after 50 years and 10,000 students. Am still teaching a few weeks a year at schools in places like Shanghai, Paris, and Washington, D.C. I have been placing more effort in my painting (sextonart.com) and have three solo shows scheduled in New York over the next 18 months.”

Byron S. Miller | tigr10@optonline.net
5 Clapboard Hill Rd., Westport, CT 06880

Class of 1963 Endowed Wesleyan Scholarship Fund
John Lewis Jr. ’21, Newark, NJ

From way out in the deep blue Pacific Ocean, Kaneohe, Hawaii, to be exact, Richard Armsby retired nine years ago after having worked as a clinical psychologist for the Hawaii State government for many years. His work focused primarily on seriously mentally ill citizens who were often also very poor, disabled and thus frequently unable to find or hold work. His wife, Judith, retired too, also worked in the mental health field. She was an MSW with a geriatric case load.  They met while he was still at WESU. She was at Penn State where he transferred to both finish up his bachelor’s degree and start a graduate degree. While

he had only had two psych courses at WESU, the assassination of JFK got him very interested in pursuing a degree in psychology. They got married in 1967. During a couple of summers at grad school, he worked back in Texas for the federal government as a science writer. After they finished getting their terminal degrees, they moved to Hawaii in 1969. Since retirement he spends lots of time reading, getting books—mysteries, adventure stories, and

some non-fiction—from the library to read on his Kindle. He works out three days a week at the gym. About eight years ago, Bill Roberts held a DTD reunion at Bill’s house. Richard has fond memories of that reunion.

Stuart Silver, living in Columbia, M.D., retired in 2014. He worked as a psychiatrist. He and his wife, Ann Louise, have three children: a daughter, 50, a son, 49, and another son, 46, and seven grandchildren, ages 11-22. Visiting and being visited by their offspring, keeps them quite occupied. Stewart met Ann Louise while at WESU. He was 20 and a junior and she was attending Mt. Holyoke. They were married in 1962 and thus he may be the longest continually married of our all our ‘63 classmates. After WESU, Stewart went to Hopkins and got his medical degree in 1966. He was deferred till after med school he was drafted along with approximately 199 other MDs.

Of that group, he and one other were the only two who did not go to Vietnam. They were sent to Alaska, where you may recall there was not that much fighting going on. He said that he and his wife really liked Alaska and while it was not as modernized then as now and travel was somewhat difficult, it was very interesting to them. While in Alaska, his CO once declared that “there will be no more frostbite in this unit!” Also upset at the number of suicides in his command, he sent around a memo that there “were too many suicides” in his command and he wanted “them to stop.”

As his leadership in these areas did not prove effective he was relieved. Stewart left the Army with the rank of major. He used to be a frequent skier, but now facing health issue, he moves around more slowly and cautiously.  He has a stamp collection, enjoys photography, likes to cook and actually admits to doing housework unasked. And over a long period of time in the past, he made a very elaborate, large model of a WWII liberty ship. The question of

which of his children is to carry on ownership of that model is not on his mind yet. The Silvers like to attend operas in NYC and have a farm in upstate New York.

Albert “Red” Erda of Guilford, Conn., retired 10 years ago, He was a consultant in computer usage, litigation, and support. Which means that in preparing a case, lawyers or their minions might have to read hundreds of thousand of pages of documents when preparing for a trial. So, both people have to be hired and files prepared so that computers can be programed to scan the material for keywords and issues. In retirement he still works on the Guilford Land Conservation Trust which seeks, raises money for, receives, and then maintains land donated to the town for permanent tax-free open space. When at WESU, it came to pass that he was advised by Dean Barlow to take some time off after his sophomore year and consider

his motivation for learning. “We called him Dean Furlough,” said Red. During that time off, Red considered joining the Army but his father told him in no uncertain terms to “get a job and learn something about actually earning a living!”

“So, I got a job surveying,” he said. “I liked math and found it easy. Eventually, motivation discovered, I returned to college but thereafter, every vacation I returned to surveying and my boss was always happy to put me right back to work.“

Red and his wife, Ann, have three children: two daughters, ages 51 and 49 and a son, age 46, and seven grandchildren ages 10-19. When he goes to WESU football games, which is reasonably often, he sits with John Driscoll. And while his hair is no longer red, (it’s white), he is still called Red.

John “Jack” Jarzavek retired 10 years ago after a 40-year career teaching (art history, French, English) at the River School in Weston, Mass. After graduating WESU, on a Fulbright he studied Elizabethan literature in the UK at the University of Bristol and then on a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship returned in 1964 to study at Yale where he met his life partner, Norman Dobbs. He and Norman have shared their lives ever since. They got married in 2012. Norman got a degree at 16 from the Royal Toronto Conservatory of Music. And while

Jack was teaching, Norman was in publishing for 36 years, first at Addison Wesley and then Houghton Mifflin. They now split their time between Jamaica Plain, Mass., and an apartment in a 17th-century convent in Tuscany in the town of Arezzo, Italy, which is conveniently between both Rome and Florence. (And hot tip, they are planning to sell it shortly!)

Norman, who plays both the piano and harpsichord has played the Bach Goldberg Variationson Italian television. Both are passionate about classical vocal and operatic music and try to listen to new operas and voices every day.

Jack writes: “We travel extensively throughout Italy and Europe. We will make our first trip to Poland this coming March. We also like to explore the Italian Islands off the Tuscan Coast and Sicily. We will target the large island of Ustica this summer for 10 days. Boston is a very fine opera town so we go to many performances, probably three concerts or operas a month. I lecture at the New England Opera Club once a year and have done so for several decades.”

John Corn died last July after a long progressively worsening, undiagnosed illness. I talked with his older brother, Joe, who said that he was initially not at all that happy with John as his parents had never “asked my permission to have a second son! And all too soon John grew way too interested in my belongings and was slow to understand that he should not mess with them.” Joe said that that beating on John did not seem to have that much of the desired effect he hoped for. Eventually, with time those early problems disappeared and peace prevailed.  Joe said that after WESU, John enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, served for six years,

and was discharged as a captain. John considered the highlight of his Air Force service the time he served in Iran heading up a detachment that maintained the Shaw’s beloved F4 Phantom jets.

John was married twice and had one son, Scott, who sadly died at age 51 a few months before John himself died. John had a second child with his second wife who now lives with her mother in Texas and is much loved by the Joe and the rest of the Corn family. After a successful career in real estate in Chicago and his two divorces, John moved down to Panama in 2015. But as his illness progress, Joe convinced him to move back in 2017 and live with him and his wife Wanda on Cape Cod which John did for eight months. However, as his disease progressed he finally moved to a senior residence in Falmouth, Mass., in 2018.

However, after only a few months, his illness progressed and he had to be hospitalized and he died very quickly. Joe says John loved Wesleyan, college athletics, the Chicago Bears and Cubs, and lived to see the latter finally win a World Series, something many Cubs fans never saw in their lifetime.

Byron S. Miller | tigr10@optonline.net
5 Clapboard Hill Rd., Westport, CT 06880

Douglas H. Sprenkle ’63 passed away on Aug. 16, 2018. A full obituary can be found here.

Walt Pilcher’s hometown, Greensboro, N.C., escaped most of Florence’s wrath. Walt is busy writing novels. He just sent his fourth, Everybody Shrugs, off to his publisher, Fantastic Books in the U.K. “I’ve been retired from the panty hose business since 2000. You know, L’Eggs was what I worked on for years.” He and his wife of 63 years, Carol, have three children: a son, 52; twin daughters, 50; and six grandchildren, five boys and one girl, ages 10 to 21. As I have often heard with classmates who are now grandfathers, he struggled recalling all their ages and turned to his wife for help. Of course, she nailed it. Carol is also retired from both childrearing and being a RN. She likes to paint and is an eager golfer. Walt golfs too, but now plays with a group of men all pretty much his age. It’s a “low key group—no betting, an agreed upon number of mulligans each nine, and no great concern for handicap lowering scores.” They both go to Global Awakening conferences and belong to Grace Church in High Point, N.C.

Steve Weil has moved from far east Oregon (Pendleton) to far west Oregon (Portland). He has two sons from a former marriage, 44 and 43, and one grandson, 4, whom he Skypes with daily. He and his wife of 27 years, Wendell, have a daughter, Keaton, who is in a gap year after college and is applying to med school where she is considering focusing on cancer research. Wendell is about to become a grandparent too as a daughter-in-law has just become pregnant.

Steve’s older brother, Marty Weil ’59, is the longest-serving employee of the Washington Post. He has worked on the night shift there for many, many years.

Bill Wood lives in Virginia Beach and has nice view of the Chesapeake Bay. He retired in 2004 from the Virginia Beach Department of Human Services, where his focus was on behavioral health. He and wife Nancy now travel extensively on month-long trips abroad. Married in 1964, they have two daughters, 52 and 49, and two granddaughters, 16 and 14. Nancy, now retired too, is an ordained Episcopal deacon and worked as a hospital chaplain. For the past five years, they have lived in a retirement center which has an excellent fitness facility. They use it a lot and it helps to keep them active. A popular summer sport there is lawn croquet “of the bumpy lawn variety,” but now Ping-Pong season is almost upon them.

Barre Seibert is “mostly retired” though he still does some financial consulting work. He and wife Julia live in Clyde Hill, Wash., where he is an active member of the town council. Julia was a high school teacher and now, like Barre, is “mostly retired.” She is quite active helping their local library, especially with fundraising. They have two daughters, 48 and 46, and seven grandchildren, ages 7 to 16. They enjoy traveling. Recent trips were to Hawaii and Mexico. Barre’s favorite hobby is gardening. Although he plants flowers, vegetables sounded like a greater interest. In fact, when I phoned, Julia called him in from the backyard where he was in full fall vegetable harvest mode, some of his crop headed straight to their table, others for storage, and some to go to neighbors and friends.

Linwood Small lives five months a year in Raymond, Maine, where he grew up and the other seven in Blythewood, S.C. Linwood has his PhD in psychology and taught psych for many years at Columbia College in South Carolina. After retiring from there in 1999, he taught psych part-time for 12 years at Cappella University. Linwood’s wife, Judith, a psychologist, too, is also retired after serving as a staff psychologist for the University of South Carolina. They were married in 1974. He is a stepfather to her three grown children, ages 62, 60, and 58, and step-grandfather to her four grandchildren.

Like Linwood, Barry Craig spends time in two different states. Though he says he “pretty much retired” he spends a third of his time up in Pascoag, R.I., working as trustee for an estate. He and wife Gina, whom he married in 1969, live in Mount Juliet, Tenn. He used to drive up to Rhode Island and did not mind the two-day trip. But now he finds it’s cheaper and more relaxing to fly. Gina is also retired, having at one time worked for Burger King. She was in charge of all its nonprofit activities, such as corporate donations. They are now much involved with their new puppy, teaching it what not to chew inside and what definitely to do outside.

Some sad news: John Corn died passed away over the summer. You can find his obituary at magazine.wesleyan.edu.

Byron S. Miller | tigr10@optonline.net
5 Clapboard Hill Rd., Westport, CT 06880

Our 55th is now history. And it has been a few months since 21 of us gathered to consider our lives then, now, and in the future. Here they are in alphabetical order—Tucker Andersen, Colby Andrus, Harvey Bagg, Gerald Baliles, Howard Black, Dave Buddington, Jim Dresser, Jack Emmott, Doug Evelyn, Bob Gallamore, Fritz Henn, Ronald Herriott, John Kikoski, Dave Landgraf, Stan Lewis, Byron Miller, Bill Roberts, Don Sexton, Fred Taylor, Peter Treffers, and Ron Wilson. We were aided and abetted by John Driscoll ’62, whom we dubbed an honorary classmate.

Prior to Reunion, several classmates (Marty Hatch, Jim Dooney, Russ Richey, Bill Roberts, Dave Landgraf, Harvey Bagg, Jim Dresser, John Kikoski, Peter Treffers, Doug Evelyn, Don Sexton, and I) worked hard at planning our schedule. Kate Quigley Lynch ’82 was our primary planning support staff member at WesU throughout it all.

The weekend began Friday afternoon with a moving seminar led by Bill Roberts on the circle of life and rites of passage, with the focus being on rites for those approaching “elderly” status, which now applies to us. That conversation continued at our class reception that evening.

Saturday’s highlight was a related discussion among ourselves, including many spouses, on the challenges that come at our age. The discussion was both reflective and broad, touching on ongoing education, current personal life experiences, and ideas to add new meaning to our lives. With four classmates who were former Wesleyan trustees among the returnees, we also probed the condition of the University today and its continued vitality in producing critical thinking and engaged citizens.

At lunch for all classes post-50th, we heard from Athletic Director Mike Whalen ’83, who talked about the gratifying increase in WesU’s athletic success. We are no longer the doormat of the Little Three. As you may have heard, on Graduation Day our varsity men’s lacrosse team won a first-ever team National Championship for WesU!

On Saturday evening, our honored professors emeriti guests were Richard Buel, Dick Miller, and Mark Slobin. Like at our 50th, we watched a slide show of artworks of 10 classmates (Colby Andrus, Stan Lewis, Tom McKnight, Byron Miller, Don Sexton, Dan Snyder, George Tapley, Bob Travis, Lew Whitney, and Scott Wilson), but unlike our past Reunion dinners, we tried our hand at karaoke and all joined in to sing the Highway Men’s “Michael Row Your Boat Ashore.”

On a sad note, I received word of the passing of Jim Reynolds. Originally from Longmeadow, Mass., he loved athletics and could be drawn easily into the smallest argument about sports, especially with Steve Humphrey. Jim was especially proud of his son’s elevation to major league umpiring. Many in the Lodge and beyond will miss him.

In the next edition of our magazine, I will return to reports of individual classmates, and while at Reunion, I was given names of some who are thought to have never appeared or have not been heard from in these notes for too long a time. I know it’s early but let this be your first invitation to come back to our 60th Reunion. Mark your 2023 calendar for May 25 to May 28 when we hope to gather again. Till then, be careful crossing streets, look both ways, and practice breathing in and out diligently every day.

Byron S. Miller | tigr10@optonline.net
5 Clapboard Hill Rd., Westport, CT 06880

Class of 1963 Endowed Wesleyan Scholarship Fund

John Lewis Jr. ’21, Newark, NJ

Ron Tallmanis living in St. Augustine. Way back in the ’80s, he was director of the American Association for Canadian Studies at the University of Maine, the largest center for such studies in the U.S. But more recently, when he retired in 2002 it was as dean of Roosevelt University, Chicago. Noel, his wife, retired from advertising in 2007. They really enjoy taking cruises and have taken so many that he was not even sure how many. Possibly 20, he guessed. They find it much easier to travel that way. No hauling luggage around or changing from hotel to hotel. He and Noel recently bought a wonderful single-family dwelling in a retirement community and moved there after some renovations. He thinks they might be the youngest residents there and they are very pleased with the community. Lots of interesting and friendly fellow residents and a wide range of activities to choose from. He listed a few—monthly van group trips to high-end restaurants (always a sober driver to bring them home), free Uber drivers, golfing (Noel is very good! and he played golf at WESU). They once went to the Open at St. Andrews. “Great fun!” Ron has two daughters from a previous marriage. The eldest, 53, is the United Nation’s deputy high commissioner for refugees in Geneva and has two children. The youngest just turned 50 and is a teacher about to start teaching in Houston, Texas, and has 3 children. Ron’s grandchildren range in age from 12 to 22, but sadly, due to geographical distance, he sometimes only sees them once a year.

While John Coatsworth is in only in his seventh year as provost at Columbia University, he and Patricia are in their 53rd year of marriage.Prior to coming to Columbia, John was the Monroe Gutman Professor of Latin American Affairs at Harvard where he also founded the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. He was also president of the American Historical Association. Due to his job he travels a lot to both Europe and South America. He and Patricia find so much to do in NYC that they “travel” more around town, especially to the ballet, than abroad. However, they did recently enjoy a brief relaxing and warm “escape” to Punta Canna in the Dominican Republic. John was originally a member of the class of ’62 but during his junior year abroad in Paris with a group of COL students, his mother, “our family bread winner” got sick and he took the year off and returned home to work and support his family. “Wesleyan was wonderfully helpful in allowing me to keep my scholarship and return and graduate a year later.” John has fond memories of being a member of the John Wesley Club. It was a great place to be, filled with wonderful odd balls and radicals. When I asked him about the rumors that inhabitants there might have partaken of substances not yet legalized in Connecticut, he replied, “Not so much so, but we did have some residents who were very accomplished chemists.”

John Bednarik lives with his wife Leslie Woods in Montville, Maine, which he said is located “halfway between Liberty and Freedom, with Hope just down the road.” (Confirmed by Google Maps!) John retired at 55 from the Bath Iron Works in Brunswick, Maine, which now builds Arleigh-Burke class frigates, all stealth and as large as WWII cruisers. He was in their computer department and had worked there for 14 years. From high school in New Mexico, John was recruited by the wide-ranging diversity policy of Victor Butterfield who wanted not only more out-of-state, but also way, way out-of state students. “I was a high school state champion. A very hot wrestling prospect in New Mexico but was lured east. Initially I lived in a small apartment in Butterfield’s house. There, as part of my scholarship pay-back, I waited at many official banquets and met lots of interesting visiting scholars and lecturers, including Paul Horgan. As a freshman, I was New England champ (135 pounds), but found the training and dieting too tiring. Also, I was getting very interested in my studies. So, I retired from sports, eventually joining the COL and got very interested in French literature. I spent the second half of my sophomore year in Paris and translated a History of the Wife of Pontheuwhile there. I majored in French, minored in Russian, with lots of psych courses too. After graduation, I got a letter from the New Mexico draft board inviting me to come and see if I was qualified to defend our country. I flunked the physical, but passed the Army Language school requirement, and was sent first to their language school. Studied Russian, Czech—with the name Bednarik, a piece of cake, that was my family history! And then on to the Army Security Agency.” He met Leslie while out in Monterey at language school. She has a very different family background from his—her family came over on the Fortune, the second English ship after the Mayflower. But that did not prove to be an obstacle. They dated for six weeks and got married. Initially they lived in NYC where John heard of a training program offered by IBM.  He applied, was hired, trained, and took to computers with ease. “Database was just like learning another language and was easy for me.” For a while they lived in New Fairfield, Conn., where he worked for Control Data, but after vacationing in Maine and Canada, they decided they wanted out and bought 135 acres in Waterville, Maine in 1967 and eventually moved up there in 1980. They grow most of their own food, including sheep and vegetables. In retirement John does his own iron work—welding iron animals and fanciful creatures as well as making ceramic candelabras. He has taken numerous adult education classes and now is improving his Spanish. He also speaks German, French, and Czech. That John is enjoying himself in his retirement came across very clearly. He, too, has fond memories of the JWC, having lived there after returning from France.

Daniel Dennett wrote, “I spent just freshman year at Wesleyan in the class of ’63 before transferring to Harvard to work with W.V.O. Quine, who became a life-long hero of mine. The year at Wesleyan was a deep and formative experience for me. Three teachers, Robert Benson, the historian, Louis Mink, the philosopher, and Henry Kyberg, a visiting logician from Princeton, inspired me for years. Two fellow freshmen, Stan Lewis and Spike D’arthenay ’64 showed me that art, music and poetry were even more wonderful than I already thought, while at the same time showing me by their very great talent and insight that there might be other worlds for me to excel in. I shudder to think of some of the obnoxious and narrow-minded things I did back then. I apologize and hope that any whom I might have embarrassed back in ’59-60 will chalk it up to my immaturity and over-eagerness to impress. It was a great year for me and it laid the foundation for what has been a gratifying life of adventure and accomplishment. I am still married to the woman I met later in 1960. We have two children, both married, and five grandchildren. After 40 years, we sold our farm in Blue Hills, Maine, and now spend summers in a house on Little Deer Isle, Maine.”  Dan has a very impressive array of accomplishments—world-wide lectures/workshops, numerous articles and books, and is a recipient of the Netherlands highest honor presented by Queen Beatrix. There is a very interesting article about Dan in the March 27, 2017 issue of the New Yorker, written by Joshua Rothman entitled, “Daniel Dennett’s Science of the Soul.”

James Ferguson, long been retired from his consulting work, is very active as administrator of the Washington Soccer Club in D.C. It has a youthful membership of under 200 and is very serious about high-level training for young soccer players. It has only travel teams and does not play in any recreational league. They are understandably proud that three of their graduates have made it onto the U.S. national teams. We remember Jim in sports for football or wrestling, but many years ago, as his sons got into soccer, Jim did too. Eventually, he wound up as rules chairman for the National Youth Soccer Association and sat on the Rules Committee of the National Soccer Federation. Jim took up writing when his granddaughter, Nora, was 9 (she’s now 18). He wrote a story for her (“and all children under 70″) called Nora, The Checkerboard Duckling, which he says his friends all like. While book publishers like it too, none has yet been able to decide what age would be its target.  He’s written two screenplays “which no one has bought” and has made board games “which no one wants.” He seems undiscouraged and continues to write. Jim has two sons, 41 and 37, and three grandchildren, with another due prior to your reading this. I was shocked to hear that Jim’s youngest son, Brian spent 11 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. After much effort by a fine, new lawyer who unearthed information either initially ignored, misinterpreted, or deliberately overlooked, a judge released Brian from prison. Brian is rebounding well. He is engaged, attending Georgetown, and will get his degree this spring. After leading a successful “Ban the Box” campaign in D.C., Brian is employed as head of the D.C. mayor’s Office of Returning Citizen’s Affairs, which helps reintegrate D.C. residents who have spent time in jail or prison. Having become a jail house lawyer himself, Brian is seriously considering going to law school after his graduation. During Brian’s incarceration, if asked what he wanted in life, Jim would say, “I want to live to see my son breathe free again.” A last tidbit—when quite young, Jim was told that if he learned cribbage, it would help his math. So, he started playing the game and now plays it nearly everyday. Football, wrestling, cribbage. A natural progression, I guess.

And sad news, John Sommer died Nov. 11 of cancer. Alex Aikman, a classmate of John’s from seventh grade through WESU, has written a wonderfully detailed and lovingly prepared obituary which is available online.

Be advised it’s true—Our 55th Reunion is almost upon us! And I hope a great many of you will plan to come to campus May 25-27. Harvey Bagg, Jim Dooney, Jim Dresser, John Driscoll ’62, Doug Evelyn, Marty Hatch, Dave Landgraf,John Kikoski, RussRichey, Peter Treffers, Don Sexton, and I have been busy planning what we hope will be a wonderful weekend. Join this opportunity for our class to assemble once again. Remember, the older we are, the better we were.

Byron S. Miller | tigr10@optonline.net
5 Clapboard Hill Rd., Westport, CT 06880