Obituaries
V. Harold Decker 1925 H'28 on July 20, 1996. He was ninety-two and a resident of Hidalgo, Texas.
At Kenyon, Harold was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Although he went on to graduate from the University of Oklahoma's School of Petroleum Engineering and the Harvard Graduate School of Advanced Management Program, he felt a loyalty to Kenyon and maintained a significant relationship with the College. He was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree at the Honors Day Convocation in 1978.
Harold enjoyed a long and prosperous career in the oil and gas industry. He was vice president and general manager of Pan American Production Company from 1945 to 1949. He served as president of Houston Oil Company from 1950 to 1956. From 1956 until 1964 he managed the oil interests of Brown and Root, Inc. In 1964, he opened his own office as a petroleum consultant in Houston, Texas. In this capacity, he negotiated or executed the sale or merger of a number of oil companies.
Harold served as a director for many companies in the oil industry, including the Halliburton Company, Texasgulf, Inc., and Temple Eastex, a large east Texas pulp and paper company, which he formed during his years as president of Houston Oil.
Harold had a daughter, Sandra Decker Frost, and three grandchildren. It is not known if they survive him.
Franklin B. Mulberry 1928 on October 23, 2004. He was ninety-six and a resident of Longview, Texas.
Although Frank left Kenyon after two years, he was a loyal alumnus and served as a class agent for twelve years.
He served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II and pursued a career in military procurement with the United States Department of the Air Force.
Frank enjoyed flying and at the age of ninety-two was the oldest licensed pilot in Texas.
Survivors include three grandsons, Bob Goetz, Jack Goetz, and Dick Goetz; one granddaughter, Sue Moeller; fifteen great-grandchildren; and twenty-one great-great-grandchildren.
Burt Weyhing Jr. 1933 on April 6, 2002. He was ninety-one and a resident of Detroit, Michigan.
Burt is survived by his wife, Winnifred; two daughters, Marjorie Reynolds and Barbara Ettawageshik; three sons, Burt T. III, Benjamin, and James Weyhing; sixteen grandchildren, including Burt T. IV '91 ; and three great-grandchildren.
Thomas M. Sawyer Jr. '39 on March 17, 2005. A professor emeritus of English at the University of Michigan, he was eighty-seven and a resident of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Tom is survived by his daughters, Sally and Susan, and his son Charles. He was preceded in death by his wife, Mary Humphrey Sawyer, and his son Thomas M. Sawyer III '70. Please look for a full obituary in the next issue of the Bulletin.
Richard D. Owen 1940 on August 17, 2004, after a long illness. He was eighty-five and a resident of Whispering Pines, North Carolina.
After leaving Kenyon, Dick joined Ideal Foundry as an industrial engineer. He served in the United States Navy during World War II and then returned to Ideal Foundry, where he became plant manager. The last twenty years of his career were spent at Shenango, Inc., a foundry on Neville Island near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He retired in 1982.
Dick is survived by his wife, Mildred Beckwith "Becky" Owen; a daughter, Judith Owen Norton; a son, Edward James Owen; two grandchildren, Meredith L. Owen and Richard D. Owen II; two nieces, Rev. Catherine Baur Bickerton and Anne Baur; one great-niece; and four great nephews. Memorial contributions may be made to Carthage United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 70, Carthage, North Carolina 28327 or to FirstHealth Hospice, 150 Applecross Road, Pinehurst, North Carolina 28374.
G. William Robinson II '42 on November 20, 2004, of complications following heart surgery. He was eighty-four and a resident of Putney, Vermont.
Following graduation from Kenyon, William was ordained as an Episcopal priest. In 1969, he moved to the Deerfield Valley, where he worked first for Berkley and Veller, Wilmington, then North Real Estate in West Dover until his retirement this year and relocation to Putney.
William is survived by his wife, Jane D. Robinson; two sons, James B. and Christopher Robinson; three brothers, John G., Theodore M., and Grant H.; and a sister, Claudia Sladen. Memorial contributions may be made to the Windham County Humane Society, P.O. Box 397916, Brattleboro, Vermont 05302.
Frederick P. Watson '42 on August 20, 2004. He was eighty-six and a resident of Sarasota, Florida.
Fritz was a member of Phi Kappa Sigma Fraternity, serving as vice president in his senior year. He was also a member of Nu Pi Kappa. He played polo for four years.
He worked for Pittsburgh Plate Glass, now known as PPG Industries, for twenty-seven years until his retirement in 1976.
Fritz is survived by his wife of fifty-nine years, Barbara Neely Watson; a daughter, Natalie "Tally" Pickering; and a granddaughter, Meredith Watson Pickering. Memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society, 2801 Fruitville Road, Suite 250, Pen West Park, Sarasota, Florida 34237, or St. Boniface Episcopal Church, 5615 Midnight Pass Road, Sarasota, Florida 34242.
Robert B. Konstam '43 on September 8, 2004, after a long illness. He was eighty-three and a resident of Mansfield, Ohio.
An economics major at Kenyon, Bob was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon. During World War II, he served with the American Field Service volunteer ambulance corps in North Africa and Italy. All American Field Service volunteers paid for their own clothing and equipment, costing about $300. They were given free transportation to their place of assignment but received no pay. They could hold no organization or country responsible for compensation to them or their kin in the event of injury or death. Their status was that of a civilian in uniform.
Bob began his employment history in sales with Westinghouse Corporation before entering the insurance business as an independent insurance agent with Konstam, Massa, and Upham, Inc. He served as a director of the Richland Trust Company and a trustee of Rehabilitation Services of North Central Ohio and the Richland County Heart Board.
Survivors include his wife of fifty-six years, Ann Loughridge Konstam; a daughter, Tracy K. Bletz; a son, Robert L. Konstam; grandchildren Zachary and Cori Ann Bletz and Laura A. Fannin; and great-grandchildren Nathan and Stephen Fannin. Memorial contributions may be made to the Konstam Family Fund at the Richland County Foundation, 24 West Third Street, Mansfield, Ohio 44902.
John R. Jewitt '44 on October 25, 2004. He was eighty-two and a resident of Cleveland, Ohio.
At Kenyon, Jack was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity and the Kenyon Klan. He joined the United States Army in 1943 and served in the Netherlands East Indies and Philippine Islands. After his discharge in February 1946, he returned to Kenyon to complete his degree. He went on to earn a law degree at Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve University) in Cleveland. He was active in alumni affairs for a few years.
Jack practiced law with the firm of Jewitt, Rhein, and Jewitt.
Survivors include his wife, Nancy Morris Jewitt; two daughters, Jennifer Lippert and Barbara Byrum; two sons, Jessie and John R. Jewitt III; a brother, Fritz Jewitt; four granddaughters; and two grandsons. Memorial contributions may be made to Kenyon College, Office of Development, Gambier, Ohio 43022, or the American Heart Association, P.O. Box 182039, Department 013, Columbus, Ohio 43218-2039.
J. Craig Bowman '45 on September 14, 2004. He was eighty-one and a resident of Harpster, Ohio.
Craig was a member of Sigma Pi fraternity and played baseball and football. He entered Kenyon in 1941 as a member of the Class of 1945 and served as a fighter pilot in the United States Navy Air Corps from 1943 until 1945. He returned to Kenyon and earned his degree in 1947.
A pre-medical student, Craig was the fifth generation of his family to operate the family farm. In 1963 he established Hickory Grove Golf Club on two hundred twenty acres of farmland.
Craig was a former Upper Sandusky mayor and helped to establish the Upper Sandusky Municipal Court. He also served on the city council. He was a member of the Wyandot Memorial Hospital board for thirty-four years and had been chairman for the past fifteen years.
Survivors include his wife, Barbara Eyestone; a daughter, Beverly Weingart; two sons, Steven and Kyle Bowman; two stepsons, David and Dean Eyestone; seven grandchildren, Michael and Adam Wrzesniewski, and Brenna, Chelsea, Trevor, Hannah, and Laura Bowman; two great-grandchildren; and a sister, Barbara Bickham. Memorial contributions may be made to Wyandot Memorial Hospital in care of Lucas Funeral Home, P.O. Box 207, Upper Sandusky, Ohio 43351.
Richard N. LaFever Sr. 1950 on August 9, 2004. He was seventy-nine and a resident of Mount Vernon, Ohio.
Richard served in the United States Navy in the South Pacific during World War II. He owned Manufacturing Printers Company in Mount Vernon until the 1970s. He retired from Cooper Energy Systems in 1983.
Survivors include his wife of fifty-seven years, Patricia Lawrence LaFever; a daughter, Nancy LaFever; a son, Richard Neal LaFever Jr.; and two grandchildren, Cara and Jaclyn LaFever.
Roger G. Miller '50 on November 28, 2004. He was seventy-five and a resident of Tucson, Arizona.
At Kenyon, Roger was a member of Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity and played all intramural sports. He left Kenyon to become a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force during the time of the Korean War but returned to earn his degree in 1955.
Roger founded Allied-Easter Distributors, a wholesale floor and wall coverings business, and was owner and manager of the Erie, Pennsylvania, business until his retirement in 1977.
Survivors include his wife of fifty-two years, Patricia L. Miller; three daughters, Beth Miller Madara, Lori Schmidtke, and Jana Miller Sweets; five grandchildren, Traci and Dustin Phelps, Alexandra and Amelia Zurn, and Dillon Rice; and one great-grandson, Hayden White.
James B. House '52 on November 21, 2003, of cancer. He was seventy-five and a resident of Waterbury, Connecticut.
Jim entered Kenyon after serving in the United States Army Corps of Military Police. He served in Tokyo, Japan, following the surrender of Japan in World War II. At Kenyon, Jim was a member of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. A speech and drama major, he went on to earn master's and doctoral degrees in speech science from Ohio State University.
Jim was a speech and language pathologist who worked with the Area Cooperative Educational Services in the Greater New Haven Area. Following his retirement in 1999, he worked for several nursing homes in Connecticut. Earlier, Jim held assistant and associate professorships at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire, and the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.
Survivors include his wife, Vilma; three daughters, Jeanny V. House, Helen W. House, and Mary H. Simon; four sons, Henry Kimsey-House, Samuel P.B. House, Pat Carrington-House, and Dénes F. House; six grandchildren, Emily R.D. House, Nathaniel H.D. House, Isaiah M. Farley, Madeline Farley, Timothy S. House, and Portia A. Simon; and a sister, Flora H. Fairchild. Memorial contributions may be made to The Gideons Internationial, P.O. Box 1212, Union City, Connecticut 06770.
Theodore Alexander '53 on November 4, 2004. He was seventy-three and a resident of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.
Ted was a member of Sigma Pi fraternity, manager of the lacrosse team, and a member of Student Council. He served in the United States Army from 1953 to 1955 in Korea.
He was the president of Kraus-Alexander Construction Company and the Akron Realty and Improvement Company for many years. He was active in many service organizations in his community.
Survivors include his wife of forty-eight years, Carol Maurer Alexander; two sons, David B. and John S. Alexander; two grandchildren, Rebecca and Theodore J. Alexander; a sister, Antoinette Loving; a brother, Benjamin Alexander; and many nieces and nephews. Memorial contributions may be made to the Kenyon College Financial Aid Endowment Fund, Office of Development, College Relations Center, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio 43022-9623, or to F.O.P.A. Scholarship Assistance, Re: Ted Alexander F.O.P.A. #31, P.O. Box 14564, Cincinnati, Ohio 45250-0564.
Robert B. Camp '54 on September 16, 2004, of lung cancer. He was seventy-two and a resident of Haverford, Pennsylvania.
Bob was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity, secretary treasurer of the first-year class, and president of the senior class. He went on to earn an M.B.A. from Cornell University. He served in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1956.
Bob enjoyed a long career with Girard Trust Bank (later Mellon Bank) as an investment banker and retired as a senior vice president.
Survivors include his wife, Barbara Young Camp; three daughters, Susan C. Tryforos, Evelyn C. Capetola, and Sara H. Camp '82 ; two sons, Robert B. Jr. and William E. Camp IV; ten grandchildren; and a brother, Nevin S. Camp '63 . He was preceded in death by his brother William E. Camp III '52 and his father W. Edward Camp, who was the treasurer of Kenyon for many years. Memorial contributions may be made to the Philadelphia chapter of the American Cancer Society, 1422 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19102.
Frank Metcalf '54 on September 23, 2003. He was seventy-three and a resident of Bradenton, Florida.
Frank served in the United States Army during the Korean War. He pursued a career as a real estate broker.
He is survived by a son, Frank M. Metcalf; two granchildren; and two brothers, Joseph and Conrad Metcalf.
J. Eric May '58 on November 7, 2004. He was sixty-nine and a resident of Montchanin, Delaware.
At Kenyon, Eric was a member of Delta Phi fraternity, the chapel choir, and the Chamber Singers.
Eric retired as the director of the Hillendale Museum, a geographical and historical museum devoted to illustrating the influence of geography on the discovery and exploration of America from the fifteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Prior to that, he was a cartographer for the National Geographic Society and for twelve years executive secretary for the Dupont Genealogy Office. He served on the boards of the Episcopal Church Home, the DuPont Cemetery, and the Hagley Museum.
Survivors include three brothers, Ernest, Irénee, and Tom May, seven nieces and nephews, and eleven grandnieces and grandnephews. He is also survived by Will Prost, his domestic partner of thirty-four years, and numerous members of the Prost family.
James T. Arnold '65 on October 8, 2004, of unknown causes, at St. John's Medical Center. He was sixty-one and a resident of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
At Kenyon, Jim was a member of Sigma Pi fraternity. He graduated with honors in biology and earned his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma Medical School in 1969. He served for three years in the United States Army in Germany and was discharged with the rank of major.
At the time of his death, Jim was a member of Tulsa Radiology Associates. He had previously worked for Southwest Radiology in Joplin, Missouri, and Diagnostic Radiology Inc. at Grove General Hospital.
Jim is survived by his wife, Barbara Arnold, and his former wife, Marty Arnold; four daughters, Teri Green, Kristi Arnold, Rhonda Taylor, and Tonya Mitchell; a son, Ryan Arnold; six grandchildren, Samantha Green, Lauren, Dylan, and Noah Taylor, and Tessa and Alyssa Mitchell; his father, Tapley G. Arnold; a sister, Alena Jo; an uncle, John Spencer; and many nieces, nephews, and cousins. Memorial contributions may be made to the local Tulsa Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation, 4520 South Harvard Street, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74135.
Alan W. Babcock '66 on August 8, 2004, at his home. He was fifty-nine and a resident of Watersmeet, Michigan. Alan practiced medicine in Shorewood, Wisconsin, and lived in both Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Wisconsin, where he enjoyed his practice and fishing.
Survivors include his stepmother, Mary K. Babcock; two sisters, Susan E. and Mary K. Babcock; two brothers, Daniel W. and David J. Babcock; two nephews; four nieces; and a grandniece. Contributions in Alan's memory may be sent to The Dr. Alan W. Babcock Scholarship Fund, c/o Columbia St. Mary's Foundations, 4425 North Port Washington Road, Glendale, Wisconsin 53212.
William G. Dunning '68 on August 13, 2004, of heart-related problems. He was fifty-seven and a resident of Pangasinan, Philippines.
At Kenyon, Bill played football and was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity.
He pursued a career as a construction manager and technical sales person in Houston, Texas, before moving to the Philippines.
Bill is survived by a daughter, Jennifer Dunning; and two sons, Christopher and William Dunning.
Honoraries
Harvey Brooks H'63 on May 28, 2004, of complications of congestive heart failure. He was eighty-eight and a resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Brooks was a physicist and administrator at Harvard University, who studied and helped shape national science policies involving energy, the military, and the environment. He served on science advisory committees in the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations.
Brooks graduated from Yale University and earned his doctorate in physics at Harvard. He helped to develop the acoustic homing torpedo during World War II and later worked for General Electric on a project to use nuclear-powered reactors in submarines. In 1950, he joined Harvard's Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences and was its dean from 1957 to 1975. He retired in 1986 but continued to teach and advise.
Brooks was the author of many articles in professional journals and wrote The Government of Science, which explored the relationship of science and government.
Survivors include his wife of fifty-eight years, Helen Lathrop Brooks; three daughters, Rosalind B. Stowe, Katharine G. Brooks, and Alice B. Bourgoin; a son, Kingsley C. Brooks; and two grandchildren.
Laurel Suman "Lolly" Williams H'84 on February 25, 2005, of cancer. She was sixty-six, a longtime member of the College community, and the wife of retired psychology professor Jon Williams.
A social worker, Lolly pursued her bachelor's degree as an adult after raising six children.
Williams worked closely with children and with families in need for much of her life. After receiving her degree in sociology from Kenyon in 1984, she served as a caseworker for Knox County Children's Services, going on to become a foster-care licensing specialist. She went on to work for Knox County Head Start, where she managed the recruitment of families and supervised the transportation system. From 1998 to 2004, she worked at Interchurch Social Services, first as a volunteer and then as a financial aid counselor. During the past year, she served as acting director.
"I've never seen her at a loss as to how to get along with even the most difficult people," a colleague at children's services once wrote. A local psychologist described her as a "facilitator" who had a remarkable gift for working with people, displaying the same honesty, directness, warmth, and humor with individuals from widely varying social and economic backgrounds.
Lolly had many Kenyon ties. Her husband, Jon, who joined the Kenyon psychology faculty in 1968, held the Samuel B. Cummings Jr. Chair until he retired last year. Three of their children attended Kenyon: Jeffrey '83 (who is deceased), Robyn Shimrak '86 , and Marc '88. Amy Heasley Williams '88 , the College's director of aquatics, is married to their son Christopher. Many parents of Kenyon football players have fond memories of the Homecoming luncheons that Lolly organized from 1984 to 1988, when Marc played for the Lords.
Lolly is survived by her husband, Jon; five children, Christopher Williams, Robyn Shimrak, Marc Williams, Lora Catalano, and Lisa Williams; and eleven grandchildren. The family asks that, in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions be made to the Lolly Williams Caring Fund, which will be used to assist the families of patients with life-threatening illnesses who have
special financial needs. Information about the fund is available at Interchurch Social Services, 114 East Gambier Street, Mount Vernon, Ohio 43050, 740-397-4825.
Shirley Chisholm H'73 on January 1, 2005. She was eighty and a resident of Ormond Beach, Florida. According to a staff member, she had suffered several strokes recently.
Chisholm, who was the Commencement speaker at Kenyon in 1973, was an outspoken educator-turned-politician who shattered racial and gender barriers as she became a national symbol of liberal politics in the 1960s and 1970s.
She won a seat in Congress in 1968 with an upset victory in Brooklyn's Twelfth Congressional District, which had been created by court-ordered reapportionment. Her slogan in the primary was "unbought and unbossed."Soon after her election, she challenged the seniority system in the House, which had relegated her to its agriculture committee, an assignment she criticized as irrelevant to an urban district like hers (the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn). "Apparently all they know here in Washington about Brooklyn is that a tree grew there," she said. "Only nine black people have been elected to Congress, and those nine should be used as effectively as possible."She was ultimately reassigned, first to the Veterans Affairs Committee, and eventually to the Education and Labor committees.
In 1972, when she entered the presidential primaries, she did not expect to capture the nomination, which ultimately went to George S. McGovern. She viewed her campaign as a necessary "catalyst for change." She commented that she always faced more discrimination for being a woman than for being black.
Chisholm left Washington after seven terms in the House, saying that "moderate and liberal lawmakers were running for cover from the new right." She also expressed a need to spend more time with her husband, Arthur Hardwick, who had been injured in an accident in 1982. He died in 1986.
Born in Brooklyn, Chisholm spent her early years with her siblings and grandmother in Barbados. In adulthood, she taught in a nursery school and earned a master's degree in elementary education at Columbia University. Working as the director of the Friends Day Nursery in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn and the Hamilton-Madison Child Care Center in Lower Manhattan, she became widely known as an authority on early education and child welfare. She argued that early schooling was essential.
Chisholm moved to Florida in 1991 and lived a quiet life. When asked how she would like to be remembered, she said, "I'd like them to say that Shirley Chisholm had guts."
Robert B. Heilman H'73 on August 5, 2004. He was ninety-eight and a resident of Los Altos, California, formerly of Seattle, Washington.
Heilman's leadership helped bring the University of Washington's English department to national prominence. He chaired the department from 1948 until 1971 and transformed the program by hiring high-profile faculty members and visiting scholars. Among the distinguished teachers and invited writers were Elizabeth Bishop, W. H. Auden, Irving Howe, and Robert Penn Warren.
Heilman was a prolific writer and scholar. He edited twelve books and wrote ten, including studies of Shakespeare's plays and a textbook on drama. His most recent book, The Professor and the Profession, a collection of essays, was published in 1999. A collection of his correspondence with philosopher and political scientist Eric Voegelin was published in 2004.
Heilman practiced "new criticism," a school of literary criticism ascendant in the mid-twentieth century that focused on the technique and form used in works of literature. He received numerous awards for his work, including a Guggenheim Fellowship.
A graduate of Lafayette College, Heilman earned his doctorate from Harvard University in 1935. Prior to his move to Seattle, he taught at Louisiana State University. He lectured widely at American colleges and universities and occasionally in England.
Passion for the proper use of the English language showed in his correspondence with the Seattle Times, to which he would occasionally send letters admonishing staff about errors of grammar he'd found in articles.
Survivors include two sons, Robert W. King and Champlin B. "Pete" Heilman; five grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Richard Avedon H'93 on October 1, 2004, of a brain hemorrhage while on assignment in San Antonio, Texas. He was eighty-one and a resident of New York City. He was taking photographs for a piece called "On Democracy" for The New Yorker magazine.
Avedon's influence on photography was immense, and his sensuous fashion work helped create the era of super models such as Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford. He went in another direction with his portrait work, shooting unsparing and often unflattering images of subjects from Marilyn Monroe to Michael Moore.
Leading institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., staged major Avedon retrospectives, and his list of honors spanned fifty years. In 2003, he received a National Arts Award for lifetime achievement.
During his career Avedon worked for such photograph-driven publications as Vogue and Harper's Bazaar and served as The New Yorker's first staff photographer. Among his best-known work is Nothing Personal, a 1964 collection of unflattering photographs of affluent Americans. He said his view of the world was literally affected by his nearsightedness.
A high-school dropout, Avedon joined the United States Merchant Marine in 1942, receiving a Rolleiflex camera as a going-away gift from his father. He was assigned to the Merchant Marine photo branch to take personnel identification photos and later went on several missions to photograph shipwrecks. Following his wartime service, he became a professional photographer for the Bonwit Teller department stores and then moved to Harper's Bazaar, where he remained for two decades.
In 1993, Avedon employed three Kenyon graduates, Mark Royce '88 ,Kara Glynn '90 , and Doug Mott '92 , as assistants in his studio in New York. The three were featured in the Kenyon College Alumni Bulletin, Volume 16, Number 2, with a cover photo taken by Avedon.
"If a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it's as though I've neglected something related to my photography, it's as though I've neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up," he said in 1970. "I know that the accident of my being a photographer has made my life possible."
Other deaths
Former Kenyon librarian Virginia Clark died December 26, 2004, at her home in Clinton, Connecticut. She was seventy-five and also maintained homes in Gambier and in London, England.
A graduate of Mount Union College, Clark earned a master of arts degree at the University of Chicago in 1956.
After stints as a reference librarian at Wright Junior College in Chicago, and as a part-time librarian at the College of Liberal Arts, Jewish University of America in Skokie, Illinois, Clark joined the staff of the Kenyon College library in 1961. From 1963 to 1965, she was the assistant editor for reviewing at the newly founded publication Choice: Books for College Libraries. She returned to Kenyon to work in the library from 1965 to 1967 while she continued to work for Choice in various editorial capacities. She retired from Choice in February 1994.
On March 14, 1964, Clark married Robert L. Baker, who was at that time an associate professor of history at Kenyon. Baker's research in English medieval history took them frequently to London, England, which became Clark's third home. Baker died in 1992.
After her retirement from Choice, Clark volunteered at the Women's Library of London Metropolitan University, formerly the Fawcett Library. This library is the oldest established women's library in the world and has the most extensive collections of women's history in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1926 as the Library of London Society for Women's Service with the dual purpose of preserving the history of the women's movement and of providing a working library on social, political, and economic subjects for use by members newly enfranchised and beginning to enter public life.
When in London, Clark performed with several choral groups, including the London Welsh Chorale, a seventy-five-member mixed voice choir, at major venues around the city.
Clark was a member of the South Place Ethical Society, based
at Conway Hall in London, and the Humanist Association of Connecticut, where she presented a paper on free thought and freethinkers in England as recently as July 2004. South Place Ethical Society bestowed on Clark the title of honorary assistant to the librarian in recognition of the research and assistance she provided the society.
Clark is survived by two sisters, Charlotte Clark of Gresham, Oregon, and Dorothy Clark Hostetter, of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Gayle Geiger on April 8, 2005, of breast cancer. She was fifty-nine and a resident of Mount Vernon, Ohio.
Gayle, a beloved teacher to generations of children at Wiggin Street School in Gambier and a longtime member of the Kenyon community, was the wife of Russell Geiger, the director of major gifts at Kenyon. The Geigers have been part of the College community since 1980, when Russ took a position as a visiting assistant professor of anthropology/sociology.
A graduate of Bowling Green State University, with a master's degree from Southern Illinois University, Gayle taught fourth and fifth grade. She worked at Wiggin Street School from 1984 until she retired in 2001.
In every community, a few educators emerge as "must have" teachers. For the seventeen years of Gayle's career at Wiggin Street, parents arriving in Gambier would invariably hear the words, "Make sure your kids get Gayle Geiger." She was known as a caring, insightful teacher who appreciated the special qualities and needs of individual children. Both children and their parents valued her sensitivity and her quiet integrity, as well as her spirit of tolerance and her broad perspective, the conviction she conveyed that young people could aspire to reach beyond their local surroundings and circumstances.
"Gayle touched the lives of so many kids and so many families," says Miriam Dean-Otting, professor of religious studies, "and not just in the classroom-she also did a lot of after-school tutoring. She was a tremendously gifted teacher. She enhanced the lives of so many children."
In addition to Russ, Gayle is survived by three sons, Joel, Benjamin, and Jesse; three grandchildren, Julia, Michael, and Jacob Geiger; her father, Edward V. Conroy; four sisters, Maureen Lindenberg, Patricia Paoli, Margaret Mahar, and LouAnn Harmeyer; and four brothers, Edward Conroy Jr. and Timothy, Michael, and Jeff Conroy.
Memorial contributions may be made to Wiggin Street School for the purchase of children's books; to Susan G. Komen/Rally for a Cure, P.O. Box 579, Ridgefield, Connecticut 06877-0579; or to a breast cancer research organization of one's choice.
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