Arthur W. LaGrone, Jr. ’64
always able to balance the two. Dave says that John loved to golf and fish but that his real hobby was his children and grandchildren. “Gayle and John moved to Clayton, N.C., a few years ago to be closer to their daughter Karen, her husband and their twin boys. John continuted to work, however, from his home and on frequent visits to Preston’s offices on the Eastern Shore. In all, his accounting career spanned 48 years. “Gayle says that although John did not maintain contact with St. Andrew’s, he was proud to have gone to SAS and remembered his experiences there fondly. His daughters have his SAS yearbooks, and Karen has his old varsity letters. Gayle wishes us all the best. “It was truly a pleasure to talk with Gayle. John was obviously a devoted husband, father and grandfather. She said John would have been bowled over by the expressions of respect and affection that came pouring in after his death, that he had no idea how much he meant to people that knew him.” Arthur W. LaGrone, Jr. ’64 Arthur Welling LaGrone, Jr. died suddenly on February 3, 2011, but peacefully. He was a man who lived large. He was an avid collector of many things from art and American patriotica to colorful socks. A supporter of the arts in Nashville, Welling was founding president of the Nashville Ballet. He has been a loyal supporter of the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, serving on
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its development council and sponsoring the Contemporary Arts Project Gallery. He loved his family, friends and his log house at Beersheba Springs, Tenn. He was a committed congregant of St.George’s Episcopal Church. He was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati and the Belle Meade Country Club. At the time of his death, Welling was a managing director at Morgan Keegan. Prior to that he was top broker at J.C. Bradford. Before his successful career in the financial services industry he worked in the textile industry including a three-year stint in London as head of a European sales operation for Greenwood Mills. He served in the U.S Army during the Vietnam era. A native of Greenville, S.C., Welling was a graduate of the Darlington School in Rome, Ga., and Clemson University in South Carolina. Born in La Grange, Ga., on August 6, 1946, he was the son of the late Martha Dunson LaGrone and Arthur Welling LaGrone. He is survived by sons Arthur Welling LaGrone III (Heather) and David Wright LaGrone; sisters Ann LaGrone Bull (Dan) and Jarrell LaGrone Bruner (John) of Greenville, S.C.; grandchildren Miranda, Zara and Sam LaGrone and Mills and Robert Howell. Stepchildren Robert Boyte Crawford Howell (Katie) and Sarah Gordon Fontana (Aracelis Kearney). Former wife Elizabeth Crook. Rutherford Robbins Romaine ’65 Rutherford Robbins “Robb” Romaine lost a valiant battle against flioblastoma multiforme, a pernicious form of brain cancer, on January 31, 2012, at his generously loaned cottage in his gratefully adopted community/haven of Belvedere. Robb was born to Dr. Hunter Huideköper Romaine and Jacqueline Amelia Lane in New York City, N.Y., on May 25, 1948. He was raised in Ardsley Park, N.Y., spending summers on Cape Cod in West Falmouth, Mass. He graduated from The Harvey School (Katonah, N.Y.), St. Andrew’s School (Middletown, Del.), Philips Exeter
Rutherford R. Romaine ’65
Academy (Exeter, N.H.) and Yale University where he was a member of the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus and of Skull & Bones. He met his wife and the love of his life when they were performing Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore. They went on to actively participate in and support theatre while raising their four children in Greenwich, Conn. Robb had an inexhaustible passion for life, never having met a stranger and always looking to see how he could help. But above all, he cherished his family.He loved travel, poker, politics, cooking and settling in for a talk about anything and everything — he always had a new idea. He was an athlete (state tennis champion; golf club first flight champion; avid NJ Devils and NY Giants fan); a musician (lead singer and bass player for The Third Section); a singer and actor (SOBs of Yale, The Blue Hill Troupe of NYC, College Light Opera Company and Highfield Theatre of Falmouth, Mass., St. Paul’s Players and St. Catherine’s Players of Riverside, Conn., and numerous choirs); a scholar who never quenched his love of learning and desire to help others learn; a pioneering businessman in the managed futures industry, who founded The RXR Group, Excalibur Advisors and Round Table Ventures and served as vice chairman of the Managed Futures Association (now the Managed Funds Association) where he organized conferences and was a frequent keynote speaker and panelist,