April 2012 - Alumni News - Williams College

CLASS NOTES
Fitch, Joy and Walter Flaherty,
Barbara and Bob Howard, Tess
and Derry Kruse, Mary and Jack
Merselis, Sally and Harry Molwitz,
Anne and Charlie Mott, Judy and
Art Murray, Peggy Norwood, Liz
and Bob Ouchterloney, Granthia
and Fred Preston, Bob Sillcox and
Sheila Thompson, and Nancy
and Peter Sterling. In addition,
Ted Potter appeared at the
tailgate tent before the game.
Williams was victorious over
Tufts at Weston Field.
Mike Lazor received a long
letter from Mike Puffer bringing
him up to date on many of his
activities over the last number
of years. Puffer has a sizable
Christmas tree farm outside of
Saginaw, Mich., that he plans to
turn into a site for homeless veterans
and old race horses. (My
feeling is that Puffer would be
a valuable addition to the Mets
2012 pitching staff.)
Greatly aided by Boine
Johnson’s $25K legacy, adroitly
steered to the ’53 Alumni
Fund by Kathleen Piagessi,
Pete Sterling advises as of early
January the 2011-12 goal was
exceeded. Pete however was
hopeful that a good showing
from recalcitrant classmates
significantly boosted the class
participation percentage.
Tony Butterfield attended
the memorial service for Dick
Salladin and mentioned that
although he saw no fellow Dekes
or Ephmen, there were a great
number of lawyers in attendance.
Phil Ingwersen died on Sept. 29
following a period of declining
health. Phil is survived by
his wife Jean, a daughter, a son
and three grandchildren. John
Judge died on Nov. 6. John was
a banker and a sailor and was
inducted into the Herreshoff
Marine Museum Hall of Fame
in Newport, R.I. Dan Fitch and
Harry Molwitz attended John’s
memorial service in Larchmont,
N.Y. John is survived by his wife
Mary Francis, two daughters and
five grandchildren.
1954
Al Horne
7214 Rebecca Drive
Alexandria, VA 22307
1954secretary@williams.edu
We lost two more classmates
since our last installment.
In December Dave West died at
his home in Wolfeboro, N.H. He
served 25 years in the Air Force,
including two years in Vietnam,
and retired as full colonel with a
18 | Williams PeoPle | aPril 2012
chestful of medals, including the
Silver Star and the Distinguished
Flying Cross. After retiring, he
worked in Florida for Lockheed-
Martin as manager of quality
assurance for the Patriot missile
program until 1997.
In February we lost Fred Joss,
at a hospice in Pittsburgh. Jim
Carpenter, sophomore year
roommate, had kept in touch
with Fred and reports, “He had
been in failing health for several
years.” Fred worked for Alcoa
from 1958 to 1976, including
five years in Brazil, and then
spent 12 years with the Dravo
Corp. as chief financial officer
and VP for engineering and
construction. After retiring, he
taught at private and public
schools in the Pittsburgh area.
Wendell Elmendorf and Mildred
Jorgensen Pelrine tied the knot in
October and are now snowbirds,
splitting their time between
Riverview, Fla., and Remsen,
N.Y. Here’s Wendell’s account of
how all this came about: “Mil
and I were classmates in fifth
to eighth grade in Schenectady,
N.Y., and became reacquainted
in early September of 2010 when
she read a letter I wrote to the
editor of our local paper, recognized
my name, Googled me and
then emailed me. After a week or
two of email exchanges I invited
her out to lunch, then she invited
me to dinner two times and on
Oct. 5 left for her winter home
in Florida with these parting
words: ‘If you come to Florida to
visit your sister again this winter,
be sure to look me up.’ I said to
myself, ‘I really wasn’t planning
to visit my sister, but I sure will
now!’ I did. Before and after my
March trip to Florida, we continued
emailing each other almost
daily. About a month after she
returned to New York State last
spring we began planning an
October wedding. Millie was a
nurse while raising her five children.
In 1984, after her husband
died suddenly of a heart attack,
she went to Syracuse University
Law School and became a lawyer
and is now retired.”
Here’s another piece of happy
news, from David St. Clair in
Colorado Springs: “Gail and
I celebrated our 50th wedding
anniversary with a family
reunion on Cape Cod this past
summer. All three of our children
and their families were there:
Son David, with Julie, Alex and
Peter, flew in from Konstanz,
Germany, where David works
as an engineer for a German
company. Son John flew in from
Nairobi, Kenya, where he works
for a research company in global
finance. Our daughter Susan, an
emergency medicine physician
here in Colorado Springs, her
husband Jeff and their children
Teddy and Gabi flew with us
from Colorado to the Cape for
the reunion. We spent Christmas
in North Carolina with the
Nairobi gang: John, his wife Kelli
and their children Ainsley, Jack
and Eliot.”
From Atlanta, meanwhile,
Bob Larkin reports: “I have just
completed the process of going
through a divorce from my second
wife of 10 years and am living
alone and loving it. Applying
for a reverse mortgage to get
some equity out of my home and
be able to live here as I have for
the last 25 years. I still am in the
wine brokerage business—
represent one winery from
Oregon. Just celebrated my 80th
birthday and fooled ’em all!”
And here’s an update from Joe
Usatine in The Dalles, Ore.: “Life
still goes on here in the Pacific
Northwest, but a little change
has taken place. We’ve bought a
house in Arizona City, Ariz., and
now we’re spending about four
to five months in the sunshine,
abandoning our overcast, cold
winter here. Lots of golf—not
very good, but enjoyable.
Martha’s well, but I’ve been
dealing with a health issue which
isn’t very pleasant. A couple of
years ago I was diagnosed with
blood cancer. My marrow is
unable to manufacture sufficient
hemoglobin. I’ve turned down
a transplant; too many risks
involved. So I deal with chemo
infusions every month. These
keep me pretty active and feeling
well, but there will be no end to
them. Great clinics, both here and
in Arizona. Prognosis is good as
long as I follow the protocol. I’ll
be preparing a few tax returns for
longtime clients, but my practice
is not much anymore.”
From Philadelphia, Harry
Rieger reports: “We are currently
enjoying the so-called
Golden Years. However, they
too have pitfalls. Both Didi and
I had some issues with macadam,
leaving her with a broken
pelvis and lots of pain. (All
better there.) I just recently had
a similar meeting with blacktop
and did a beautiful cosmetic
face mess, now 90 percent back
to normal. The perpetrator was
our 60-pound Standard Poodle,
who is quite active and tends to
not understand the basic word
‘No.’