Magazine - summer 03 - St. John's College

{Obituaries} 41
tion of the heart. Using dogs as subjects, I
found that a very small electrical shock of
1 milliampere would cause the heart to go
into fibrillation and a countershock 100
times stronger would stop the fibrillation.
“This basic discovery in 1934 led to the
development of the defibrillator that is now
used worldwide in all hospitals and doctors’
offices to stop fibrillation of the heart,
saving many lives every day. About the size
of a portable typewriter, the defibrillator
sits over in the corner of the room awaiting
its turn to save another life.”
It was his life, Lotz noted, that was saved
by a defibrillator when his heart stopped
during the implantation of a pacemaker.
“This remarkable story illustrates the
importance of basic research, because you
never know where the discovery of new facts
or information will lead.”
Lotz and his wife, Kay, had four
children. After his wife died in 1991, Lotz
lived with his daughter and her family in
Charlottesville, Va., until his death.
CALVIN BAUMGARTNER, CLASS OF 1944
Calvin Baumgartner, a member of the class
of 1944 who survived the sinking of the
Merchant Marine ship on which he served
during World War II, died in May at the
age of 90.
Baumgartner was born in Baltimore
County, Maryland, and received his first
education in a two-room schoolhouse.
During high school at Baltimore’s City
College, he delivered telegrams for Western
Union. He attended St. John’s before the
war interrupted his studies.
After the U.S. entered World War II, he
joined the Merchant Marine Army Transport
Service. In April 1945, he was assigned
to the S.S. Black Point, which on May 5,
1945, was off the coast of Rhode Island,
carrying coal to Boston. A lookout at Point
Judith heard an explosion and saw the ship
come to a stop: a German U-Boat torpedoed
the Black Point just eight hours after the
U-Boat command was ordered to stop
attacks on Allied ships.
The torpedo blew off the last 50 feet of
the nearly 400-foot ship. Minutes after the
last survivor was rescued, the Black Point
rolled over. Twelve men lost their lives in
the attack; 34 men were saved. Baumgartner
was the last crew member to be rescued.
A program assembled by his family for a
celebration of his life spoke to Baumgartner’s
enduring pride in his military service.
“He felt that World War II was America’s
finest hour and the most outstanding event
of his lifetime. He was so proud of how the
Calvin
Baumgartner
country came
together and the
troops rallied.”
After the war,
Baumgartner
went on to
several different
enterprises:
managing an apartment complex, converting
coal furnaces to natural gas, and
operating a grain hauling company on the
Chesapeake Bay. With a partner, he hauled
grain from Norfolk to Baltimore until his
barge, the B.S. Ford, sank in 1960. Baumgartner
retired in 1980 from a job as stationary
engineer for the Maryland Training
School for Boys. Baumgartner and his first
wife, Dorothea, had four children. After her
death, he married Violetta S. Bateman,
who died in 1996.
His goal, his family said, was to live to
be 90. He celebrated that milestone on
April 22, 2004.
RICHARD “WOODY” WEST, CLASS OF 1961
Richard W. West, a long-time Washington
journalist, died in May at his home in
Hagerstown, Md. He was 70.
A high school football star, West was
recruited to play for the University of
Missouri, said Annapolis attorney Darrell
Henry, also a member of the class of 1961.
West served in the Marines in Thailand and
Japan for three years before enrolling in
St. John’s in 1957. “We used to kiddingly
call him the ‘Old Marine,’” Henry recalls.
“He had both feet firmly on the ground,
he was very bright, an excellent manager.
He was a good athlete, and a very intelligent
guy.”
John Pekkanen, class of 1961, shared all
his classes with West for two years. “He
was five years older than me, and he was
very much a big brother to me,” he says.
“He showed me the ropes of life.”
History, especially
the great
battles and heroes
of the Civil War,
and literature were
West’s great interest,
and he left St.
John’s to complete
Richard West
a bachelor’s degree in history at American
University. His first newspaper jobs were in
Nebraska, at the Lincoln Star and the
Omaha World-Herald.
After moving to Washington in the early
1960s, West worked first as a reporter
and later as an editorial writer for the
Washington Star. When the Star folded in
1981, he moved on to the newly founded
Washington Times as an editorial writer
and quickly climbed the ranks, becoming
managing editor in 1983 and later executive
editor, the newspaper’s chief editorial position,
from 1985 to 1986. West decided to
step down from that stressful position
because it consumed all of his time. “Now
I’m going to sit on the porch and read, go
out and scare a few geese in the winter,”
he told the Washington Post in 1986.
Since 1986, West worked part time as the
associate editor for the Times. He edited the
weekly Civil War page and served on the
committee overseeing the Sunday book
pages, choosing books for review and
matching them with reviewers. He was also
a frequent reviewer himself for the Times,
Insight, and the Weekly Standard.
“Woody saw life a little off-center, and I
mean that as a compliment,” says Pekkanen,
adding that West encouraged and
helped him when he was starting out in
journalism. “He was a skilled and perceptive
writer and a great thinker. He was a
newspaper man.”
West is survived by his wife of 43 years,
JoAnn Wochos West, of Hagerstown. x
ALSO NOTED:
GEORGE BONIFANT, class of 1939, died in
March.
CHARLES HYSON, class of 1937, died in
March.
JOHN LOGUE, class of 1950, died in June.
ALEXANDER MORSE, class of 1945 and
SFGI73, died in September 2003.
LESTER H. PALMER, class of 1930, died in
February 2004.
ROBERT SNIBBE, CLASS OF 1937, died in
June 2004.
WILLIAM JOHN RICHARD THOMAS JR., class
of 1935, died in June 2004.
{ The College • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 }