Class Notes

River Campus Undergraduate: Slater Society–1950s

1939
Glenn Rayson (see ’99).

1941
Delwyn Rayson (see ’99).

1944
Leland (Ennis) Rayson (see ’99).

1945
Barbara Chandler Rayson (see ’99).

1948
Walton Howes writes, “I have sponsored a modest Regenerative Medicine Fund for stem cell research at the Lerner Research Institute of the Cleveland Clinic.”

1950
Kenn Hubel, class correspondent, writes:

Sallie Turner Guy and her husband, Carroll, have enjoyed traveling in their RV for 20 years. Sallie is an ardent weaver, and she has taught Elderhostel workshops on the subject. An expert in Scottish tartans, she has created two designs, one for her Presbyterian church and the other for the students of an undergraduate fellowship program at the University of Kentucky. Sallie also is a watercolor artist, active in the League of Women Voters, and has held offices in the Presbyterian church at the national level. Sallie and Carroll have four girls and two boys. (424 Moser Lane, Murray, KY; (270) 436-2261; kenlake2 (at) aol (dot) com).

Mary Louise (Lou) Nortz married Bob Leene in 1951, and they moved to Newark, N.Y., where Bob later owned Ely & Leene Insurance Agency. By 1963, they had four girls and two boys and kept busy with family activities. A volunteer at her local hospital, Lou was a member of the board of directors at the Medical Center as well as the Patient Care Ethics Committee. Bob died in 1994, and Lou remained active in her church, literary group, bridge group, and the Embroiderers Guild of America. She has traveled to Ireland, Scotland, England, Spain, and Scandinavia. She now lives in Cape Porpoise, Maine, in the home she and Bob built in 1985 close to the shore and tidal wetlands. Three of her six children and their children live in nearby New England towns. Lou says that “family and friends have made my life rich beyond belief.” (P.O. Box 7204, Cape Porpoise, ME; (207) 967-2119; mleene (at) gwi (dot) net).

Barbara Longstaff Outterson ’83N (Mas) and her husband, Hugh ’49, attended the Slater Society lunch at the 55th reunion last fall and were delighted to find Betty Lou Babcock Fisher ’70W (Mas), Mary Lou Renick Nickles ’73W (MA), Jane Finch Mills, Jeanne Cramer Armstrong, Sallie Turner Guy, Ginny Webber Robinson, Sarah Henderson Forsyth, Nancy (Smitty) Henderson Michel, Lou Nortz Leene, Marie Ostendorf Wells, Anna Maggio Camelio, and Doris Waring Luckey. They sang “The Genesee” before adjourning and wondered if undergraduates still learn the alma mater. Barbara and Hugh were impressed with Chris Matthews’s talk in the Palestra and the class dinner at the Chatterbox Club, where Barbara noted the death of English instructor Ruth Adams at the age of 90 after a rich life. (231 Mobile Drive, Rochester, NY, 14616; (585) 621-6069; boutterson (at) earthlink (dot) net).

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

1955
Erwin Cherovsky, a New York lawyer (retired), author, and literary agent, writes, “I returned to the University on October 20, 2005, and spent 2 1/2 days with the remnants of the Class of ’55 (105 deceased out of 320 grads). My major purpose, as an official member of the 50th reunion committee, was to make certain that my first-year roommate at Harvard Law and professor there for many years, Arthur Miller, returned to his alma mater to lead a panel of commentators and become officially recognized as a member of our class after spending his entire career until then as a ’56 alum. (I earlier had learned that the date of graduation determines the class to which one belongs.) I was asked to act as Arthur’s guide by Rosanna Centanni, high priestess of reunion activities, which I did in fits and starts, including obtaining soft drinks for Arthur and my wife, Edith, one evening while getting soggy feet in the tent near Rush Rhees Library. The reunion should have been designated the “Grandma and Grandpa Reunion” or the “Reunion of Retirees”—almost all returning alums fell under both descriptions. Still, it was a grand experience, exchanging war stories with other recidivists over hard drinks (moderate) or repasts (consistent with medical advice). I was happy to receive the handsome gold-plated medallion from our recently installed President Seligman. (My grandsons, Sammy and Zachary Stone, 6 and 4, respectively, thought it was pretty neat.) In spare moments I read our class memory book, which included short and long bios and comments by most surviving ’55 grads, including the incomparable 5 1/2-page narrative of Gene Landau about his adventuresome life abroad before coming to the University, a depiction that has more than a passing resemblance to Gulliver’s Travels. I recommend that all alumni read the many and diverse revelations contained therein.

“The 50th reunion may well have been the last formal chance for our class as a whole to salute our years at Rochester. When she took our daughter, Karen Cherovsky Stone ’92, to tour the campus in 1988, Edith believed it was the prettiest and most impressive campus she had ever seen. She still holds that opinion, and I agree with her. Clearly the school and campus have changed markedly during the last half century, mostly for the better. Now that the school and Kodak have almost the same number of employees, future University developments seem very material and important. Still, the spirit of the school seems the key factor here. Need I say that the alumni—particularly we older ones—will have a critical role in determining how all this will play out.

“Let me close with what may be considered a personal postscript. At the 45th reunion, we saw a video of Bruce ’64W (Mas) and Carolyn McCamey McPherson ’58 (Mas) talking movingly about Bruce’s very serious prostate condition. (Mine, relatively recently discovered, is, I believe, of a much milder variety.) Then I sent Bruce a note, and for almost three years we exchanged rather frequent letters. While at Rochester, I didn’t know Bruce, only that he was a big jock on campus, so imagine my reaction to his thoughts and poetry, which frequently was about appreciating the beauty of all things natural—far different from what I had expected. In addition, I learned that much of Bruce’s postcollege work was teaching convicts how to write prose and poetry. I was delighted we had met in a very peculiar way and that we got to know each other pretty well before Bruce ran out of time. Sometimes, time makes one wiser—I’m certain I would not have appreciated Bruce’s steadfast views much earlier—and I learned that one needs to keep one’s mind and heart open to many people and to judge everyone by his or her individual merit, including both spirit and achievements.

“It is somewhat eerie to recognize that 50 postgraduate years are behind us. Who knows how long the retirement aspects of our lives remain, taking into consideration the health and related problems that come naturally with advancing years? And the University seems to have ‘come of age’ as well, bearing in mind its current strong influence on the Rochester community and beyond. This may actually herald the beginning of a new and promising future for the University and the rest of us. Scary but exciting. Meliora!”

1957
Chita Angeli Duval ’78W (EdD) writes, “A group of us Class of ’57 women got together in Boston for a three-day minireunion last summer. Boston is none the worse for it—maybe even better. We all agreed that we haven’t changed a bit—well, maybe a little—and were the same lovable girls we had been when we first met on the Prince Street campus.” The “girls” included Sally Child Chirlin, Jo Stafford Barnes, Alice Taylor Gale, Barb Keady Booth, Claire Buckley McGurr, Judy Benz Brennan, Mary Lou Myers Grevatt, Barbara Flannagan Ingersoll, Norma Guthiel Burns, Kay Hatten Ryder, Marg Noble Freeman, and Joan Coombs McKinley.

1958
John Rathbone, class correspondent, writes:

Margaret Taylor Adams reports that Hurricane Wilma removed a few roof tiles from her home and took a few screens off the pool cage. Her area had massive tree damage, she writes, and as of last winter, the road was still full of tree trunks and other debris awaiting removal. “Other than that,” she writes, “life is back to normal.”

Salvatore (Sam) and Mary Anne Pappalardo hit the road early last autumn and visited a pair of classmates. They met Ron Hess and his wife, Rose, in Virginia Beach and visited the Newport News Maritime Museum with them. Sam thanks Rose again for the delicious dinner she cooked for them. Sam and Mary Anne then drove north to see Don and Nancy Festa Brown at their home in Boothwyn, Pa. Sam writes that Nancy keeps busy playing the organ at her church and decorating their new home. Sam and Mary Anne say that they also visited other friends and, except for the price of gas and the rain and fog along Skyline Drive in the Blue Ridge Mountains, it was a great trip.

Jane Allyn Piliavin will retire (or “become emerita”) from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in July. Jane says, “This does not mean that I will stop working, however!” She already is slated to teach one honors class in the fall and may continue to teach her course on the sociology of sport in the summer. Jane adds, “There also is always so much writing to do. But it will be at a more relaxed pace.”

Having settled into the springtime habit of river cruising, John and Val Evans Rathbone ’60W (Mas) will be on the Rhine again this year, this time going upstream.

Joe Steinman writes that he and his wife, Jennifer, planned to return to Switzerland in March to ski—the one thing that Joe says will get him on an airplane these days. Having traveled so much during his career, he now has “travel burnout,” as well as a huge distaste for the trials and tribulations of boarding flights. Joe figures that his spring 2006 semester might be his last at the University of North Florida. He will return to Purdue in May to teach his mini-M.B.A. course to Ph.D. students in science and engineering for the ninth time. Joe says that he has been asked to take an abbreviated version of his course “on the road” in the fall, to instruct industry executives in major cities.

Orren Van Orden writes that he and Dorothy Knapp were married on September 30, 2005. High school classmates, they knew each other for 52 years before having a dinner date. After working together on their class reunions for several years, they finally went out on a date and were engaged three months later. Gene Le Doux and John Foster ’59S attended the wedding.

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

1959
Sarah Curtice Greenfield writes, “Last June, four members of the Class of ’59—Frances Seaman, Beverly Malcow Carlson, Cynthia Palaby Robson, and I—met in North Easton, Mass., and enjoyed a weekend reunion, almost 50 years after meeting as freshmen at Rochester.” Sarah adds that they also connected with Ruth Fulton Tweedy and Blanche Seymour by phone.