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Class Notes
O u r c o n d o l e n c e s t o t h e fa m i l i e s an d f r i e n d s w h o l o s t l o v e d o n e s r e p o r t e d i n t h i s i s s u e .
1933
Laura Gamble Thomson Robinson (L ’27, H) (Winter Park, FL) died on June 3, 2011. She was a very active volunteer in Republican politics and other organizations. She held many positions, including Chairman of the Legislative Committee of Florida Federation for Republican Women and President of the Orange County Council of Republican Women, and she was the first Orange County State Committeewoman for the State Republican party, among other committee positions within the Republican Party.
1934
Raymond Lang wrote to tell us of his wife’s death— Anita Halstead Lang (L) (San Carlos, CA)—on July 11, 2011. “She is survived by her devoted children, Rhonda Carney (Tim) of San Carlos and Mark Robinson of Carlsbad, CA. Anita had happy memories of her time at Lotspeich School in the 1930s.”
1937
Margery Sisson Runyan (H) (Dayton, OH) died on April 2, 2011. Her daughter, Dr. Anne Sisson Runyan, shared this obituary with us. “Margery graduated from Hillsdale in 1937, receiving the Hillsdale Award that year, and she graduated from Smith College in 1941. Both these women’s 40
schools were formative of the bright, loving, and giving woman she became, and she remained indebted to them throughout her life as her main sources of inspiration and wonderful memories. She enjoyed her 70th reunion at Seven Hills and was looking forward to her 75th in 2012. In addition to her enduring support for both Seven Hills and Smith as centers for the education of women, she also funded an MA/JD in Women’s Studies and Law fellowship at the University of Cincinnati where her daughter, Anne, is a Women’s Studies professor. “After graduating from Smith, she met and married the late Richard Van Pelt Runyan. They raised four girls, identical twins Malinda Marlay Runyan and Margery Hamilton Runyan, Anne Sisson Runyan, and Catherine Wing Runyan. “A proud lifelong learner, a trait instilled in part by Hillsdale, Margery returned to school at age 50 to gain a Master’s in Library Science. She served in several libraries, finishing her library career in Dayton, OH, where for many years she was well loved and respected for her work in the audio-visual department at the downtown branch of the Dayton and Montgomery County Public Library until her retirement at age 71.”
1939
Oliver Pape Bardes (L) (West Little Rock, AK) died on April 2, 2011, at age 84. Our school has been blessed with four generations of his family members among our alumni and current students.
We are grateful to daughter Dee Ellen G. Bardes for sharing the obit she sent to his alma mater, Culver Military Academy. In part, it stated, “Oliver Pape Bardes, a native Cincinnatian of Annweiler, RheinPfalz paternal heritage ... suffered from both Alzheimer’s and non-tremor Parkinson’s for four years, but he never lost his contagious sense of humor. A WW II vet (U.S. Army Infantry) and 1950 graduate of Williams College, Williamstown, MA, he founded and ran Bardes International which specialized in real estate mortgage brokerage in Cincinnati and Naples, Florida, for forty years. Earlier, he founded Decision, Inc., Madisonville, Ohio, which published GreenSheet, an engineering recruiting newsletter, and subsequently acquired Clermont Sun newspaper, Batavia. “He bred, showed, and raced Arabian horses as owner of Hawk Hill Farms, Georgetown, OH, and Ocala, FL, garnering national honors. He founded and belonged to numerous clubs with his sailing, Beta Theta Pi, Ohio Society (farm land owners), and Culver-related endeavors held dearest. “A Y-DNA pioneer, he practiced family research and genetic genealogy, proving his maternal tie with retired Mexican President, Vicente Fox Quesada, via mutual Fuchs (Fox) surnamed ancestors of Lahr, Baden and Strasbourg, France, immigrants to Cincinnati.”