In Memoriam
1934 Mary Griggs Burke died on December 8, 2012, in New York City. She resided in Oyster Bay, New York. Raised in Saint Paul, she attended Summit School and upon graduation attended Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, and then Columbia University. She was a prominent philanthropist and art collector. She served on many boards of directors, including Sarah Lawrence College, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Asia Society. She and her husband founded the Cable Natural History Museum in Cable, Wisconsin, where the Griggs family had a summer estate called Forest Lodge. Forest Lodge was given by Mrs. Burke to the Trust for Public Land, and through them it was transferred to the U.S. Forest Service and will become a national center for the environment. Mrs. Burke received honorary degrees from Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin, and from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. In 1987, she was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure by the Japanese government. Her collection of Japanese art has been shown prominently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Tokyo National Museum in Japan, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in Minneapolis, and many other institutions in this country and abroad. There are no immediate survivors, but Mrs. Burke is survived by numerous loving cousins and friends. She was preceded in death by her parents and by her husband, Jackson Burke.
1936 Robert C. Binger of White Bear Lake, Minn., passed away at home on Aug. 14, 2012. He was born on Sept. 11, 1918, to Vida Debar Binger and Dr. Henry E. Binger. On April 6, 1942, he married Elizabeth Wann, who preceded him in death. He was a graduate of St. Paul Academy, the School of Forestry at the University of Minnesota, and the Graduate School of Forestry at Yale University. On March 1, 1941, he was elected an associate member of the Sigma Xi and on March
1, 1975, he received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Board of Regents at the University of Minnesota. On September 17, 1974, he was elected to the Explorers Club of New York in recognition of five sled trips he made to the Canadian Arctic with nomadic Inuit people from 1965-1970. He attended the Naval Training School of Dartmouth College and served on the staff of Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander of All Naval Forces in the Pacific, and on the staff of Admiral Richard Kelly Turner, Commander of the Amphibious Forces in the Pacific. He participated in landings of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Returning to the Naval Service during the Korean War, he served on the aircraft carrier USS Philippine Sea and participated in the landing at Inchon, South Korea. He retired from the Naval Reserve in 1957 as a Lieutenant Commander. He joined the Minnesota and Ontario Paper Company in 1946 and became Vice President of Operations in Canada and the United States in 1967. In 1968 he joined the Northern Pacific Railroad as Vice President of the Natural Resource division, President of the Plum Creek Lumber Company, and a member of the Northern Pacific Board of Directors. He retired on January 1, 1981. He served on the Board of Directors of the M & A Zinc Company of LaSalle, Ill., Connor Forest Industries of Wausau, Wis., Crows Nest Industries of Fernie, British Columbia, and the Big Sky Ski Development in Montana. He is survived by four children, Thomas Wann Binger ’67 of St. Paul, Robert Bruce Binger of Stillwater, Robert M. Binger of Minneapolis, and Erika Anne Binger Roberts of Asheville, N.C.
1939 Jean Kehne Schilling Folberth Chockley Ricketts died on November 1, 2012. Growing up in St. Paul, Mille Lacs, and Grey Cloud Island in Minnesota, she graduated from Summit School in 1939. She received a BA degree from Wellesley College in 1943 where she was a member of the 1942 May Court. She had an active civic life, including serving on the St. John’s Hospital Board in
Cleveland, Ohio, on the Women’s Guild of St. Peters Episcopal Church in Lakewood, Ohio, as Camp Fire Girl leader and as a founding member of The Cotillion Society of Cleveland. She was an active member of the Wellesley College Alumnae Association, including serving as President of her class. She enjoyed spending time with her family, traveling, playing bridge, golf and downhill skiing. She is survived by her her two brothers, Paul K. (Buzz) Schilling ’41 (who passed shortly after, see below) and Hugh K. Schilling ’43; husband, Dr. Robert Ricketts of Naples, FL; son William (Biff) M. Folberth III; daughters Judy Folberth Eakin, Nancy Folberth Stratton Constable and Wendy Folberth Miller; 10 grandchildren and eight great grandchildren. She was predeceased by her husbands William Mitchell (Mike) Folberth, Jr. and F. Wilson (Bud) Chockley, Jr.
1940 John “Smokey” Ordway passed away peacefully in his sleep on May 23, 2012. Known as Smokey to most, he was a resident of Jupiter Island, Fla., although he spent much of his life in White Bear Lake, and Wayzata, Minn. Born Nov. 29, 1922, in St. Paul, he attended St. Paul Academy, St. Paul’s School (1941) in Concord, N.H., and Yale University (1945). He left college before graduation to join the Navy, where he piloted a Corsair with Bombing Fighting Squadron Six attached to the aircraft carrier USS Hancock in operations against Japanese forces in the South Pacific. Although involved with many businesses during his life, his primary focus was the MacArthur Company in St. Paul where he worked for more than 40 years, ultimately as CEO and chairman. He was a member of numerous corporate and charitable boards, most notably that of the 3M Company, on which he served for 21 years; the Metropolitan Airports Commission from 1974-81; and the University of Minnesota Foundation where he served as chairman from 197779. He also served as a trustee at St. Paul Academy and Summit School. Growing up in a musical family, his involvement Fall 2012 | Winter 2013 | SPA
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