CLASS NOTES to Kingston, N.H., to be near her children. Jan had lived in Vermont most of her life in the quaint town of Belmont. We were roommates in South Hall and West Marquand. • Robert D. Bodington of Juno Beach, Fla., passed away 12/14/14. After graduating from Mt. Hermon, he joined the USN (Seabees) Construction Battalion during WWll in the Pacific. Robert pursued his passion for golf, which resulted in a successful 45-year career beginning at Brae Burn Country Club (Mass.), working for country clubs in Greenwich, Conn.; Augusta, Ga.; and Juno Beach, Fla. (where he met and married his wife in 1955); Farmington and Hartford, Conn., as head pro for 20 years; and Newport, R.I. The Bodingtons moved to Florida to enjoy retirement life. He was particularly proud of being the 1960 Connecticut PGA Champion and being referred to by his golfing buddies as “BMW”—the perfect driving machine. Robert was predeceased by his wife, Helen, and his sister, Gwendolyn, and is survived by his brother, Frederick M. Bodington Jr. • Harry Schanck died on 6/7/14 in Manchester, N.J. Harry served honorably in the Navy as a radioman, seeing wartime duty in the South Pacific. He attended Champlain College (N.Y.) before graduating from Rider College in 1950. He worked as a pump salesman for various companies before retiring from the Barish Pump Company. He was a member of the Freemason Union Lodge in Stamford, Conn., and of the Sons of the American Revolution, and actively involved with the First Presbyterian Church. Harry was an avid reader, enjoyed gardening and family summer vacations at the Jersey Shore. He was predeceased by his wife, Eleanor, and son Theodore, and is survived by son Andrew. • Charles “Ted” Woodruff passed away (11/25/14) in New London, Conn. Ted served in the USN as quartermaster on the USS Samuel Moore from 1943–46, later working in the military Sea Transportation Service. Ted married Grace Newby in 1953 at the Groton Congregational Church, where he was a member and became a trustee and deacon. Ted is survived by his wife, daughter Wendy, and sons Scott and Clark. • Toni Novak Wyman died suddenly on 11/4/14. Born in Vienna in 1925, raised as a child of war, she was sent to England as a child, along with her sister. There she learned English, a skill she used lifelong, and acquired a self-reliance and dedication to make her world a better place— both attributes that served her well. At age 15, her family reunited in New York. In 1947, she married Ralph and began her life in Greenwich, Conn. Toni was a woman of vision and became an extraordinarily dedicated volunteer, serving on boards of more than 30 national and local organizations. She was one of only four people to be named a lifetime member of MIT’s Council for the Arts. Toni was a champion of fun, but her greatest accomplishment was her family. • Bob
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Krueger, a longtime resident of Northville, Mich., passed away on 1/2/15. Bob served on active duty during WWII and the Korean War. He was honorably discharged as a master sergeant after 20 years in the service. After receiving his master’s from St. Louis University in 1971, he began teaching in New Jersey, later in St. Louis, Mo., with the majority of his teaching career spent at Riley Middle School in Livonia, Mich. At the age of 56, Bob attended the U.S. Army Sergeant Majors Academy and graduated in the top third of his class. He loved to read, tell stories, and make jokes. Bob served on the City of Northville zoning board for 16 years, was a 32nd degree Mason, and a Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus. He taught his children to be independent and analytical and was their biggest fan, as well as being a caring and affectionate husband. • Edith Farrand Lubaczewski of Sweetwater, N.J., died on 8/8/14. She was raised in N.H. and had lived in Sweetwater since 1968. Edie attended college in Virginia, where she majored in art. After raising her family, she returned to school to study architectural drafting, and was later a draftsman for Cramer & Sons Engineering Co. in Medford. She was an active member of Calvary Chapel in Hammonton and a Sunday school teacher. • Richard Converse died on 5/6/14 in Oregon. Dick spent his early childhood in Japan, where his parents worked for the YMCA. After his father’s death in 1930, Dick and his mother moved to the U.S. He attended University of California-Berkeley, where he met Leona, his wife of 66 years. After receiving his doctorate in plant pathology at University of California-Davis, he and his wife started the first series of work assignments in South Dakota, Oklahoma, Maryland, and, finally, Corvallis, Ore., where Dick worked for the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture at Oregon State University. His work also brought him to many countries across the world. His last position was at Garfield Elementary, where he volunteered as a teacher’s assistant in the duallanguage program. Dick was preceded in death by his daughter, Nancy, and his son, Paul. He is survived by his wife, Leona, and son Frank. • Albert “Buck” Johnston died (7/2/14) in Ewa Beach, Hawaii. Buck had been in the retail industry for many years; his position as the buyer for the Ala Moana Liberty House’s linen department took him to Hawaii in 1968, after living in Keene, N.H. He received his bachelor’s degree in music theory from the University of New Hampshire, served in the Navy during WWII, enjoyed solving the New York Times crossword puzzle, and was an avid cribbage player. Buck was an established composer and an excellent piano player. During the earlier part of the last century, Buck’s father, Dr. Albert C. Johnston, was a graduate of the Rush Medical College in Chicago, but had difficulty securing employment as a doctor as he was a lightskinned African American. In time,
employment was secured and his father practiced medicine until 1970. Buck and his family were unaware they were not Caucasian until they were in their teens. Their true story is documented in the book and 1949 film, Lost Boundaries. A Cannes Film Festival best screenplay winner, Buck’s music scored the film. • The student recipient of our class scholarship wrote a note of thanks to all classmates of 1943 for your donation, as attending NMH has changed his life for the better. I, too, send thanks for your help while I was your class secretary from 2003–15.
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Northfield and Mount Hermon Charlton R. Price charltonrp@gmail.com From Charlie Price—Hello, NMH ’44! We’re
now officially melded. We have two (honorary) presidents: Yvonne Snyder Elliman and Jim Babcock. After adventurous years in Italy, Switzerland, Rio, and Hawaii, Yvonne has been for years in both New York City and Westhampton, Long Island. Jim, longtime resident of Glastonbury, Conn., has owned and, with his son, runs a travel agency. I live in a “man cave” apartment in downtown Seattle near my children and their families (better to visit them frequently rather than be underfoot, right?). • The class of ’44 wants to know how you are and what you’ve been doing. Please call or email me! If you don’t want to phone, use email. • There is one further hurdle, though: time. NMH Magazine now appears only twice a year. Any news you can give me at any time for the rest of 2015, you will see in print only in May 2016. I’ll be using what our very persnickety Mt. Hermon English teacher Louis (“you flunk—but you flunk high!”) Smith would call the past progressive verb tense: such as, “Yvonne has been for years on Long Island…” • Sibylle Gerstenberg, once an active senior resident of Center Gould at Northfield, is still a busy senior resident—as “community secretary” and with other groups at her retirement community in Cockeysville, Md. Jean Ting Margolis and her husband, retired economics professor Al Margolis, have had two pieds-à-terre—one in New York City and one in rural Pennsylvania, “because I’m a city person and he’s a country person” • Chuck Wadhams and his wife, Anne, have done well in a retirement community in Fresno. Chuck has had some dramatic coronary adventures, but has been doing fine since. Chuck is cousin of the late Fred Willsea. Fred and I roomed together in Overtoun. Then he was a roommate of Bob Davidson. And not too long after that, Fred became my brother-in-law! There was a memorial in Rochester, N.Y., in May for Fred’s brother, Lou Willsea ’42. • Our Hermon ’44 valedictorian, Professor Dick Moench, and our class salutatorian, Bill Compton, have been back in touch with each other. But they’ve been connected much longer than that, and not just at Hermon. Dick is a distinguished anthropologist and specialist on the Arab Middle East, mostly at