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These pages contain all class notes from the Yale Alumni Magazine from 1957 on. The notes from the July 1957 issue through that of July 2004 appear unchanged from their original publication in the magazine save for the correction of misspellings and other small errors. Starting with the September/October 2004 issue, the notes appear as they were submitted to the Yale Alumni Magazine. The edited notes as published in the magazine can be accessed via https://yalealumnimagazine.com/. The differences are minor. Gaps in coverage result from the absence of Class of 1957 notes in a few issues of the magazine over the years. Also, in keeping with changes in the magazine itself since 1957, the frequency of publication has occasionally changed.
Notes: January/February 2026
Notes: March/April 2026
Notes: May/June 2026
Notes: July/August 2026
Notes: September/October 2026
Notes: November/December 2026
January/February 2026
I hope that ’57ers will attend the fifth season of our virtual gatherings, which, as before, convene on the second Monday of each month at 5 p.m. eastern time. This year, speakers will alternate with open discussions. As in the past, announcements will precede each event and registration will be required.
Lou DeLuca writes that his wife Victoria, their friends, and laughter keep him sane these days. He’s been giving talks about a small-town master craftsman, musician, folk artist, and writer whose journals he’s edited. Next up: the rewrite of a young people’s book about Buckminster Fuller.
Now comes the bad news, as always mere précis for the larger Yale world of the fuller obituaries emailed to everyone and subsequently posted on the class website.
In Memoriam: Colin R. Jensen died on September 10, 2024, at home in West Okoboji Lake, Iowa, after a long illness. A civil engineering major, Colin was also a varsity footballer who with his three brothers later funded the Jensen Plaza at Yale Bowl during its renovation. After post-collegiate service in the US Public Health Service, he returned to his family’s construction firm, of which he eventually became president and where he worked until his retirement in 2005, when the company was sold. His specialty being road and highway construction, he held the presidencies of the Associated General Contractors of both Nebraska and Iowa, of the Iowa Concrete Paving Association, and of the national American Concrete Paving Association. Peter Greer writes that this “serious inland sailor” sailed C scows and Ynglings on Lake Okoboji. A skier who also completed two New York City marathons, he carried two holes-in-one on his lifetime golfing record. Colin is survived by his wife Alice (Pokey), son Colin Jr. and daughter Jennifer Larson, and their families.
In Memoriam: John K. Copelin died in Philadelphia on September 25, 2024, after a brief illness. At Yale, John majored in architecture and was a ranking scholar before obtaining a 1960 Yale MArch degree as a student of Robert A. M. Stern. After working for Edward Larrabee Barnes, John pursued an independent Manhattan practice designing athletic, library, and other academic facilities and restoring historic buildings for, among other institutions, Hollins, Bard, and Hobart and William Smith colleges (the last when Carroll Brewster was president), Washington and Lee University, the Marble Collegiate Church, St. Paul’s School, and the Yale Club of New York (during Don Bab’s presidency). He also taught part-time in the Yale Architecture School and in retirement became an accomplished watercolorist. A modest, quiet, gentle man, John radiated good nature and, when writing for reunion books, expressed his love of artistic beauty in all its forms. Phil Levine recalls him as “supremely witty, . . . always playfully amusing, and really smart.” Predeceased by his wife Jennifer, John is survived by their daughter Stephanie Copelin and her family.
In Memoriam: One of our most distinctive classmates, Edward J. Robinson, died peacefully near his Marblehead, Massachusetts, home on October 22, 2024. A high-school basketball star whose record of scoring the most points in a single game remains unbroken, Ed was a French major and a member of Aurelian at Yale. In college, he played for the varsity track and basketball teams; captained the latter for an exceptional three years; and, as the first African American captain in the team’s history, led it into the 1957 NCAA tournament at Madison Square Garden against first-ranked North Carolina. Although Yale lost that first-round contest, the team captured its first Ivy League championship since 1949 as well as the 1957 Big Three title. After receiving his MD degree from Tufts in 1961, Ed served in the US Navy Medical Corps in Vietnam until 1967, when he retired from active duty at the rank of lieutenant commander. He then commenced his 40-year practice as a radiologist, most of it as head of radiology at Salem (Massachusetts) Hospital while teaching at Boston University School of Medicine. Ed is survived by sons Edward J., Perry G., and Christopher D. Robinson, and two grandchildren.
In Memoriam: Robert D. Bentley died at home in Sun Valley, Idaho, on August 18, 2023, from the complications of chronic heart disease. At Yale Bob was a history, arts, and letters major, senior editor and illustrator of the Yale Record, and a member of the varsity lacrosse team. After three years of Marine Corps service and time in the advertising business, he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. Making portrait painting his specialty and becoming one of the nation’s leading practitioners of that genre, Bob painted such figures as George W. and Laura Bush, congressman Dan Rostenkowski, golfer Gene Sarazen, maestro George Solti, and our very own Vern Loucks. He remained a master of the light caricature and of whimsical cartoons reminiscent of his work for the Record. Those who knew Bob experienced him as a thoughtful, serious, but altogether light-hearted man. At the time of our 40th reunion, he wrote that “artists live much longer than portfolio managers, CEOs, or professionals in law, medicine, etc. Chocolate labs tack on ten years to any life span. Younger wives tack on more. Sailing adds a few more, too.” In addition to his second wife, Barbara, Bob is survived by his sons Robert D. and Edward B. Bentley.
In Memoriam: We lost Robert A. Goering in Cincinnati, Ohio, on November 19, 2024. An English major and varsity fencer at Yale, Bob gained a 1961 law degree from Northern Kentucky University’s Salmon P. Chase College of Law. He then practiced bankruptcy law until shortly before his death while teaching for 40 years at his law school alma mater and coauthoring Ohio’s bankruptcy code, which remains in effect. Active in civic and charitable affairs, he served as a board member of the Greater Cincinnati chapter of United Cerebral Palsy and the city’s Living Arrangements for the Developmentally Disabled (LADD). An outdoorsman, he owned a farm, hunted, was an avid fisherman and a keen poker and cribbage player. Predeceased by his first wife, Ruth, Bob is survived by his wife Charlotte, children Janet Patin and Robert A., Dean A., and Eric W. Goering, and many others.
In Memoriam: Richard S. Roberts Jr. died peacefully of unstated causes at his home in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, on July 25, 2024. An intensive major in political and economic institutions at Yale, Dick gained a 1962 PhD in political science from the Graduate Institute of International Studies at the University of Geneva while serving as an economist for the ILO. From then on, he devoted himself as consultant to a wide range of activities in developing nations throughout the world. After spending two years at the Stanford Research Institute, he began what may have been the class’s most peripatetic professional career. He contributed, under Ford Foundation, United Nations, and USAID auspices, to aspects of Egypt’s Aswan Dam realization, family planning projects in Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco, training seminars in West Africa, the Sudan, Haiti, Egypt, and Guatemala, family planning assignments in Algeria, Cameroon, Kenya, Senegal, Uganda, Zaire, Zimbabwe, and Rwanda, and public health management and access in Honduras, Yemen, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and the Philippines. Along the way, Dick and his wife Priscilla found time to write the 2008 study Thomas Barclay (1728–1793): Consul in France, Diplomat in Barbary. Predeceased by Priscilla and an infant son, Dick is survived by daughters Laura Roberts and Wendy R. Zambalas and their families.
JMB
March/April 2026
The annual Class of 1957 lunch will take place at the Yale Club of New York on Friday, May 15.
Two ’57-linked named gifts: 1. A generous contribution from Neal Blue, chairman and CEO of General Atomics, has led to the founding of the Blue Center for Global Strategic Assessment in Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs. 2. A lead gift by Jim Schweitzer ’69 has created the Henry “Sam” Chauncey, Jr. Scholarship Fund in the Yale School of Public Health in honor of Sam Chauncey, who taught in the school from 1988 to 2000. Supporting the study of at least one graduate student, writes Jim, the fund honors “Mr. Yale, a mentor to many of us in my 1969 Yale undergraduate class.”
Bern Kosto conveys word of physician Dave Matloff’s memoir of his time as a MASH surgeon in Vietnam. Dave was, he recalls to Bern, one of three Yale Band members who, in junior year, introduced that “most secret of maneuvers,” the Yale Sidestep “that required that no two bandsmen marched in step. We always had two trolleys standing by to transport injured bandsmen to Grace–New Haven Hospital.” A question for Dave: How are you at sidestepping at age 90?
In Memoriam: We received delayed word that John W. Barber II died of unstated causes in Chatham, Illinois, on August 3, 2022. Jack spent his career as an electrical engineer, his collegiate major, first with Sangamo Electric Company, then in business management positions with Rixon, Inc. and the Dickey-John Corporation until his 1994 retirement. Subsequently, he was a private consultant. An active Catholic, this genial man was a member of Holy Family Inclusive Catholic Community in Springfield, Illinois, a volunteer teacher of Catholicism to high schoolers, and someone who prepared adults for membership in the Church. Predeceased by a daughter, Jack is survived by his wife Julia (Judy) of 65 years, daughter Deborah E., sons William B. and
Thomas J. Barber, and their families.
In Memoriam: Also delayed was notice that James R. Seitz Jr. died of unstated causes on July 19, 2023, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A partner in an oil-producing enterprise, investor in mineral rights, and vendor of fine silver, Jimmy spent his life as an arts activist, collector, and patron. After college, he returned to his Wichita Falls, Texas, birthplace where he owned an art gallery and directed the Wichita Falls Symphony Orchestra and the city’s Ballet Theater and Arts Center. Then he moved to Santa Fe, where, a major figure in the city’s distinctive arts community, he was most widely known for his service to the Santa Fe Opera. Its longest serving board member, Jimmy was for 17 years the Opera’s vice chairman and for 12 years its vice president, the sponsor of many productions, and founder of an endowment in support of the company’s technical and singing apprentices. This bon vivant also traveled often to Broadway shows, enjoyed fly fishing and bird hunting, and could be found at the Del Mar and Santa Anita racetracks. And having been an architecture major at Yale, in the 1990s he designed a showcase house that became the site of his amiable hosting. In a posthumous tribute, the Opera noted that “renowned for his dapper style and discerning palate, Jimmy’s smile never failed to brighten a room.”
In Memoriam: Leonidas D’Entrecasteaux Deters Jr., died peacefully on January 7, 2024, presumably in or near Louisville, his last known place of residence, the cause of his death unstated. After US Army service and the acquisition of a 1965 Harvard MBA, Lee turned to business administration, which he pursued until his 1997 retirement. Always a modest man with a bright smile, quick laughter, lively sense of humor, and genial personality, he seems to have been an avid golfer, reader, disciplined exerciser, enthusiastic dancer, and connoisseur of, yes, desserts. He’s survived by Penny Shaw, his wife of 26 years; his daughter Laura Lee Gastis, sons Leonidas P. and Garvin B. Deters, and their families; his first wife Laura Lee Brown; and others.
In Memoriam: James B. Richardson Jr. died in Westport, Connecticut, of unstated causes on August 26, 2024. Starting out after graduating with the Bankers Trust Company (acquired later by Deutsche Bank) and becoming group vice president responsible for much of the bank’s business in the southeastern states, Jim was also involved in managing a family manufacturer of coal mining machinery. Describing himself at our 50th reunion as “visually possessed (a near fatal disease),” he left banking to open a Southport, Connecticut, antique shop that specialized in the decorative and fine arts as well as American furniture and folk art. Ruing that he never found an original copy of the Constitution, he did snare a fourteenth-century Chinese ceramic piece “that filled an important gap in Yale’s collection” and became a founding member of the Antiques Dealers Association of America. On the side, he created his own art, was the family poet, and continued to play squash and tennis as he had on Yale’s varsity teams. Jim is survived by his wife Deborah, whom he married during junior year, their daughters Elizabeth and Sally, and two grandchildren.
In Memoriam: Anthony M. DeLude died on October 7, 2024, presumably in or near his last known residence in Neptune Beach, Florida, after an eight-month battle with cancer. Tony spent most of his career in corporate sales starting with Gulf Oil, then moving to Procter & Gamble, and finally serving as a regional sales manager of Berkel Incorporated until his retirement. A varsity golfer in college, Tony remained passionate about the game even though, as he reported for our 35th reunion, his handicap had grown by five strokes. But that didn’t deter him from attending as many as 12 PGA tour events each year. For much of his life he also actively collected and traded stamps and coins, solved crossword puzzles, played cribbage, and enjoyed cruise ship travel. Predeceased by his wife Katrina, whom he married in 1956, as well as by their eldest son David, Tony is survived by son Dwight; daughters Kari Garfinkle and Tina Gordon, and their families.
In Memoriam: O. Robert Conkey died at his San Diego home of unstated causes on December 23, 2024. This very private man dropped almost no breadcrumbs by which to trace the trails he traveled. Toggling between East and West coasts, only for our 1997 reunion book did Bob lift the corner of a curtain to indicate that, hinting at his interest in dance, he was director of finance of the Joyce Theater Foundation, the position he later held for the San Francisco Ballet and the Alvin Ailey Dance Company. A generous donor and named a Sterling Fellow, he was known to Yale’s development office as “particularly savvy with planned giving vehicles,” At some point, Bob established the Robert Conkey ’57 Scholarship Fund to support a Yale College student. He leaves no survivors.
In Memoriam: Morris Raker died on March 15, 2025. His family has directed that no class obituary appears.
JMB
May/June 2026
If you need inspiration, here it is: Pete Greer reports that, living alone, cooking for himself, and still driving, he lifts five tons of weight but “nothing too strenuous,” per week. “How’s that?” asks yrs. truly, incredulously. “From a sitting position, I do curls, pull downs, leg presses, and sitting bench presses and one standing exercise, three days per week, the number of reps per set determined by my trainer.” I should end this column here.
But no. On to the bad news:
In Memoriam: Peter A. Balbach died on September 19, 2024, in West Columbia, South Carolina, from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. After graduating from Lawrenceville, Pete majored in industrial administration at Yale and was production director of the 1957 Yale Banner. Starting his career at Bethlehem Steel’s Sparrows Point, Baltimore, plant and transferring to the firm’s sales division, in 1976 he founded his own New Ken Steel, a steel fabrication firm, which he directed until 1988, when, taking partial retirement, he moved to South Carolina before selling the business in 1993. From his home in the piedmont, Pete boated, kayaked, and fished, once landing a 20-pound striped bass. A man of happy inconsistency, he spent summer days in Maine while complaining that Hawaiian waters were “too cold.” Colin Thompson recalls Pete’s “clear and fine singing voice,” which, apparently, he deployed until the very end of his life when “he would occasionally break into a song, one well known to him from a past otherwise forgotten—startling, then entertaining, the nurses, staff, and others around him.” Predeceased by his second wife, Joy, Pete is survived by his wife Mary; sons John and Stephen; and stepchildren Laura Beckmann, Walter Penrose Jr., and Andrew Choate and their families.
In Memoriam: Jerome H. Farnum died on December 6, 2024, in Holmdel, New Jersey. A graduate of Exeter, at Yale Jerry was an intensive history major, a ranking scholar, a member of the WYBC board, and an NROTC participant. Following two years of naval duty, he gained a 1962 Harvard law degree before joining Dow Chemical’s chemicals and plastics division in Zurich, where he became a vice president for finance and law. After then serving as senior vice president of Fidelis International Bank, in semi-retirement he was a director of the Emerson Radio Corporation. Someone who spoke and taught in many languages, Jerry was the author of books on Swiss corporate and contract law as well as on the positioning of Roman imperial legions. Writing for our 35th reunion that he hadn’t grown up, “only out,” he’s survived by his second wife, Jeannette Zellweger; sons Perry, Mark, Philip, and Patrick; five grandchildren; and others.
In Memoriam: We lost Richards H. Burhoe Jr. on January 1, 2025, presumably in or near Brookline, Massachusetts, from the complications of progressive supranuclear palsy. A graduate of Reading (Massachusetts) High School, Dick majored in English at Yale and was a member of the varsity basketball team. He then gained an MEd degree from the Harvard School of Education before taking up work teaching English at the Thatcher School in Ojai, California, where he headed its English department, served as director of admissions and basketball coach, and created a program that brought inner-city youths from Los Angeles to the school. After leading the lower and upper schools of the Kent Place School in Summit, New Jersey, he became headmaster of Brimmer and May School in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Subsequently, with a 1987 doctorate in counseling psychology from Northeastern University, he served as a psychologist and family therapist in a mental healthcare clinic in the Bay State. A tennis player, poet, and punster, Dick was known for his quick wit and thoughtful guidance. Predeceased by his first wife, Patricia, he’s survived by Margaret, his wife of 40 years; four children with Patricia; two with Margaret; and their families.
In Memoriam: Roger W. Pease Jr. died of unstated causes on January 3, 2025, presumably at or near his home in Killingworth, Connecticut. A graduate of New Britain High School, Roger entered Yale with the Class of 1953 but, volunteering for the draft, left college in 1951 to serve in Korea and Japan with the US Army, from which he was discharged in 1954 at the rank of Sergeant First Class after being awarded the Korean Service Medal and the Bronze Star. As he wrote in our 50th reunion book, he was affected less by the war’s horrors than by Korea’s butterflies, of which he collected thousands of specimens. Returning to college, he majored in mathematics, gained an MA from Western New England University, then return to Yale for a PhD in biology, his doctoral dissertation being, yes, butterflies. Roger spent 45 years as an editor at Merriam-Webster where, as senior editor for science, he guided the publication of and wrote much of the firm’s first medical dictionary. Not surprisingly, he is credited with having identified many rare butterfly species. A hiker, Roger was known, it’s said, for “his brilliant mind” and “his unwavering curiosity for the world.” He’s survived by his wife Noel, his daughters Lisa Pasay and Susan Pease, and others.
In Memoriam: Leonard A. Katz died on February 6, 2025, on Longboat Key, Florida, from what Steve Wittenberg describes as neurological tumors. A pre-med human culture and behavior major at Yale, Len received his medical training at Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons before completing his internship and residency in gastroenterology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, a gastroenterology fellowship at the Yale School of Medicine, and service in the US Air Force Medical Corps. Returning to his native Buffalo, New York, where he remained the rest of his life, Len joined the faculty of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the University at Buffalo. There, he served as associate dean; founded its gastroenterology program, its Office of Medical Education, and the Emeritus Medical Faculty Society of Gastroenterology; and received the university’s Distinguished Service Award. At various points he was also editor-in-chief of the journal HMO Practice. Deeply involved in Jewish affairs, Len was a founding member and president of Congregation Havurah, an officer of the Jewish Center of Greater Buffalo, president at Chautauqua of the Hebrew Congregation, founder at Chautauqua of the Holocaust Education Program, and known for his consistent battles against antisemitism. Len also holds a plausible claim, as Steve Wittenberg tells the story, to having created the celebrity status of Buffalo chicken wings because it was he who introduced Bud Trillin to those gustatory delicacies, which led to a widely noted 1980 Trillin New Yorker prose ode to them. Soon came their breakout from regional food to a place beside caviar and crêpes Suzettes on the finest menus. Len also worked with the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Buffalo public school system to create a program like ’57’s Music in Schools Initiative. He was, as Steve accurately describes him, “someone of giant enthusiasm for life with an always ready smile and a wonderful laugh.” In addition to his wife Judy, he’s survived by their children Jeffrey H. Katz, Linda Kaminsky, and Andrew J. Katz, and their families.
In Memoriam: Walter S. Westfall died on August 20, 2025, of unstated causes—no doubt near Rochester, New York, the city of his birth and career. A graduate of Brighton High School in Rochester, Walt majored in industrial engineering at Yale, played in the football band, and was chief bellringer of the Guild of Yale Bellringers. After securing a 1960 law degree from Cornell and serving in the US Army, he joined his father’s law practice in Rochester and practiced law for over 50 years. Little further is known of him. It’s said that he pursued an outdoors life with skiing, nature walks, botanical gardens visits, star-gazing, and tending to his backyard. Walt is survived by Eleanor, his wife of 54 years, their son Dana and daughters Christina and Leanna, their spouses and children, and others.
JMB
July/August 2026
From Buz Brenton comes The Brenton Arboretum: A Personal Story—The Early Years, a short, delightfully illustrated, cheery account, available from the author, of his and Sue’s creation of their eponymous Iowa property devoted to scenic pleasure and natural science. Also comes word from Wayne Covill MD of his Montana private practice and clinic, his move to far-off Guam for HMO medicine and administration, then his return to Columbia Falls, Montana, to treat drug-treatment program patients. Retired, Wayne and wife Carol find winter refuge in Yuma, Arizona.
In Memoriam: Ronald K. Ragen died of unstated causes on December 24, 2024, in Portland, Oregon. A Directed Studies participant, history major, varsity squash player, and Book and Snake member, Ron gained a Stanford Law School JD before commencing a 50-year career as a finance, securities, corporate, and international law attorney with the David, Wright, Tremaine firm. Playing a major role in Portland’s civic life, at the mayor’s request he chaired a municipal committee whose efforts helped revitalize downtown Portland through its civic auditorium’s renovation, an old theater’s repurposing into today’s Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, and construction of a new three-theater structure. Ron also served as chairman of the Lewis and Clark College board of trustees, member of the college’s law school board of visitors, and point man in securing financing for Oregon’s World Affairs Council (now World Oregon). A quiet, genial, sober presence, he was one of 11 ’57ers in adjacent Timothy Dwight suites known as “the Zoo,” whose members remained fast friends throughout their lives. Zoo-ist Allen Wendt describes Ron as “a loyal and no-nonsense friend who brought out the best in us.” Drum King, another menagerie member, calls him the group’s glue. Ron is survived by his wife Lee, whom he married in 1959; their children Kimberley Ragen, Linda Venti, and Kent Ragen ’89; their families; and others.
In Memoriam: David H. Reed died of a brain tumor in Tucson, Arizona, his winter home, on January 24, 2025—courageous about his death, writes roommate Roger Cogswell, to the end. A human culture and behavior major, Dave spent his career successively in commercial lending, executive recruiting, executive compensation, and human resource consulting. Serving on many local boards, he was executive director of the Main Street America Program near his Hebron, New Hampshire, home. In Tucson, he and roommate Bob Hewett helped the city’s Pima Air & Space Museum’s restoration department “produce miracles of bringing old and odd pieces of junk literally to life.” To John Mars, another roommate, Dave was “a joy to work with.” Easily recalled for his cheeriness and sense of humor, he’s survived by Enid, his wife of 61 years; their daughters Alison Quinan and Sharon Reed; and others.
In Memoriam: On March 23, 2025, we lost John E. Master in Reading, Pennsylvania, to the effects of dementia and stroke. A chemical engineering major, after opening his career with Sinclair Oil, John entered managerial ranks after Sinclair’s purchase by Atlantic Richfield as manager of engineering in ARCO Chemical’s home office in Philadelphia before turning to environmental management. This led to leadership of the American chemical industry delegation helping develop the voluntary environmental management standards of the International Standards Organization. He was also chairman of the US Technical Advisory Group on Environmental Performance Evaluation and became the American chemical industry’s spokesman in the development of other environmental standards. Much of his life was centered near his Valley Forge home and at Reading’s Calvary United Church of Christ. He delighted in his model trains, golf, minor league baseball, and music. His wit and dry humor survived to his last moments. Predeceased by son Kevin, John is survived by Barbara, his wife of over 67 years; their son Gregory; and others, including six grandsons and two great-grandsons.
In Memoriam: Thomas G. Wroth died in his family’s presence on March 24, 2025, the place and cause of his death unstated. At Yale Tom majored in English and served as president of Jared Eliot Associates, the literary society. After serving in the US Navy, then in the National Guard from which he retired at the rank of captain, he spent his career in trust and estate administration, accounting, and investment. In northern New Jersey, Tom served as vice president of the Tewksbury Board of Education and on the Hunterdon County Republican Party executive committee. He’s said to have invented a noteworthy four-part coffee blend whose constituent ingredients remain closely held by his family. But what in ’57 history may make him distinctive (as it does his roommate Nick Tingley) is the fact that, with Scott Nichols playing a part in the matter, Tom and Nick each married women to whom each had introduced the other. Tom is survived by Elizabeth, his prize in this cross-presentation and wife of 60 years; their sons James A. ’89, Thomas H., and Robert C.; their families; and others.
In Memoriam: Merrell M. Clark, class secretary 2017–2022, died in Scarsdale, New York, on April 4, 2025. An English major, Merrell was active in Dwight Hall, the Westminster Foundation (as moderator), the Christian Community Council (as president), and the Undergraduate Board of Deacons. Remaining at Yale, he gained a 1959 MA in religion from Yale Divinity School. Starting work in marketing, he left advertising to become executive vice president of the Academy for Educational Development before taking the same post at the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation. Along the way, Merrell founded the eponymous Clark Company, a specialist in marketing and accounting services, and nonprofit Elderworks, which arranged opportunities for over-50 Americans to gain new workforce skills. Of this indefatigable man’s many commitments, his loyalty to Yale led the list. The spine of his region’s Yale community, for over 15 years he presided over the Yale Westchester Alumni Association. In Scarsdale he was active on many town boards, and he served on the national board of Elderhostel. Earnest spirituality suffusing his life, Merrell was deeply committed to the Hitchcock Presbyterian Church, next to which he and his wife Lynne lived, to which they eventually sold their house, and of which he served as deacon and elder, organist, and, for 62 years, choir member. A tall, cheery man, Merrell, who brought palpable resolve to everything he did, fittingly closed his 50th-year reunion sketch by writing, “My gratitude to God, Country, and Yale is absolute.” Besides Lynne, his wife of almost 67 years, Merrell is survived by their daughters Lisa Clark Jenks, Aimee Clark Peterson, and Catherine Merrell Clark, and their families.
In Memoriam: Paul C. Ogden died of unstated causes on May 8, 2025, presumably in or near San Rafael, California. A psychology major, varsity soccer player, and an “underground” Demos member, Paul gained his MD degree from Tufts Medical School and before military service at San Francisco’s Veterans Administration Hospital. After moving to Marin County, he practiced internal medicine and cardiology for 50 years at the Ross Valley Medical Center, then as director of Marin General Hospital’s cardiology unit. Paul was active as a youth soccer coach and, at his family’s Sonoma County property, indulged in gardening, raising produce, and winemaking. A devotee of antique cars, he’s also reported to have collected Packards and always being in the company of his German shepherds and golden retrievers. In describing him, Don Roberts writes, “Paul brought the word ‘resolute’ to life. A 67-year marriage to Sandy, who began married life in a wheelchair, where she remained throughout their marriage, says all you need to know about Paul’s character.” Predeceased by Sandy in 2023, Paul is survived by their two sons, Charles and David, and their families.
JMB
September/October 2026
The May/June issue of this illustrious publication carried a piece about eight Yale degree holders who married or re-married “later in life.” The article's lead couple, distinctive in youthfulness, was none other than our very own Don Roberts and Sally Sonne, she the widow of ‘57er Chris Sonne. A miffed Peter Wolf protested to me his omission. Why’s that? He and Betsy had also wed recently. [JMB: Take it up with the editor.] Pete Greer, another of our youth-playing fellas, fractured his heel a few months ago. How so? Trying to chase his cat inside. [JMB: Get a turtle.]
In Memoriam: Allen A. “Tommy” Thompson died of a heart attack in New York City, his birthplace, sometime in 2024. Tommy entered Yale in 1952 with ‘56, transferred to ’57 and majored in psychology. After serving as business manager of the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, he commenced a life of travel, investing, and, as he had been in college, devotion to jazz, especially bebop. Dick Crisler recalls Tommy’s "astonishing ability to play percussion instruments. Professional jazz drummers would listen in awe as he played." Tommy is survived by three nephews.
In Memoriam: John Y. Lee, among our most distinctive classmates, died in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 1, 2024, the cause of his death unknown. Born in 1928 as Lee Jong-yeon in Yeonbaek, now North Korea, John was likely the class elder. In 1950, after two years at Seoul’s Korea University and already fluent in English, he fled south and swam the Han River to enlist as an interpreter/translator/liaison officer in the South Korean army. Assigned to the 1st U.S. Marine Division, he participated under fire in some of the Korean War's greatest battles: Pusan, Inchon, and the Chosin Reservoir, the last probably the most brutal. During the Inchon Landing operation, he was Douglas McArthur's interpreter. For his wartime service, John received the U.S. Legion of Merit for showing "cool courage under fire, aggressive leadership, and conscientious effort" as well as "outstanding services to the Government of the United States." After resigning his Korean Army commission as Captain, John joined us in sophomore year. A political science major, he followed college with a 1960 Yale law degree and eventually became a senior attorney for the Departments of Defense and Justice. "The reason I became a US citizen," he once wrote, "is because of my experiences with the Marines." A founding member of The Chosin Few—“an eternal brotherhood," he called them, of surviving Chosin Reservoir veterans—he attended their reunions “to hold the hands of my brothers once more.” His survivors are unknown.
In Memoriam: Stewart R. Wright died on March 26, 2025, presumably in Redlands, California, his last listed address, of complications from a fall. A history major, Stew added a 1962 Yale MD to his college BA, followed by internship and residencies at the Tufts-New England Medical Center and Boston Veterans Hospital before Army service at Tripler Army Hospital on Oahu between 1962 and 1966. He then practiced and taught at the USC Medical School before becoming Director of Gastroenterology at the San Bernardino County Medical Center and founder of the Mountain View Surgery Center in Redlands. When not doctoring, Stew raised avocados and citrus crops, played paddle tennis, and sailed and raced out of Newport Beach. Tink Thompson, who once spent "a very cold, mid-September night at over 12,500 feet on a southern flank of Grand Teton Mountain" when lost with Stew, recalls their reunions with other Calhoun College entry worthies Bellow, Clark (Inslee), Kner, Kohler, Leahy, and Lumpkin. Predeceased by his wife Emily, met on a blind date at the 1955 Yale-Harvard game, Stew is survived by their sons Jon S. and Peter G., daughters Sarah W. and Susan G., and their families.
In Memoriam: We lost Kenneth D. "Tod" Mann, Jr., in Vero Beach, Florida, on April 17, 2025, the cause of his death a stroke. A collegiate history major, squash player, Fence Club member, and NROTC participant, Tod served in the US Navy between 1957 and 1959 and subsequently in the Naval Reserve. After inaugurating his worklife as a salesman for Jones & Laughlin Steel in Pittsburgh, he moved to Brooklyn, where he long remained while engaged in corporate finance and investment banking. He held positions with G. H. Walker before its acquisition by White Weld, then with Tucker Anthony & R.L. Day (of which he was managing director), and finally with Dean Witter Reynolds, from which he retired as senior vice president. In Brooklyn, he served as a trustee of the Packer Collegiate Institute and treasurer and board chair the HOPE Program, an effort to prepare people for the workforce and sustain them in their careers. A squash player, Tod was also an active golfer. He no doubt holds the ‘57 record, perhaps broader ones, in trifecta golf annals: at age 85, three holes-in-one in a single season on the same course in Vero Beach, where he maintained a home. He also helped the class run down many '57ers lost to class records. A man recalled for his "humor and joy" and widely known throughout Brooklyn Heights for “his kindness, curiosity, dignity, work ethic, and unwavering integrity," Tod is survived by his wife Gwen, their sons Kenneth D. and Scott P., and their sons' families, including four grandchildren.
In Memoriam: Robert W. Ganger died at home in Gulf Stream, Florida, on April 25, 2025 of unstated causes. An American studied major, Bob went on to gain a 1959 Harvard MBA. He joined General Foods, where he remained until his 1991 retirement as senior vice president. Along the way, he supervised marketing, finance, and strategy for many well-known household brands as well as business development for acquired products. When Philip Morris acquired General Foods, Bob planned and managed the FTC approval of the former’s acquisition of Kraft Foods, said to be the largest non-oil merger until then. Moving in 1991to Gulf Stream, he opened a second career: local, civic work. One achievement was the restoration, with wife Anneli, of Miradero, the historic barrier island ocean-side residence of Lila Vanderbilt Webb, daughter of the Commodore. For rescuing it from deterioration while owning and living in it, Bob became a widely known local historian and preservationist who, through organizations he founded and directed, led efforts to gain legislative protection against corporate and residential development. Testament to his catholicity was his successful work to protect from demolition Briny Breezes, a nearby mobile home community, one of the final remaining middle class beachfront communities in South Florida. Bob wrote at our 50th reunion that, like the rest of us, he had come to New Haven as one among many "unlit candles and left ready to brighten the world." Ernie Pepples writes that "a strong and persistent opponent of further over-development of the coastal barrier islands, Bob was much admired by all who worked with him to preserve the best of Florida." He may also be the only classmate to have a pet named after him. To wit: A cat of friend Walt Benenson, fittingly monikkered “Doppelgänger” for being one of two, ended up called, simply, Bob Ganger. Surviving a serious 2016 stroke, Bob regained his characteristic high spirits and, as roommate Jeff Freeman writes, went on in his characteristic "bright, good-humored" way, to write his autobiography. He’s survived by his wife of 30 years, son Robert G., daughter Amy Diethelm, stepsons Ossian and Patrick Ramsay, and their families. Donations in Bob's memory should go to the Florida Coalition for Preservation.
JMB
November/December 2026
Jim Seymour reports what he calls his “last serious academic piece,” this one on the Uyghurs, the “culmination of a life-long side-interest” to his main one, the history of China. In September, the Los Angeles gallery of Jarrow & Goodman began exhibiting a group of jazzy, colorful, neo-surrealist paintings representing a lifetime’s work by our Josef Albers-taught classmate, Norton Wright.
In Memoriam: A Pennington, New Jersey funeral home notice containing no further information indicates that classmate Michael T. Melchior died, presumably in Pennington, his last address of record with the class, on April 7, 2016. No other information about him can be discovered. A college chemistry major, ranking scholar, Phi Beta Kappa graduate, and member of the varsity baseball team, Mike subsequently obtained a 1964 Harvard PhD, its subject unstated. His career was apparently spent in basic research relating to oil and energy. Our reunion books contain no information about him other than his addresses, which always centered in and around Princeton, New Jersey.
In Memoriam: We learned tardily that Richard R. Hepner died on January 9, 2023, presumably in or near Leland, North Carolina. At Yale, Rich majored in chemical engineering and was a wrestler. Following graduation, he took up employment with Dupont and by the time of our 15th reunion had moved to the company's Cape Fear facility, his work related to petrochemicals. After retiring, Rich became a Master Gardener working with state extension programs. Roommate Colin Thompson characterizes Rich as "serious by nature" and "an all-around good person." Predeceased by his brother Philip (also '57), Rich is survived by Ruth, his wife of 64 years, their children Debbie O'Connor and Rick Hepner, and others.
In Memoriam: John Poinier, Jr. died on April 7, 2025, on Mercer Island, Washington, where he'd lived since the late 1970s, the cause of his death unstated. John was an American studies major, a member of Deke, Torch, and Wolf's Head, and the varsity hockey team’s captain. After naval aviator service in Newfoundland, in 1960 he began his career in the insurance and investment businesses, first with Chubb & Sons, then Smith Barney and A.G. Edwards, finally KMS Financial Services. John long pursued his love of hockey, skiing, soccer, and golf, and was active as a coach in many of them. Warren Clein notes that "on center ice no one was ever better at timing the hip check. To an opposing forward coming down the ice trying to pass him, John looked harmless. But the next thing you'd see was the attacker two feet off the ice and flying back toward it." John is survived by Alice, his wife of 62 years, their daughters Sara, Anne, Jennifer, and Katherine, and their families.
In Memoriam: Denis B. McWhan died on May 2, 2025, the cause and place of death unstated. At Yale, Denis majored in chemistry and was a member of the football and concert bands. Subsequently, he gained a Berkeley PhD in chemistry before joining Bell Laboratories in 1962. There, he became a leading figure in basic research on solid state and experimental physics as well as condensed matter science at a time, he later wrote, of "what may well have been the zenith of curiosity-driven research in the physical sciences." Moving to Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1990, Denis became chair of its National Synchrotron Light Source Department and in 1995 the Lab’s associate director while continuing his research. For his achievements, he received many major awards. Beyond his professional work, Danis pursued house-restoration, tennis, and paddleball and could often be found on or near the water building boats, kayaking, and sailing in Maine’s Sheepscot Bay near his lobsterman's house. Ray Ellison notes with due gravity that, an expert on the smallest of wind instruments, Denis "was the person on fall weekends who strove, piccolo held aloft, to keep the 'I' in the marching band's 'Eli' straight—sort of." Denis is survived by Callie, his wife of 66 years, their children David, Susan Tobin, and Jeanette Burney, as well as their spouses and children.
In Memoriam: Peter R. Kosinski died on May 5, 2025, the cause and place of his death unstated. A ranking scholar, Peter majored in architecture and later secured an MArch from Yale's School of Architecture. Commencing his career with Eero Saarinen, he subsequently practiced architecture and planning in New Haven until he joined his son Peter (MArch '03) in practice following his move to Fort Lauderdale. Peter's lifelong design specialties were mixed-use urban and residential buildings, educational facilities, and ecclesiastical structures. A devout Catholic and an irenic man of lively presence, easy humor, and long stride, which took him on city and country hikes and nature walks, Peter managed to pull hope, he wrote, from "man's folly and evil ways" because of "the goodness of humanity." He is survived by his wife Maria (PhD '69), whom he married in 1960, their children Peter E. and Isabel M., sister Dorothy M. (’74), and others.
In Memoriam: John M. Ryan died from the complications of dementia in Naples, Florida, on May 25, 2025. An industrial administration major in college, John secured a 1959 Harvard MBA before commencing work in the oil business with the Cities Service, Sunray DX, and Sun Oil. By our 25th reunion, he was president of Sun Information Services. In 1983 he led a leveraged buyout of that operation to form SunGard Data Systems, a manufacturer of backups on wheels for corporate main frame systems. After taking the company public, John left it for the young information technology field, in which he was considered a pioneer. As investor and consultant, he served on the boards of many private and public IT companies as well as of venture capital partnerships. Outside his professional responsibilities, he served on the boards of Philadelphia's Mann Center for the Performing Arts, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the National Constitution Center. John remained an active skier into his 80s, a full- and half-marathoner, and a mountaineer whose achievements included the summits of Mt. Blanc, the Matterhorn, Mount Rainier, and Mt. Kilimanjaro. A man of sunny disposition and sharp mind, he was predeceased by his first wife Carol and is survived by his second Mary, his sons William and David, and their families.
In Memoriam: Joseph C. Ritchie died in Tucson, Arizona, on June 23, 2025, 14 years after a stroke left him aphasic and paralyzed on one side. At Yale, Joe was an economics major; active in Dwight Hall, the Mad Hatters, and the folk-singing group Hoot. After U.S. Army service and some years as a salesman and sales manager, he turned to realty in what he called the "desert paradise" of Tucson. A consistent thread of his life was his immersion in folk and bluegrass music. He learned post-college to play the bass, the dobro (a guitar widely used in bluegrass music), and the fiddle. Fortunately, Joe retained some ability to participate in his music long after becoming incapacitated. By nature jolly, gregarious, and generous-spirited, Joe is survived by his wife Barbara, whom he wed in 1959, their sons Mark M., George C., and Dean W., brother Edwin W. Ritchie, Jr. ('67), their families, and others.
JMB
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