Hanoverian Eternal is now available on Hanover’s alumni website. Information about the passing of members of the College community, including alumni, faculty, staff and trustees, will be regularly updated online along with links to obituaries, when available. our.hanover.edu/eternal
1943 CLARA GERTRUDE BAYNES SHELBY, 99, of Hernando Beach, Fla., died April 2, 2021 1950 EDWIN CHARLES STEINER, PH.D., 92, of Boulder, Colo., died March 21, 2021 1950 JAMES ALBERT PETERSON, 95, of Bloomington, Ind., died Dec. 30, 2020
1986 JOHN EDWARD LUKOWSKI, 57, of St. Paul, Minn., died March 16, 2021
1951 BARBARA BLUME BIZER, 91, of Louisville, Ky., died Feb. 19, 2021 1952 E. ROGERS JACKSON, 90, of Hilton Head Island, S.C., died April 16, 2021
1998 SHELLEY DAWN ROBERTSON, 44, of Indianapolis, Ind., died March 24, 2021
1952 EVERETT RAY LANHAM, 96, of Cave Creek, Ariz., died April 22, 2020
2009 KRISTEN ALEXANDRA CROXTON, 34, of Madison, Ind., died Feb. 14, 2021
1955 WALTER FREDERICK LAFEBER, PH.D., 87, of Ithaca, N.Y., died March 9, 2021 1956 NORMAN KEITH LEE, 87, of Ridgeville, Ind., died Feb. 22, 2021 1956 IMOGENE CAROLYN VESTILE STORM, 87, of Fraser, Colo., died March 25, 2021 1956 JOHN FREDERICK ZIRZOW, 86, of Bradenton, Fla., died Feb. 7, 2021 1957 JAMES E. ROBERTSON JR., 85, of Hardy, Va., died January 18, 2021 1958 MARGARET ANNE FREEMAN ULERICH, 84, of Picayune, Miss., died August 25, 2020 1961 JACQUELINE FINCH FRESH, 82, of Louisville, Ky., died April 28, 2021 1963 JOHN R. ACKLAND, 79, of Bakersfield, Calif., died Jan. 17, 2021 1963 DALE E. DOWDEN, 79, of Vincennes, Ind., died Dec. 29, 2020 1966 DR. JAMES A. HUNT, 76, of Cocoa Beach, Fla., died April 9, 2021 1967 ROBERT PRICE CURTIS, 75, of Mishawaka, Ind., died March 28, 2021 | HANOVERIAN | hanover.edu
1986 MICHAEL KEITH BLASDEL, 68, of Hanover, Ind., died May 1, 2021
1987 SUSAN MICHELLE SPECK PHILLIPS, 55, of Elizabethtown, Ky., died April 19, 2021
1953 ARLAN K. "BUD" KING, 90, of Rushville, Ind., died April 10, 2021
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1982 DONNA KAY MULLETT CLARK, 60, of Louisville, Ky., died Nov. 19, 2020
1968 STEPHEN J. BEARDSLEY, 75, of New Albany, Ind., died March 2, 2021 1970 DR. WILLIAM M. FALLS, 72, of Bath, Mich., died Feb. 23, 2021 1970 MICHAEL T. HARVES, 72, of Spokane, Wash., died Feb. 19, 2021 1970 JAMES GORDON MOSCHENROSS, 73, of Fishers, Ind., died May 13, 2021 1971 MICHAEL TODD JACKSON, of Whitefish, Mont., died April 6, 2021
FACULTY AND STAFF RUTH THATCHER CALKINS, 90, of Indianola, Iowa, died Feb. 11, 2021 (former bookstore manager and wife of economics Professor Ralph Calkins) JOANN SHORT CHEATHAM, 90, of Madison, Ind., died March 15, 2021 (former campus operator/receptionist) GEOFFREY D. KLINGER, 54, of Avon, Ind., died May 9, 2021 (former communication professor)
JAMES L. FERGUSON Professor Emeritus of English James L. Ferguson, professor emeritus of English, died May 12, 2021, in Charlottesville, Va. Ferguson, 93, served Hanover’s English department for 29 years. He joined the College’s faculty in 1963 as an assistant professor and later served as department chair. He retired in 1992 as the James A. and Sophronia R. McKee Professor of English Literature. He was born on April 26, 1928, in Iberia, Mo. He graduated from Hoover (Calif.) High School in 1946 and studied two years at Glendale College. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English at Occidental College in 1951 before serving in the U.S. Army from 1951-53. After military service in Hawaii, Japan and Korea, he returned to Occidental, earning a master’s degree (1955) and working as an instructor and teaching assistant while obtaining a doctoral degree in literature (1963).
Ferguson bolstered Hanover’s English curriculum, teaching literature and modern drama, including popular courses about John Milton and William Faulkner. In 1991, he published “Faulkner’s Short Fiction,” a study of the author’s short stories. He was preceded in death by his wife, Lorice Mittry Ferguson, and his parents, Oral Ferguson and Helen Rames Briggs. Ferguson is survived by his daughter, Kathleen Chapman and her husband, David; daughter, Lynne Ferguson; sister-in-law, Jeanne Shikany; four grandchildren, a niece and nephew. ROBERT JAMES ROSENTHAL Professor Emeritus of Philosophy Robert James Rosenthal, professor emeritus of philosophy, died Feb. 26, 2021, in Hanover, Ind. Rosenthal, 82, served as a member of Hanover’s faculty for 47 years before retiring in 2014. He has the second-longest faculty tenure in school history, surpassed by only Joshua Garritt (1856-1906). He was born March 31, 1938, in Hartford, Wis. He earned a bachelor’s degree at St. Olaf College in 1959 and a doctoral degree at the University of Maryland in 1968. After three years as an instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, he began his tenure at Hanover in 1967. His areas of specialization included the philosophies of art, environment and religion, and intentional communities. Rosenthal developed many courses and led generations of Hanoverians into field study of the “simple life” during his spring term course, "Utopias and Intentional Communities.” He also served as a founding member of The Friends of the Hubbards and the Communal Studies Association. Rosenthal was preceded in death by his parents, Armand and Virginia Rosenthal. He is survived by his wife, Vicki Jenkins; daughter, Sonya Rousseau and her husband, Nathan; brothers Donald, David and Thomas Rosenthal; sisters Beverly Larsson, Karen Meyer, Jean Johannes and her husband, Jim, and Janet Butterbrodt and her husband, John; one grandson and several nieces and nephews.
