Ivar Berg ’54, January 1, 2016. Phi Delta Theta, Phi Beta Kappa, Konosioni, International Relations Council, ice hockey. US Marine Corps. Harvard University: PhD, 1959. He was an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania who made important contributions to the study of higher education, labor markets, and industrial sociology. His book, Education and Jobs: The Great Training Robbery, played a major role in the US Supreme Court civil rights decision Griggs v Duke Power Company and was credited with providing the basis of the theory of market signaling, which received the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics. He is survived by his wife, Sharon, a son, and 2 stepsons.
Thomas R Vivona ’56, March 14, 2016. Kappa Delta Rho, baseball. US Army. He had a 40-year career in insurance, working for 33 years as VP of claims for Boston Mutual Life Insurance. He was predeceased by his first wife, Mary Margaret, and son Tom. He is survived by his wife, Priscilla, 5 children, and 8 grandchildren.
John H Thumser ’54, December 1, 2015. Lambda Chi Alpha, Konosioni, Maroon-News, Salmagundi, Outing Club, indoor track. For more than 50 years, he worked in the financial industry as an investment adviser. He was predeceased by his son Robert and his brother, Thomas ’50. He is survived by his wife, Helen, 3 children including Carolyn ’83 and Elaine Hankins ’87, and 4 grandchildren.
James D Dougherty ’61, January 26, 2016. Delta Kappa Epsilon, Outing Club, sailing club, ice hockey, indoor track, cross country. University of Pennsylvania Wharton School. He worked in sales and marketing before starting a long career as a securities analyst in New York City. He is survived by his wife, Julia, 2 children, and 2 grandchildren.
Louis A Ireton ’55, February 12, 2015. Theta Chi. US Armed Forces: Korean War. Northern Kentucky Law School: JD. He was a lawyer at the firm Ireton, Ireton, and Elder. He is survived by his wife, Joan, a daughter, a granddaughter, 2 stepchildren, and 2 stepgrandchildren. John T McKenzie III ’56, March 7, 2016. Phi Delta Theta, Outing Club, sailing club. US Army. He worked as a manager and supervisor for various manufacturing firms before acting as president of the Micrex Corporation until his retirement in 1995. He was predeceased by his wife, Irene. He is survived by 3 sons, 8 grandchildren, and 7 nieces and nephews.
Ronald A Stroth ’58, February 9, 2016. Delta Upsilon, Phi Beta Kappa, University Chorus, basketball, tennis. US Navy. Cornell University Medical School. He was a longtime anesthesiologist in the Scottsdale, Ariz, area. He was predeceased by his wife, Myna. He is survived by 2 children and a grandson.
Robin Williams ’61, June 25, 2013. Phi Kappa Tau, Masque and Triangle, Outing Club, Salmagundi. University of Arizona: MA, 1972. He is survived by 3 children. Stephen J Patterson III ’66, February 15, 2016. Phi Delta Theta, International Relations Council, WRCU-FM, sailing club. US Army: Vietnam War. After receiving numerous commendations for his service, he went on to become chairman of the board of the Patterson Energy Group, a Long Island oil company, as well as president of the Metropolitan Energy Council, president of the New York Oil and Heating Association, and a member of many local boards in the Riverhead community. He is survived by his wife, Sherry, 3 children, and 4 grandchildren.
Robert A Mink ’67, April 18, 2008. Phi Kappa Psi, student government, lacrosse, football, baseball. He worked at Westinghouse Electric Company in Philadelphia from 1974–1991. He is survived by his wife, Eileen, 2 children, and 3 grandchildren.
Jack Dodd, April 23, 2016. US Navy: WWII. He was Colgate’s Charles A Dana Professor of Physics Emeritus, teaching from 1971–1988. During his tenure, he served as both director and chair of the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. He also taught at Arkansas Tech University and the University of Tennessee, consulted for McCrone Research Associates and Honeywell, and founded Spectrum Square Associates. He was predeceased by his wife, Mary Ann, who served as Colgate’s organist and music instructor. He is survived by 2 children and 3 grandchildren.
Norman A Rice ’73, February 27, 2016. Lambda Chi Alpha, Outing Club, golf. US Air Force. He was a retired pilot for Northwest Airlines. He is survived by 2 brothers, 3 nephews, and a niece. Paula D Everett ’76, April 2, 2016. Swinging Gates, ice hockey, peer counseling. Andover Newtown Theological Seminary: MD. West Chester State University: MA. Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. She served as associate minister of the Hingham Congregational Church in Massachusetts and guidance counselor at Great Valley High School in Paoli, PA, before becoming a professional artist for the last 10 years. She is survived by her husband, Daniel, and 3 children.
Carol Kinne, March 18, 2016. She taught art and art history at Colgate from 1980–2005 and was instrumental in establishing the university’s first digital art lab. In 2002 she curated Colgate’s first computer art exhibition, Meta-forms, in the Clifford Gallery. Her artwork was installed at the Munson Williams Proctor Institute (Utica, NY), AIR Gallery (New York City), ARC Gallery (Chicago), and the Galerie Arnaud Fefebvre (Paris). From 1996–1998, she served as a New York State Council on the Arts Media Alliance panelist, and from 1988–1990 as a Visual Arts Program panelist. She is survived by her husband, Robert Huot.
Dale H Lundquist ’76, February 8, 2016. Rutgers School of Law. He was a lawyer by profession, but also a political contributor to several local newspapers, a member of the Woodbury Heights Board of Education, and a coach and umpire through the Woodbury Heights Athletic Association. He is survived by his wife, Robin, 4 children including Caitlin ’06, and a grandchild.
Heidi A Ross, February 28, 2016. At Colgate, she served as an educational studies professor and Robert Ho Fellow in Chinese Studies from 1987–2003. During her tenure, she was chair of the Department of Education, director of the Asian Studies program, and president of the Comparative and International Educational Studies association. She published extensively on Chinese education, gender, and schooling, and also taught at the University of Indiana. She is survived by her husband, Bill Monaghan.
Alex Lagowitz ’15, May 22, 2016. Phi Eta Sigma, golf team. At Colgate, he was a standout on the golf team and graduated summa cum laude with an economics degree. After graduation, he worked in the banking industry, most recently at the credit trading desk of Bank of America in New York City. He is survived by his parents, a sister, and his maternal grandparents.
Lasting impressions Noel Rubinton ’43 Feb. 10, 1923–March 14, 2016 Besides his wife and two children, Colgate was the love of Noel Rubinton ’43’s life. He died at age 93. He loved just about everything involving Colgate, but sports, especially football, were the longest-running draw. He followed 77 years of Colgate football, more than half the school’s history with the game, and it was rare for a season to go by without him seeing at least one game, often with his son, Noel Jr. When Rubinton arrived in Hamilton in 1939 from his native Brooklyn, he was only 16 and one of a handful of Jewish students. He hadn’t been distinguished academically in high school, and Colgate testing suggested he’d be a C student. With his trademark determination, he graduated sixth in his class, magna cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa. A highlight of his Colgate education was the Washington Study Group. He was at the State Department when Japan’s ambassador was summoned the day Pearl Harbor was attacked, and on a happier occasion met Eleanor Roosevelt at the White House. His class graduated early,
in December 1942, to speed entrance into the war effort; their graduation was known as the school’s “White Commencement” due to snow. Rubinton served as an Army Air Forces weather observer in southern Italy. After the war, he graduated from Harvard Law School. His legal career lasted through 1991, including 25 years as Bloomingdale’s general counsel. His connection to Colgate grew closer in the 1970s when his daughter, Sarah Rubinton Laditka ’74, entered with the first class including women. For many years, Rubinton and his wife, Phyllis (who died in 1985), had a vacation house in Hamilton, where Sarah and her husband, James ’73, also lived. Fiercely devoted to Colgate and his class, Rubinton was legal counsel for Colgate’s Alumni Corporation for more than a decade. He received Maroon and Distinguished Service citations, and football’s Jack Mitchell Loyalty Award. Rubinton was class reunion gift chair and in recent years also class president. He organized many gift projects, including for rooms in Persson Hall and Little Hall, and the Class of 1943 Memorial Scholarship Endowment. He led development of a 2007 book where classmates wrote memoirs about their World War II experiences. For their 70th Reunion in 2013, he planned a Reunion College program — fittingly, on successful aging. Although he faced anti-Semitism on campus in the late 1930s and early ’40s, he persevered and later was a leader in developing the Saperstein Center (where money can be donated to a fund established in his name) and raising funds for a Jewish studies chair.
When he attended his last Colgate football game in 2013 at Lafayette (he was 90), his exuberance arriving at the stadium led him to a fall. He made it clear to the EMTs that he would not leave the game. Bandaged and ever-devoted, he sat in the cold as Colgate won a thriller. In addition to Sarah and James Laditka, Rubinton is survived by Noel Jr. and his wife, Amy, and granddaughter Bella.
Waldron M. Sennott ’32 March 31, 1909–March 3, 2016 Colgate’s oldest living alumnus, Waldron “Wally” M. Sennott ’32 died at the age of 106 on March 3. He would have celebrated his 107th birthday on March 31. Sennott and his wife, Linda Adelaide “Addie,” were featured in both Fortune and the Daily Gazette (Schenectady, N.Y.) with other centenarians for being part of this growing age group, in 2016 and 2014, respectively. The retired radiologist had known he wanted to be a doctor ever since high school. Through part-time jobs, scholarships, and loans, Sennott was able to attend Colgate and Harvard Medical School. During the summer of his sophomore year, he worked at Camp Mohawk, where he met Addie. “[She] was the prettiest. She had very pretty auburn hair,” he told the Gazette. Graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, the chemistry major was a member of the Commons Club and the swim team. He declined full scholarships to Duke, Yale, and Johns Hopkins medical schools, choosing Harvard because it
was closest to Addie. “I didn’t want to leave my girl,” he told the Towson Times in 2013. In his last year of medical school, Sennott became interested in public health. After graduating from Harvard, he interned with the U.S. Public Health Service’s (USPHS) hospital on Staten Island, N.Y. He married Addie in 1938, the same year he joined the Coast Guard, was stationed in New York and Boston, and then served as the ship doctor on the cutter Cuyahoga. After his discharge in 1941, Sennott returned to the USPHS hospital to start radiology training. In 1942, he was called to Washington, D.C., for the tuberculosis screening of 120,000 federal employees. Named head of radiology at the USPHS in Staten Island, his department became known as a training center for radiologists. In 1958, he was transferred to the service’s Wyman Park Hospital (Baltimore, Md.). Then, in 1965, he joined the radiology staff at what is now called Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. He was also an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He retired in 1972. The couple lived in their home until he was 102 and she was 101 years old. They moved to an independent living apartment, and Wally golfed until he turned 104. As for their secret for living a long life, Wally told the press that longevity ran in both families. He was also active, easygoing, and drank very little besides his scotch or beer before dinner, his son James reported. And as for their secret for a long marriage, Wally told the Gazette simply: “We like one another.” In addition to his wife and son, Sennott is survived by five grandchildren and two greatgrandchildren. His son Roger died in 2002.
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