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Loomis Chaffee Magazine Summer 2014

Page 73

by her children, Betsy Dower Nickerson ’80, Meg Dower Kuhn ’82, Sarah Dower Fowler, Betsy Proom Lyons, and Bill Proom; her grandchildren, Molly, Charlie, Kate, Declan, Charlotte, Will, Ellie, Wyatt, Katrina, James, Zoe, Lily, Zachary, and Annie; her brother Donald; and her cousins, Ken, Pat, Brian, and Marilyn. Services were held on May 28 at St. John’s Episcopal Church in New Hartford. Anne Webb Burnham, on June 4, the evening before her husband of 62 years, former faculty member David Campbell Burnham ’46, also passed. Anne was born in Morristown, N.J. She and David lived in Providence, R.I., for 16 years before moving to Rehoboth, Mass., and they were longtime summer residents of Fisher’s Island, N.Y. Anne was a math teacher at the Lincoln School in Providence until her retirement in 1994. She had previously taught at Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Conn., where she was the chair of the Math Department, and at Northfield School for Girls in Northfield, Mass. She was a graduate of Northfield and Oberlin College, where she majored in physics. An active member of the Community Church of Providence, Anne was both the moderator and the treasurer as well as a cherished member of the choir for more than 35 years. She was also a member of the Fisher’s Island Union Chapel, the Fisher’s Island Yacht Club, the Island People’s Project, and the Providence Branch of the English-Speaking Union, and she was longstanding secretary to the American Friends of the Collège Cévenol. Most recently, her teaching gifts were shared with the Handicraft Club, where she taught knitting. Predeceased by her five siblings, including a twin sister, Ruth, Anne is survived by her children, Paul, John, Stephen, and Louise; as well as 10 grandchildren: Elizabeth, David, Isabel, Olivia, Sophia, John, Margaux, Samuel, Daniel, and Anne. A memorial service was held on June 21 at Central Congregational Church in Providence, R.I., to celebrate the Burnhams.

Former Staff Virginia Vialle Pratt on May 7, at Seabury Retirement Community, Bloomfield, Conn. Born July 30, 1917, Virginia was a native of Concord, Mass., and a graduate of Concord Academy and Pierce Secretarial School, Boston. Early in her career, she was employed with E.W. Wiggins Airways at East Boston Airport, now Logan International, working for the Civilian Pilot Training Program. Later she worked for the Australia New Zealand Air Corps Club in Boston. Virginia and Aaron P. Pratt Jr. ’35 met in 1942 when both were working as camp counselors in New Hampshire, and they married in 1944. During World War II, Aaron joined the Army Air Corps, and the couple moved to Homestead Air Force Base in Florida before settling in Aaron’s hometown of Windsor, Conn., in 1947. While Aaron pursued his career as a longtime teacher of music at Virginia Vialle Pratt Loomis and Loomis Chaffee and as a teacher and administrator at The Hartford Conservatory, Virginia worked in many roles at Loomis. She served in the Academic and College offices and as school registrar. Professional, helpful, and efficient, she was always willing to undertake new responsibilities and to fill in for colleagues on leave. After her husband’s passing in 1990, Virginia remained in Windsor until 1993, then moved to Seabury. Virginia is remembered as a vibrant woman with vivid memories of her Concord childhood and of sailing and spending summer months with her parents and brothers in South Dartmouth, Mass. She nurtured many interests: aviation and aviation history, all things equestrian, architecture, sailing and sailboats, the Boston Red Sox. A lover of music, she knew all the lyrics to the great songs of the Big Band era, and she attended hundreds of music events at Loomis, supporting her husband and his students. She especially enjoyed vacation-

ing at Cape Cod and appreciated all seasons there. Virginia is survived by her daughter, Virginia “Ginger” Pratt Root ’63; her son, David W. Pratt ’76, and his partner, Rogério M. Pinto; her granddaughter, Wendy Root Sowers, and her husband, Jayson Sowers; two great-grandchildren, Katharine and Zoë Sowers; and many nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews. Virginia was predeceased by two brothers and their wives and by her sister-in-law, MaryAgnes Pratt Wine ’39. A private graveside service was held at Palisado Cemetery in Windsor on May 14. A public memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on September 27 in Founders Chapel. Donations in Virginia’s memory may be made to the Loomis Chaffee Music Department or to Fidelco, 103 Old Iron Ore Road, Bloomfield, CT 06002.

More news The Alumni Office has learned of the passing of F. Russell Fette ’35, on August 31, 1998; W. Scott Bartlett ’37, on September 7, 2010; Burnley R. Elam ’37, on March 21, 2013; Joseph Wolfson ’38, on January 17, 2014; Franklin Lindley Couch Jr. ’39, on September 21, 2011; Gifford Havens ’39, on May 27, 2010; Albert de Chiara ’40, on September 21, 2010; Sidney R. Davis ’40, on August 30, 2007; Peter Salisbury Jennings ’40, on November 5, 2006; Louis Nash ’40, on November 22, 2009; Stephen Beard ’41, on August 23, 2010; Charles E. Hirsch ’41, on October 1, 2012; John Hoyt Seirup ’41, on March 4, 2014; William Ashley ’42, on August 27, 2009; Albert Lee Donnelly Jr. ’42, on August 12, 2008; Peter William Palmer ’46, on December 28, 2010; Edward Peterson ’48, on September 21, 2011; Peter F. Pruyn ’48, on April 2, 2011; Todd Tillinghast ’48, on January 6, 2006; Frank James Little Jr. ’49, on February 6, 2009; Cyrus C. Miller ’50, on January 19, 2004; Richard L. Devol ’51, on October 6, 2006; Harriet Hobson Mowshowitz ’59, on August 3, 2012; and Bruce Mitchell Brainard ’64, on December 16, 2013. More information, as available, will be printed in future issues. loomischaffee.org | 71


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