Class Notes

River Campus Undergraduate: Slater Society–1950s

1950
Kenneth Hubel, class correspondent, writes:

Louise Bush and Alan Leader ’51, ’61S (MS) married soon after graduation and stayed in Rochester for a decade before Alan earned his doctorate in business administration at Indiana University. Thereafter, he was a university professor for 14 years in Kalamazoo, Mich., and served for eight years as dean of the business school at the University of Guam and for 11 at Southern Connecticut State College. Louise worked at each of the schools as well as Yale when they lived in Connecticut. Louise and Alan have lived in Seattle for the past eight years and have two married sons and three granddaughters. They are active volunteers who are “enjoying life and really do not understand how chronological life can age while internal life does not” and, they say, “Other than Guam, we have never lived anywhere that we have enjoyed so much as Seattle” (9043 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115; (206) 526-8041; with a computer that is “on the fritz”).

Helen Tranter ’50N graduated from the School of Nursing and married Louis Carrese ’51, ’53 (Mas). She was a surgical nurse at Strong Memorial Hospital for two years while Louis earned his master’s degree in sociology at the University. They then moved to Bethesda, Md., where Louis became associate director for program planning and analysis at the National Cancer Institute, and Helen took time off to raise four children. She returned to hospital and private practice nursing from 1967 to 1975, then was a nurse in occupational health, first for IBM, then for United Airlines. Louis died of cancer in 1986, but Helen has the legacy of three granddaughters and two grandsons. She is a volunteer at a pregnancy center for women in crisis and travels frequently with her church group. She stays in touch with her Rochester roommate, Betty Wetterings Smith ’50N (Helen’s address: 11117 Lamplighter Lane, Potomac, MD 20854; (301) 983-0706; htc1220 (at) aol (dot) com).

—Contact: Kenneth Hubel, 2562 Oak Circle N.E., North Liberty, IA 52317; (319) 626-6562; khubel (at) southslope (dot) net.

1951
Louis Carrese ’53 (Mas) (see ’50). . . . Alan Leader ’61S (MS) (see ’50).

1958
John Rathbone, class correspondent, writes:

Jerry Gardner writes that the State of Georgia is also a “state of confusion” since a judicial panel ruled that the 2001 reapportionment was illegal. Now the district lines are being redrawn, and Jerry’s wife, Pat, is wondering what district she will run in this November. Their daughter, Anita, is back in Boone, N.C., working at Ruby Tuesday and going back to get her degree at Appalachian State College. Their son, Bradley Gardner ’96, will get his executive M.B.A. from Pepperdine University in August. Jerry and Pat plan to go to Los Angeles for the graduation ceremony. Bradley’s wife, Ida, is getting her B.A. from the University of California at Domingus Hills. With Bradley’s and Ida’s work on their education complete, Pat and Jerry are hoping they will start working on a family.

Joe Steinman and his wife, Jennifer, still love living in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. For now, Joe continues to teach finance at the University of North Florida, mainly in the graduate school, which he enjoys. Joe has switched gears a little this term and is teaching two sections of managerial accounting for the M.B.A. students. “It’s a nice change from my steady diet of finance courses,” Joe writes. “I have agreed to teach one more year at UNF, but it will probably be my last in a regular classroom. I may continue to do some executive short courses, but I will have to see when the time comes.” Joe has been asked to teach a two-week management seminar in Shanghai for business executives through Shanghai Jiao Tong University, arranged by Purdue University. In the meantime, Joe will do his annual two-week “Applied Management Principles” course for Ph.D. students in science and engineering at Purdue in May and will teach an in-house seminar (also for two weeks) for some senior engineering managers at the Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, in July.

According to Dick De Brine, men of the Class of ’58 who are members of the Delta Upsilon fraternity are organizing a reunion in the fall of 2004, in North Carolina. This reunion will include all brothers from 1955 to 1961. All DUs from this era should contact Dick or Bill Bowden ’59. Dick had other news as well: One of our engineering classmates made a substantial additional donation for our class gift, applied toward the maintenance and upkeep of the Veterans’ Memorial Grove. Many thanks! By the time you read this, Dick and his wife, Joan, should be in their new house on Franklin Pierce Lake in Hillsborough, N.H., enjoying their newfound freedom from running their bed and breakfast. Dick closes with, “I wish there was something cool I could say about our reunion, but I can’t come up with anything other than it was great to see so many ‘old’ friends.”

Condolences to Diane Weber Masucci on the loss of her husband, Jim.

Bob Rufe had a close call and spent the beginning of 2003 under close medical care. He has recovered from his “adventure” (as he calls it) to the point where he was able to continue with his work as a consultant for the Assembly of God Church and log another 100,000 miles of travel for them. Bob and his wife, Joan, traveled up and down the West Coast (including Alaska and Vancouver) and to Hawaii.

Dayton and Lola Vincent and John and Val Evans Rathbone ’60W (Mas) toured from Milan to Munich this past spring. They have decided to “do” Europe alphabetically, starting in the middle, rather than going clockwise, which was the previous plan.

After scary periods following surgery which went awry and well beyond the original plans, Dick and Jane Wedemeyer wrote at Christmas that they are both feeling well, despite major surgery for them both, but their activities are limited. Dick no longer works full time, but he serves as an advisor to the Channel Corporation and is on several boards. Jane, too, is doing her realty work between medical sessions. They decided to “retire” in their “old” home and performed a major renovation on it in 2002.

In March, Judy Frank Pearson hosted a welcome visitor from Houston. Sally Hawes Powell, a former Cutler roommate, spent a weekend with Judy and her husband, Art. They were looking forward to viewing the “Class CD” from Reunion 2003 and seeing some familiar faces from the River Campus days.

As of March, Jim Alrutz was still in Monze, Zambia, but he expected to be home in May. Judy Takats McPherson was due to visit him there.

Roberta (Bobbie) Kirsch Thomas took a bit of time to update her classmates on the direction her career has taken. Bobbie is currently the director of alumni and parent relations at Arcadia University in Glenside, Pa., and writes that she was sad to miss our 45th reunion, but it was Parents Weekend at Arcadia, and duty called. Bobbie has held her current position for 13 years and loves it. She writes, “Before coming to Arcadia, I taught, like so many good women of my generation. And then my career radically changed. I became deeply immersed in the field of deafness, advocating for parents and deaf children, a career inspired by the birth of my youngest son (now 28), who was born deaf. I became distressed—you might say “obsessed”—with the tremendous limitations in deaf education programs. I spent about 15 years writing articles and giving speeches to parents, educators, congressional committees, politicians—anywhere I could. Before I returned to the Philadelphia area, I was the education and early intervention specialist for the Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the executive director of the American Society for Deaf Children. Though this is no longer my career, I am still happy to talk about the needs of deaf children and the adults they will become to anyone willing to listen!”

Roseann Centanni, our outstanding staff coordinator, has provided this update on our class gift campaign, and there is a lot of good news to share: 47 percent of the class (170) contributed to the campaign (the class prior three-year giving average was 34.6 percent); the class raised a total of $266,112; and two new endowment funds were created—one is a family scholarship fund established by our very own gift chair, John Meyers, and the other was established by Bob Stone. These will provide permanent funding for the upkeep of the Veterans’ Memorial Grove. These two gentlemen deserve a round of applause and well-deserved kudos from the rest of us. In addition, 16 members of the class made gifts of at least $5,000, and half of those were new leadership gifts.

Dee Molinari reminds us, in case we have not done it before, to remember to thank all our classmates who worked so hard on our 45th reunion, especially Dick Vidale for assembling the “Class CD.” We have already done that, but to echo Dick De Brine’s thoughts, it cannot be overdone. So, thanks again, everyone! Now, get started on the next one—the “Big Five-Oh!”

—Contact: John Rathbone, 2375 Brookview Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346; jrathbon (at) dreamscape (dot) com.

1959
Bill Bowden (see ’58). . . . David and Ann Funkhouser McFarlane write to announce that David retired on October 1, 2003, after 41 years as a Presbyterian pastor in Pittsford, N.Y., Williamsville, N.Y., and Pittsburgh, Pa. They now live in Charlottesville, Va. In July 2003, Ann’s term as vice moderator for mission relations of Presbyterian women churchwide ended. One highlight of her three-year term was traveling to meetings of church women in Seoul, South Korea, where Ann and David had dinner with Sonia Reid Strawn ’60 and her husband, Dwight Strawn, who have been Methodist missionaries in Korea for some 30 years.