ALUMNI ET ALUMNAE
obituaries 1941 Edward Coleman Hall, 97, passed away peacefully on Nov. 7, 2019. He was born on May 31, 1922, and was educated in the Worcester schools and graduated from Hebron Academy. He began college at the University of Maine, but then World War II began. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps. and was trained as a B-24 pilot. Ed returned from the service, married the love of his life, Dorothy Moran of Portland, and completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. He served on the boards of the Mohegan Council Boy Scouts, the Montachusett Council Girl Scouts, and the Heifer Project among others. Ed was a proud member of Rotary International from 1963 until his death and served as president in the Worcester Rotary Club.
1942 George E. Ferris, of Kingston passed away Saturday, January 11, 2020. After growing up in Hanson, he graduated from Whitman High School and attended both Hebron Academy and Valparaiso University. In 1943, he enlisted in the Navy in aviation electronics. He met his wife Kay, the love of his life, whom he married on February 7, 1947. George spent most of his career working as transportation manager for Howard Johnson’s and during his “retirement” he kept busy with a small lawn care business and worked part-time at the Marshfield Country Club until he was ninety. Family and friends were first in his life and brought him great joy, entertainment, and much laughter. Roy Louis Byrnes M.D. passed away peacefully surrounded by family. Roy was born in Newton, MA, and attended UCLA for undergraduate studies and received his medical degree from the Keck School of Medicine. Roy traveled to the Aleutian Islands for a medical school internship, beginning his lifelong love for Alaska, and returned to complete a residency in pathology at Los Angeles County Hospital. Roy met his future wife Ilse on a weekend ski trip, and the couple were married in 1954 and lived in Germany where Roy was a Captain in the US Army. They later returned to the United States and settled in Orange County to raise their family. Roy immersed himself in medicine, working at South Coast Community Hospital and Mission Hospital. Roy had an amazing intellect and curiosity of the world. He loved to travel.
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Ralph A. Parmigiane ,96, of Medfield on January 30th. Born and raised in Worcester, Ralph was an orphan of the Depression and was raised by his aunt Anna Holst and uncle Adolf Carlson. Ralph was a three sport athlete at Worcester and after graduation studied at Hebron Academy. Drafted into the U.S. Navy in 1943, he served in the Aleutian Islands and Pacific Theater. After the war, he graduated from Springfield College in 1949 and received his Masters in Biology in 1953. He taught science for many years and coached the 1954 Stephens High School football team of Rumford, ME, to the State Championship. Ralph moved to Medfield and coached both the Needham Football and Basketball teams for many years. Ralph was a coach, teacher and administrator at Needham High School until his retirement in 1985. Ralph spent his retirement summering at Embden Pond in Maine for 30 years.
James “Jim” Sawyer passed away on Sept. 10, 2019. Jim was born on Feb. 6, 1931 in Auburn and went to school at Edward Little High School and Hebron Academy. After serving in the Army for three years he continued his education at Bates College and Syracuse University, becoming a professor of radio and TV communications at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. For several summers Jim returned to Maine to work at youth camps, and at Burleigh Hill sailing camp he fell in love with a staff member from central WA, Elaine Elenbaas. She became his wife, and they celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary in June 2019. Jim’s teaching career took him, Elaine, and their children, to various colleges and universities across the country. After decades of teaching, Jim and Elaine moved to New Gloucester, where he designed and built a log home for their retirement. He found a new passion in family history, and wrote a semi-fictional book, A Sea-Farer’s Journal, about the voyages Captain Abram Healy made with his wife and children in the nineteenth century.
1948 John S. (Jack) Webber, age 90, passed away on February 11. Born in Gloucester on August 30, 1929, Jack Webber was devoted to his family and community. A gifted athlete, he was elected to the sports hall of fame for both baseball and basketball at every school he attended, including Gloucester High School ‘47, Hebron Academy and Bucknell University ‘52. He married his love Doris (Anderson) Webber in 1953, and together they enjoyed nearly 48 years of marriage blessed by the lives of their daughter Jill and granddaughter Lauren. After graduating from Bucknell he was drafted by the Chicago White Sox and was the top fielding shortstop while playing for the team’s minor league affiliate in the Wisconsin State League. While serving in the Army from 1952-1954 in San Antonio, Texas, Jack was a star shortstop for the Brooke Army Medical Center baseball teams that won Army World Series championships. Following his professional athletic career and military service, Jack had a long and successful career as an insurance broker. He returned to a professional baseball career, working as a New England scout for the Cincinnati Reds, Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Dodgers. He loved supporting and mentoring local athletes, and recruiting top local talent for Bucknell. As gifted as he was on the ballfields and basketball courts of his youth, Jack may be best remembered locally for his prowess on Gloucester’s playgrounds, where he played competitively well into his 50s. He remained sharp and lucid until his final days, taking a genuine and caring interest in the lives of everyone in his wide circle of friends and family members.
Benjamin E. Jeffries, died October 20, 2019, in Blue Hill, ME9. Raised in Milton, MA, he graduated from Milton Academy in 1948, from Hebron Academy and then from Harvard, where he received his A.B. in Economics in 1953. Ben was a veteran of the U.S. Army, served in the Berlin Occupation Force in Germany and was honorably discharged. He was a manufacturing executive for a commercial stainless-steel dishwashing company called Adamation in Newton, MA and rose to the position of President before retiring. Next, he took on the challenge of becoming owner and operator of a popular restaurant called Modern Times Cafe in Cambridge, MA (now Oleanna). One food reviewer wrote, “Old hippies don’t die, they go to Modern Times Café.” Ben retired to the Maine coast to pursue his lifelong passion of cruising solo or with family on his boats. Ben was also an avid bird hunter with his dog “Cassiopeia” and enjoyed splitting wood and shooting clays. Ben was a gentleman and a gentle man…a real New Englander who was quiet, but when he spoke he meant what he said. He was devoted to his immediate and extended family.
1950 Robert Newell Oxford, Jr., passed away on Saturday, December 7, 2019. After Winchester High, Bob attended Hebron Academy and then graduated from Dartmouth College in 1954 with a degree in mechanical engineering. Bob served as a Lieutenant in the Army and instructor in the Ordinance School hebronacademy.org • 35
