JENNIFER GATES, a student in the College of Letters who received her degree with high honors, died July 7, 2003 at age 47. Survivors include her three children, her mother, her father, two sisters, a stepsister, a stepbrother, and several nieces and nephews.
JAMES A. FAIRBROTHER, a media and advertising executive, died Dec. 27, 2010, at age 55. He received his degree magna cum laude and with honors, and he had received numerous national awards for his creative work with his firm, Fairbrother & Company. Survivors include his wife, Eileen (Ivy) Fairbrother, and four children.
LOIS E. EGASTI, a human resources executive who founded and was president of the Hurricane Voices Breast Cancer Foundation, died of breast cancer Apr. 15, 2003. She was 47. After receiving a master’s degree in public and private management from Yale University, she worked in human resources at Cummins Diesel Engine Company, Wellesley College, and Lotus Development Corporation. She started the Foundation to make a difference in the search for a cause and a cure for breast cancer. Survivors include her husband, Jeffrey L. Shames ’77, a daughter, two sisters, and a brother.
RUSSELL G. “Toby” D’OENCH III, 58, an attorney and partner in Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP, and founder of the North Star Fund, a nonprofit organization that supports grassroots groups fighting for equality, economic justice and peace, died Jan. 23, 2012. Known as Toby, he received his law degree from Columbia University Law School in 1992, where he was both a James Kent Scholar and a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. He clerked for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York before entering private practice. A member of Skadden’s Financial Institutions Group, he handled mergers, acquisitions, equity offerings and other transactions, both public and private. In 1977 he founded the North Star Fund, a nonprofit organization that supports grassroots groups fighting for equality, economic justice and peace, and he served as the organization’s executive director until 1983. The son of the late Ellen G. D’Oench ’73, he is survived by his wife, Tani Takagi, two children, his sister, and his brother, Peter G. D’Oench ’73.
PHYLLIS R. BRUCE, an accomplished musician, writer, and administrator, died Nov. 8, 2010. She was 69. After receiving an associate’s degree from Mattatuck Community College, she earned a bachelor’s degree in music and a master’s degree in American studies from Wesleyan. As a performer and scholar, she is best known for her work with the songs of American women, particularly in the 19th and early 20th centuries. She is the author of several short articles in the Grove Dictionary of American Music. Her master’s thesis was on the life and work of composer Carrie Jacobs Bond. For many years she worked on a biography of Mrs. Bond, left unfinished at the time of her passing. She was also well-known for her performances of the music of her husband, Wesleyan Professor of Music and American Studies Neely Bruce. She sang in major premieres of works by many American composers. The late John Cage considered her performance of his Song Books definitive. She was the associate director of the Graduate Liberal Studies Program at Wesleyan from 1976 to 1984, and she also worked in real estate and property management. Since 1997 she served as co-director of music at South Congregational Church in Middletown and with her husband wrote a series of three church musicals. Among those who survive are her husband, seven children, 12 grandchildren, her mother, four sisters, a brother, and a large extended family.
