Obituaries
George W. Allaman '39 on November 25, 2007. The resident of Longboat Key, Florida, was ninety-one.
William was a biology major. He went on to a career in aviation.
William was mentored by aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh. He joined Pan American World Airways as a pilot of a Sikorsky flying boat after graduation. He flew as a military pilot during World War II and the Vietnam War, during which he was the "go-to" pilot for Bob Hope's military theater concert tours.
In a career that spanned the golden age of commercial flight, William opened many commercial routes through South America, the South Pacific, and the Far East. His thirty-six-year career with Pan Am ended in 1974 when he retired as senior captain of the Boeing 747 in San Francisco, California.
His worldwide travel continued during his retirement and included overseas cruises and land tours with family and friends. He was a member of the Sarasota Memorial Hospital Foundation and a supporter of Kenyon and the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota, Florida.
William is survived by his sons, William and Michael Allaman; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. Contributions in his honor can be made to the Sarasota Memorial Hospital Foundation, 1838 Waldemere Street, Sarasota, Florida, 34239.
William E. Baubie II '40, P '75, on December 2, 2007. The Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, resident was eighty-eight.
William was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon. He served in World War II in the U.S. Army Air Forces, where he rose to the rank of captain.
He was a retired investment banker who had worked in Detroit, Michigan, as a vice president at E.F. Hutton & Co. and as a vice president at First of Michigan Corp. He had been a trustee for the Cottage Hospital in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and was a member of the Investment Bankers Association.
William survived his first wife, Elisabeth (Robb) Baubie, and two of the couple's three children. He is survived by his wife, Mary DeLong Baubie; his daughter, Virginia Baubie Whitney; six grandchildren; and stepchildren Margaret Harris and David Harris.
Robert W. Pringle '41, on January 21, 2008, of heart failure. The resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was eighty-nine.
Robert was a biology and chemistry major. He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh Medical School in 1944. Robert then served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy in 1944-46, during World War II, and was called for active duty again during the Korean War, in 1952-54. He retired from the Navy Reserve as a captain in 1981.
Robert's specialty was internal medicine, and he developed a reputation as a skilled diagnostician. From 1949 to 1978 he practiced at West Penn Hospital and at the Pittsburgh Diagnostic Clinic, where he was also medical director from 1963 to 1978. He was medical director at Equitable Gas Systems in 1972-78. Robert retired from clinical practice in 1978 and took a job as corporate medical director of Rockwell International, continuing until 1987.
He was active in farming, fishing, golfing, hunting, and sailing. He was also a pilot and loved to travel. Robert volunteered at St. Margaret Hospital in Pittsburgh and the local Meals on Wheels program.
In a story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Robert Pringle Jr., said of his father, "He was a very acute observer of people. He really believed that the strength of medicine was the personal interview and handling a person on a face-to-face basis."
Robert was married to the late Jane Miller for twenty-three years, the late Betty Monteverde for twenty-one years, and the late Jane Bell for sixteen years. Robert is survived by his children, Robert Pringle Jr., Bruce Pringle, Mary Pringle, and James Pringle; stepchildren, Karen Loeffler, Lynn Loeffler, Christine Findlan, Victoria Mihalik, A.J. Loeffler, and Laurie Assadi; nine grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren, eleven stepgrandchildren; and two step greatgrandchildren. Donations in his name may be made to West Penn Hospital, 4800 Friendship Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15224, and Fox Chapel Presbyterian Church, 384 Fox Chapel Road, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15238.
The Reverend William C. Seitz '41, on January 14, 2008, from complications of Alzheimer's disease. William, of Clermont, Florida, was eighty-eight.
William was a member of Delta Tau Delta. A physics major, he graduated cum laude and went on to earn a Bachelor of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1943.
William worked as an engineer in the 1940s. He married Ann Driggs in 1949 while a student at Bexley Hall seminary. He graduated with a Master of Divinity in 1950 and began a fruitful career as an Episcopal priest, serving schools and congregations in Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
William is remembered as an intellectual and a thoughtful priest with a gentle manner. He was a pilot and a member of the Civil Air Patrol. He loved to tinker, and he built a travel trailer and used it to tour the continent during summer vacations.
He is survived by his wife; daughters, Claudia Seitz-Ricklick and Nancy Seitz; son, John Seitz; six grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; brothers, George Seitz and the Reverend Thomas Seitz; and sister, Lucy Peirce. Donations in William's memory may be made to the Alzheimer's Association of Central and North Florida, 988 Woodcock Road, Suite 200, Orlando, Florida, 32803.
Harry W. Stroud '43, on June 19, 2007. The Rutherfordton, North Carolina, resident was eighty-six.
Harry was a member of Phi Kappa Sigma. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Harry married Marcia Kind in June 1947. He went to work as a buyer for Brewster & Stroud, a home-furnishings retail store in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, where he was also a member of the volunteer fire department.
David Reavill Ransom '44, on January 23, 2008. The West Lafayette, Indiana, man was eighty-four.
Reavill, as he was known, was the son of John Crowe Ransom, the first editor of the Kenyon Review and the poet and critic who helped establish the estimable reputation of the English department. Reavill served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was a retired professor of English at Purdue University, where he taught for thirty years.
Reavill is survived by his daughter, Jane Ransom, and sons, John and David Ransom. Memorial contributions may be sent to the American Civil Liberties Union, 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor, New York, New York, 10004.
John W. Borden '49, and a former College trustee, on January 7, 2008, after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease. The San Francisco, California, resident was eighty-one.
John served as a pharmacist's mate in the U.S. Navy during World War II, in 1944-46, and then entered Kenyon. He pursued premedical studies and was a speech major. John was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, the Hill Players, and the Debate Club. He also reported for the Collegian.
He worked at the Stanford X-ray Stereoscope Company in San Jose, California, before earning an M.B.A. at Columbia University in 1957. John worked as an investment manager at Dodge & Cox in San Francisco before joining Dean Witter and Company. At Dean Witter, John was vice president for advertising and public relations and then vice president for administration, working at times in New York City and in San Francisco.
John was a generous donor to the College and concluded a three-year term as an alumni trustee in 1985. Among his donations to the College are many rare and fine-press books.
He nurtured a lifelong interest in literature and books and became a renowned collector of antiquarian books and the history of fine printing. His collection of books printed by the nineteenth-century British wood engraver Thomas Bewick is owned by the National Trust of Great Britain. John also hand-set type and printed cards and keepsakes on his own fine press, which he called In-Time Press. Among those cards are images of the stained-glass windows in Peirce Hall. On his cards, he described In-Time Press as "a sometime cooperative effort of Time, Inclination & John W. Borden."
John enjoyed traveling, often taking cruises along the Pacific coast and embarking by rail across the United States and Canada.
He is survived by his sister, Jane Borden Marshall. John asked that contributions in his memory be made to Kenyon, College Relations Center, 105 Chase Avenue, Gambier, Ohio, 43022.
Richard P. Ralston 1950, P '71, H '89, on February 12, 2008. The Mount Vernon, Ohio, resident was eighty.
Dick, the retired superintendent of buildings and grounds, was raised on the campus, where his father, Paul E. Ralston, served in the same job from 1932 to 1956. The family lived in Timberlake House. Dick was admitted to Kenyon after serving in the U.S. Navy in 1945-46. He left the College after two years to work with the Civil Service in Columbus, Ohio, and then in electrical construction.
Dick returned to Kenyon in 1969 as construction manager, a newly created post. Coeducation had set the College on a path of expansion. Four buildings were under construction--Mather and McBride halls, Gund Commons, and Higley Hall--and Kenyon needed someone to work closely with the architects and take responsibility for the mechanical operations of the buildings. A year later, he was promoted to superintendent of buildings and grounds. As with his father, the post came with a campus home. Dick and his family lived in the house that would later be named for him: Ralston House, now home of the sociology department.
As the buildings and grounds superintendent during the 1970s and 1980s, Dick helped navigate a period of dramatic growth and handle several crises. Looking back on his career when he retired in 1989, he said: "We have seen eleven new major buildings, sixteen faculty houses converted [for academic and other uses], eighteen buildings remodeled or restored, an energy shortage in 1974, a deep freeze in 1977, and a blizzard in 1978."
In a 2005 interview, he explained his approach to service and leadership by recalling that he had all of his supervisors in the maintenance department use order forms bearing "the four Fs"--"fair, factual, firm, friendly." Tom Lepley, hired by Dick in 1970 and his successor, said, "He was very energetic and conscientious; he was a great guy." Lepley is now director of facilities planning.
The College awarded Dick an honorary Master of Civil Law degree at the Honors Day Convocation in April 1989. The citation read, in part: "Always 'can-do' in attitude, on the job early and late, resilient in the face of demands, gripes, and emergencies, you have been the mainstay of Kenyon's physical plant advancement in an era of expansion."
Dick's connections to the College extend from his father to other family members. His daughter, Beth Ralston Hillier, works in the Health and Counseling Center. His son, Daniel Ralston, is a 1971 graduate of Kenyon; Daniel's wife, Liz Pegram Ralston, is a 1976 graduate. Two grandchildren are also graduates.
He is survived by his wife, Jeanne (Lonzo) Ralston; his son and daughter; four grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Morton Segal '53, on January 11, 2008, of heart failure, in Pasadena, California. Morton was seventy-six.
The New York City native also attended New York University and Columbia University. He served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. While in the Army in England, he directed a stage production. In a letter to the College written in December 1954, Morton wrote, "Give all my friends in Kenyon my regards ? Being in the Army, about the only consolation I have in being away from Kenyon is that I am going to spend Christmas and New Year's in the German and Swiss Alps."
He embarked on a career in the entertainment industry, as an off-Broadway and Broadway producer and then a Hollywood publicist. Among the plays he co-produced on Broadway was Once There Was a Russian, in 1961, starring Walter Matthau and Julie Newmar. He moved into public relations, working for several studios over the years and promoting a variety of films, including Hatari, The Agony and the Ecstasy, The Sound of Music, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Ryan's Daughter. In 1969, Morton was named director of advertising, publicity, and promotion of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. He was described by Variety as a fixture for many years at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1974, he cofounded the public-relations firm ICPR and later became vice chairman of Dennis Davidson Associates.
Morton is survived by his daughters, Karen and Erica Segal, sons, Peter and Matt Segal, and eight grandchildren.
Alan R. Spievack '55, on March 15, 2008, of cancer. The Cambridge, Massachusetts, resident was seventy-four.
Alan was a biology major who graduated cum laude and was a member of Beta Theta Pi, the Kenyon Klan, and the Student Council. He also played lacrosse. He won a Fulbright Scholarship in 1955 to Bologna, Italy, but decided instead to study medicine at Harvard Medical School, graduating in 1959.
Trained in general surgery, Alan spent more than forty years teaching and performing surgery at Harvard and its affiliated hospitals and practicing at city hospitals in Boston and Cambridge. He retired as a surgeon in 2000 but continued to work, developing orthopedic devices and doing research in tissue engineering. He held nineteen United States patents in regenerative medicine and was the principle investigator in ten National Institutes of Health research grants.
In a 1987 letter to the College, Alan reflected fondly on the influence of Maxwell E. Power, a biology professor who died in 1954 in a car accident in Iraq while teaching as a Fulbright Fellow in Baghdad. Alan was the first recipient of the Maxwell Elliott Power Prize given annually to an outstanding biology student. "Maxwell Power had a great effect on all of his students, myself included, and had a great deal to do with my decision to become a physician," Alan wrote.
Alan had been inspired by research with Power on the ability of salamanders to regenerate tissue. "He set up a private tutorial for me," Alan told an interviewer for the Alumni Bulletin in 2007. "He showed me how to use a microscope, how to make tissue slides, how to use lab equipment and conduct experiments."
That 1950s research stuck with Alan, who, working with colleagues, eventually made significant progress in cellular scaffolding, the regeneration of cells. He founded ACell Inc., now based in Columbia, Maryland, in 1999 and served as president until 2002. He later became vice president and director of technology. ACell is a regenerative-medicine company that develops, manufactures, and markets products for medical and veterinary applications.
Alan's research became personal in 2005 when his brother Lee lost the tip of his finger in an accident with a model-airplane propeller. Alan sent his brother a powder extract of pig bladder used to regenerate tissue, and Lee's finger was restored.
"He was a good man," Lee said of his brother. "Alan was a very good person and very intelligent. He was extremely well-read. He had an opinion on everything. Whether it was true or not, it always sounded good.
"He was a dedicated father and dedicated to his profession--and very dedicated to golf." Alan once nailed two holes-in-one in one stretch of ten days.
Alan appreciated Kenyon, his brother said, and among his last wishes was to seek donations for the Maxwell Elliott Power Prize.
Alan is survived by his wife, Joey; daughters, Bowen and Julianna Spievack; and brothers, Edwin and Lee Spievack. Memorial donations may be sent to the Maxwell Elliott Power Fund, Kenyon College, College Relations Center, 105 Chase Avenue, Gambier, Ohio, 43022-9623.
Frank H. Gingerich '56, on December 31, 2007. The Cleveland, Ohio, resident was seventy-two.
Frank was a physics major. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi, active in sports, and president of the sophomore class and the Kenyon Klan. He was also a member of the Air Force ROTC.
Frank served in the Air Force Reserves as a captain in the Strategic Air Command. He worked in the production-management department at Republic Steel in Cleveland. He went on to a teaching career, working for the Cleveland and North Olmstead, Ohio, city school districts.
Frank married Kay Whittington in 1950.
He is survived by his daughters, Julie George and Molly Getzlaffp; sons, Earl and Hank Gingerich; and seven grandchildren. Memorial contributions can be sent to the Ohio Bird Sanctuary, 3774 Orweiler Road, Mansfield, Ohio, 44903.
David W. Tarbell '56, on January 16, 2008, in Louisville, Kentucky. David was seventy-two.
David was a member of Sigma Pi, the student council, and the swimming team. He was a physics major and graduated magna cum laude. He earned an M.S. degree at Syracuse University in 1961. A member of the Air Force ROTC at Kenyon, David joined the Air Force after he left Syracuse.
David contributed to U.S. manned missions to the moon while a research physicist for the Brown Engineering Co. in Huntsville, Alabama. Brown Engineering, now Teledyne Brown Engineering, was a NASA contractor. David's research centered on conditions on the moon and what astronauts would encounter when they landed, said his son, Richard Tarbell of Delaware, Ohio.
"He was an interesting guy," Richard said. "He was a scientist, and he was quirky. But he was really a jovial fellow. It's my general feeling that the best times of his life were at Kenyon. He had a scholarship. He was carefree."
David is survived by his sons, Richard and Mark Tarbell; daughter, Wendy Voelker; and two grandchildren.
Frederick B. "Jerry" Taylor '61, on December 19, 2007. The Cambridge, Massachusetts, resident was seventy-three and died of bile duct cancer.
Jerry was a political science major and was active in theater productions. He also attended Oberlin College. He later served in the U.S. Army, where he took courses in Russian and served as a translator in West Germany.
Jerry went on to a career as a reporter for the Boston Globe, retiring after thirty-seven years. His obituary in the Globe ran under this headline: "Reporter wrote with social conscience." Jerry started as a night reporter in 1962 and became known as a journalist who brought a deep compassion to his work. He wrote about prison-system failings at the Deer Island House of Correction and other prison issues while working as a social justice reporter. He also covered health, local government, and police beats.
In a brief biography for the newspaper, Jerry wrote, "I have worked as a college textbook salesman, bartender, laborer, camp counselor and, in 1953, as a Peace Corps-style volunteer in Mexico."
A former reporter colleague told the Globe, "Jerry took a lot of pride in his writing, in his craft. He was also very serious about journalism. He thought a lot about it, and he had a lot of ideas." Other reporters described him as "calm and methodical" and a good listener.
In retirement, Jerry taught writing and poetry as a volunteer in local schools, sang in the Concord Chorus as a baritone, and enjoyed playing tennis and traveling to France with his wife, Maryann "Mimi" Taylor. "He talked a lot about the theater at Kenyon," Mimi said. "I gathered he enjoyed it a lot, being part of it." She described her husband as a man of generous spirit. "The students at the three schools where he volunteered adored him," she said.
Jerry is survived by his wife. Contributions in his memory may be sent to the American Cancer Society, P.O. Box 22718, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 73123-1718.
Robert A. Fechner '62, on November 16, 2007, of a stroke. The San Diego resident was sixty-seven.
Robert was a member of the Archon fraternity. A biology major, he went on to the New Jersey College of Medicine, where he earned his medical degree in 1966. He served two years in the U.S. Navy as a medical officer with the Marine Corps before moving to San Diego in 1970. After his residency in obstetrics and gynecology, Robert joined the Rees-Stealy Medical Group, now Sharp Rees-Stealy, in San Diego, from which he retired in March 2007. He helped deliver about a thousand babies during his years with the group.
Robert was a consistent supporter of the College. He enjoyed deep-sea fishing and was a tireless San Diego Padres fan.
Robert is survived by his wife, Antje; daughters, Karyn Diaz, Lara Brown, and Kimberly Fechner; three grandchildren; brother, Dennis Fechner; and sister, Lynn Ben Moshe. Donations may be made in his name to Kenyon, College Relations Center, 105 Chase Avenue, Gambier, Ohio, 43022.
Rodger D. Drabick '63, on December 8, 2007. The resident of Bonneauville, Pennsylvania, was sixty-six.
Rodger was a member of Middle Kenyon Association and played intramural sports. A physics major, he graduated cum laude. He attended graduate school at Ohio University.
He embarked on a career in software engineering and became a certified quality auditor, often lecturing on software testing at industry conferences. He retired from Eastman Kodak in 1996, after thirty-one years, working variously in California, New York, and Maryland, and finishing his career with Kodak as test and evaluation manager and software quality assurance manager in Beltsville, Maryland. Rodger then took a job as director of testing and process modeling for the Information Technology Division of the Information Technology Institute in Rockville, Maryland. He was the author of Best Practices for the Formal Software Testing Process.
Rodger showed his 1969 Jaguar E-Type at classic car shows in the 1980s.
He married Karen Porterfield in 1965, and the couple had two children.
Rodger is survived by his wife; daughters, Alyson Atanasoff and Elizabeth Ann Drabick; three grandchildren; sisters, Karen Wunderlin, Kathy Lanning, and Rose Drabick; and brother, Richard Drabick.
John H. Willett '64, on January 20, 2008, of a heart attack. A resident of Paris, France, he was sixty-six.
John was a French major. He was a member of Psi Upsilon and the Drama Club. He was editor-in-chief of Hika and on the yearbook staff.
Before launching a career as a U.S. diplomat, John taught in Sweden, and in 1965, joined the Peace Corps, working in Turkey. He returned to the United States in 1968 and took a job as an editor at Holt, Rinehart & Winston in New York City. After a stint as a tutor and guide in Africa, John joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1971. His assignments for the State Department took him to, among other stops, Botswana, Tunisia, Morocco, and France.
John also translated the French children's book, L'île du droit á la caresse, by Daniel Mermet. His version, called Lulubird Euchres the Noodleheads, was praised in a Bulletin review as a "comic manifesto for linguistic playfulness."
A former classmate, P.F. Kluge '64, writer in residence, recalled John as a "rascal and good friend." The men met overseas on many occasions. "He was a great traveler, a close and shrewd reader, a talented writer, and a friend whose abrupt death from a heart attack in Paris will give all the people who knew him a moment's pause."
John is survived by his wife, Chantal Goulon, and sons, Nicolas and Justin Willett.
David A. Haserot '67, on December 19, 2007. The resident of Newbury, Ohio, and Oak Island, North Carolina, was sixty-three.
David was a political science major and a member of Delta Tau Delta.
He began his career in sales, including plastics products and real estate. He was the manager of Pebble Ledge Farm in Novelty, Ohio, during the 1980s and was shipping coordinator for Creative Mold & Machine, a machine shop, in Newbury, Ohio, in the 1990s. David was later self-employed. He enjoyed architecture, creative writing, classic motorcycles, and woodworking.
David is survived by his former wife, Linda Phillips; daughters, Eve Semenoro, Cally Kayal, and Christine Kayal; and five grandchildren. Memorial donations may be sent to the City Mission, 5310 Carnegie Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio, 44103, or the Seva Foundation, 1786 Fifth Street, Berkeley, California, 94710.
John W. McKelvey 1967 on January 2, 2007. The resident of Harlingen, Texas, was sixty-two.
John attended Kenyon from 1963-66 and then graduated from the College of Business at the University of Texas in 1969. John had a career as a certified public accountant and received a local newspaper's award for "best of the best" in his field in 2000, 2001, and 2006. His firm initiated an Elder Care Service, a project that was particularly meaningful to him. A strong supporter of local schools, John served as a member and president of the board at St. Alban's Day School in Harlingen from 1987-90. He also served on the board of the Harlingen Performing Arts Theater.
John's classmate, Steve Rudolph, wrote that John thought fondly of Kenyon, was "very well-liked," and later regretted leaving the College during his junior year.
John is survived by his wife, Judy; son, Cameron; daughter, Case McKelvey Pyle; three grandchildren; and brothers, Paul Clore and Michael Clore. Contributions in John's name can be made to Laurie Smith Breast Health Endowment Fund, Valley Baptist Foundation, Post Office Box 2588, Harlingen, Texas, 78551, or to the First United Methodist Church, 321 E. Harrison, Harlingen, Texas, 78550.
John R. Adkins '70, of cancer, on February 3, 2008. The Ashville, Ohio, resident was sixty-four.
John pioneered student membership in the College Township Volunteer Fire Department. He was a member of Alpha Lambda Omega, served as a student advisor, and worked on Perspective magazine, while majoring in psychology. In a 1989 story in the Circleville Herald, in Circleville, Ohio, he said he conducted one of the first successful U.S. experiments in biomedical feedback, "Voluntary Control of Heart Rate during Anxiety and Oxygen Deprivation," which was published in the Psychological Record in 1974. He was in the U.S. Air Force from 1963 to 1967, serving in Europe. John then enrolled in the University of Cincinnati College of Law, graduating in 1973.
John built a successful legal and civic career in his hometown of Circleville. He practiced law, representing corporations and nonprofit organizations. John established the emergency medical services program in Circleville and was dedicated to instructing physicians, nurses, and paramedics in aspects of the law and emergency medicine. He was legal counsel for the village of Ashville. John was elected Circleville law director, also serving as prosecuting attorney, in 1975, holding the office until 1984. John was elected Circleville Municipal Court judge in 1990, serving until his death.
"He was a good friend to law enforcement," Pickaway County Sheriff Dwight Radcliff told the Columbus Dispatch. "He's going to be very, very tough to replace."
John took an activist and creative approach as judge, often joining law enforcement officers on stakeouts as the shotgun-toting "Unit 161." He was tough on drunken drivers, and his Circleville courtroom, in Pickaway County, became known as "Put-away Pickaway." He told officers to call him at any hour if suspects refused breath-testing to detect alcohol; John would then issue a warrant for a blood draw to determine blood-alcohol content. He sometimes took his courtroom to high-school gymnasiums during prom season to drill home the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse.
At various times, he was trustee and president of the Ohio Municipal/ County Judges Association and chair of the Ohio Judicial Conference. He served as a faculty member for the Ohio Judicial College and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
John sometimes brought levity to the courtroom, once handling a quirky case over private ownership of a squirrel that attracted news-media interest. State wildlife officials had charged a local evangelist for failing to obtain a permit to keep the squirrel, which was sometimes dressed in an angel costume. John's decision was delivered in a poem, clearing the woman. He wrote, in part: "The court hereby announces a pearl, it's sometimes OK to have a squirrel."
Thomas Moyer, chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court said, in a statement, "The judiciary has lost a leader. Judge Adkins created a legacy that represents the highest attributes of a judge."
John was a pilot and motorcyclist.
In a 2000 e-mail to the College, John complained about rising costs at the College, but added, "Kenyon holds a special place in my life."
He is survived by his wife, Beth Adkins; daughters, Shannon, Kirsten, and Kendall Adkins; sons, Ryan and Taylor Adkins; a granddaughter; and a brother, Bill Adkins. Donations in his name may be made to the Village Chapel United Methodist Church, 30 Circleville Avenue, Ashville, Ohio, 43103; Pickaway County Hospice, 600 North Pickaway Street, Circleville, Ohio, 43113; and Pickaway County Community Foundation, Post Office Box 3, Circleville, Ohio, 43113.
The Reverend Douglas M. Bernhardt '76, on July 21, 2007. The South Hamilton, Massachusetts, resident was fifty-three.
Douglas graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in English. Douglas's thirty years of work in special education began soon after he left Kenyon. He taught learning-disabled students at the Gow School in South Wales, New York, from 1976-77 and at the Landmark School in Prides Crossing, Massachusetts, from 1978-83.
He continued his education at Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he received a teaching certificate in English and history in 1983. In 1988, Douglas graduated magna cum laude from the Gordon-Conwell Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, with a master of divinity degree. Douglas embarked on his career as a priest at St. Peter's in Salem, Massachusetts, where he served as assistant rector from 1988-90. In 1991, he joined the Parish of Epiphany in Winchester, Massachusetts, where he was assistant rector until 1994. He was responsible for youth programs at the parish. He returned to Landmark School in 1995 and soon after received a master's degree in education in moderate special needs from Simmons College in Boston. Douglas spent most of his priesthood serving as assistant to the rector at Christ Church in Hamilton, Massachusetts, where he supervised Christian education ministries that provided counseling and organized retreats. For the past three years, Douglas worked at Billerica High School in Billerica, Massachusetts.
He was a talented musician and an avid fan of the Boston Red Sox.
Douglas is survived by his wife, Aracelis Covas; children, John, Emma, Charlotte, and Susan Bernhardt and Jessica Clarke; brother, Todd Bernhardt; and sisters Amy Munson and Lisa Bernhardt. Contributions in his memory may be sent to the Douglas M. Bernhardt Memorial Fund, American Brain Tumor Association, 2720 River Road, Des Plaines, Illinois, 60018, or to the Bernhardt Family Support Fund, Salem Five, 2 Bay Road, Hamilton, Massachusetts, 09182.
Karen Stern '77, on October 29, 2007. The White Plains, New York, resident was fifty-three.
Karen graduated cum laude with a degree in philosophy.
She was an accomplished guitar player and environmental activist. Karen worked as a freelance writer. She read several of her humorous essays and poems on KUSP-FM in Santa Cruz, California, and some were published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. In 1996, she joined the Northern California Songwriters Association and was chosen best performer from the Monterey Bay region. Karen often performed at coffeehouses in the Bay Area. She produced an album of her songs titled Virgin Mirth, which received airplay on radio stations in Santa Cruz; Seattle, Washington; and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Karen is survived by her father, Murray Stern, and his wife, Anneke Oranje Stern; sister, Melissa Lourie; and brothers, Matthew and Thomas Stern.
William K. Bunis 1978, on July 12, 2004, of cancer. The Tucson, Arizona, resident was forty-nine.
After leaving Kenyon, William graduated from the University of Cincinnati and went on to earn a master's at the same university. He then earned a doctorate at the University of Arizona, where he was a member of the sociology department. He received the Distinguished Graduate Student Teaching Award from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Arizona, where the name of the award was changed in his honor.
A colleague in the sociology department at Arizona described William as a "legendary teacher." William was also considered an expert in jazz, and he left a collection of jazz recordings to the University of Arizona. He was an avid tennis player.
William is survived by his daughter, Hannah; son, Joshua; parents, Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Bunis; brothers, Henry and Alvin Bunis; and sister, Catherine McDonough. Donations may be sent to the University of Arizona Foundation/The William K. Bunis Jazz Library Collection Fund, care of Samuel Huang, Post Office Box 210055, University of Arizona Library, Tucson, Arizona, 85721.
Robert M. Heyssel Jr. '81, on January 12, 2008, after a brief illness. Robert, of Middletown, Delaware, was forty-eight.
Robert was a history major. He later earned a master's degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C.
In the course of his career in investment banking, he worked as a fund manager for Mercantile Bank in Baltimore, Maryland; vice president and portfolio manager at Amoskeag Bank, Manchester, New Hampshire; vice president and investment officer at Fleet Investment Advisors in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; assistant vice president for Citibank Global Funds in New York City; and vice president and chief investment officer for First National Bank of Long Island, Glen Head, New York. He was also the owner and president of Back Creek Investments LLC in New Castle, Delaware.
Robert is survived by his wife, Patricia Barry-Heyssel, and stepchildren, Melody Brace, Martha Waldron, Barry Monigle, and Joshua Blaisdell.
Anne C. Ludington '82, on December 27, 2007. The St. Louis, Missouri, resident was forty-seven.
Anne was a history and drama major who worked on theater production crews. She took a job at a brokerage firm in St. Louis and later became president of King's Kroner Corp., a family real estate investment firm in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Anne loved to travel and read and spent time restoring her vintage home.
She is survived by her brother, William Ludington. Memorial donations may be sent to the St. Croix Community Foundation for the Martin and Lee Ludington Literacy Fund, Chandler's Wharf, St. Croix, Virgin Islands, 00820, or to the Order of St. John, 150 E. 55th Street, New York, New York, 10022-4514.
Kevin R. Rowley '82, on January 21, 2008. The Englewood, Florida, man was forty-seven.
Kevin was a member of Alpha Delta Phi and the crew team.
He participated in the Musical Theater Review. Kevin went on to graduate from the University of South Florida.
He was a former customer service representative for the Rowley Insurance Agency in Englewood and volunteered as a computer coach at the Englewood Public Library and as a Little League umpire.
Kevin is survived by his parents, Rex and Donna Rowley; sister, Amanda Horan; and brothers, William Rowley and Michael Rowley.
Carasandra Cayten Kyles '91, on February 16, 2008, of colon cancer. The New York City resident was thirty-eight.
Cara was a studio art major. She earned an M.B.A. from Columbia University in 2000. She enjoyed a successful career in financial services, most recently working as a corporate vice president at New York Life Insurance Co. She had also worked for JPMorgan Chase in product development and MMG Partners.
She married John Kyles Jr. on July 13, 2002, and had one daughter. Cara was an artist who found expression in oil and watercolor painting, interior design, and fashion.
Cara is survived by her husband; daughter, Charlotte; parents, Drs. Gene and Marianna Cayten; and brother, Christopher Cayten. Donations in her name may be sent to the Jay Monahan Center at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, Director of Operations, Office of Development, 525 East 68th Street, Box 123, New York, New York, 10021.
Clarke G. Carney, former director of counseling, on February 10, 2008. The Gambier, Ohio, resident was sixty-six.
Clarke was an author and psychologist who battled Alzheimer's disease with dignity and grace for about nine years. He asked that his body be donated to the Ohio State University Medical Center to advance research into the disease.
He was the director of counseling from July 1987 to March 1999. Friends and colleagues described Carney as a man of compassion, skilled as a counselor and supportive of students.
"He handled (the disease) very courageously," said his wife, Vicki Carney. "He was remarkable, patient, and kind. He was caring. He had a presence about him. He was very dignified." Despite the disease, Clarke never failed to recognize his wife and their children, Ian and Kaitlin.
Clarke arrived at Kenyon after fourteen years at The Ohio State University, where he was assistant director and then director of the Counseling and Consultation Service. As the supervisor of a large staff, he felt his administrative duties at Ohio State prevented the direct student contact he enjoyed. Clarke was hired by Dr. Tracy Schermer, director of the Health and Counseling Center. "He was a sweet man," Schermer said. "He was as gentle and as caring as anyone you could hope to meet. He did some wonderful things here." Under Clarke's direction, counseling services at the College received accreditation from the International Association of Counseling Services in 1989, making Kenyon the first Ohio college to earn the distinction.
Clarke had also taught courses in psychology at Ohio State, Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, and Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. He earned an undergraduate degree in psychology at San Francisco State University, a master's in clinical psychology at Bradley University, in Peoria, Illinois, and a doctorate in educational psychology at the University of Utah, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was the author of Exploring Contemporary Male/ Female Roles and Discover the Career within You.
Clarke was succeeded by Patrick Gilligan, director of counseling services, who had known Clarke through professional circles. Gilligan described him as a skilled and respected psychologist.
"The staff here always thought highly of Clarke. It was only with a great sadness that he departed," Gilligan said. "With Clarke, you always had integrity. His skills really helped him in the years he had with Alzheimer's," he said. "He might not know you but he made almost heroic efforts to really engage with you and be kind and friendly."
Robert M. McLeod, professor emeritus of mathematics, on January 22, 2008. The Gambier, Ohio, resident was seventy-eight.
Robert taught a wide range of courses and wrote a highly respected monograph on the generalized Riemann integral. He also worked on a new approach to teaching calculus to first-year students and sophomores. Joining the mathematics faculty in 1966, he later helped prepare Kenyon's computer-science courses. He retired in 1994.
Other members of the mathematics department remember him as a quiet but generous colleague. "He was an austere person but very helpful," said Professor Emeritus of Mathematics Stephen Slack. "He was very meticulous, very precise. As a teacher, he had very high expectations of his students."
Professor of Mathematics Bradley Hartlaub noted that when he arrived at the College as a new professor in 1990 with the goal of building a strong program in statistics, McLeod volunteered to sit in on his introductory statistics course and teach a section himself. "Even though he was a senior person nearing the end of his career, he was willing to pitch in and help out," Hartlaub said.
McLeod received a bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics at Mississippi State University and went on to earn a master's degree and doctorate in mathematics at Rice University. He taught at Duke University, the American University of Beirut (Lebanon), and the University of Tennessee before coming to Kenyon.
At the College, his courses ranged from algebra and trigonometry, to calculus and advanced calculus, to topology, real analysis, introduction to mathematical modeling, introduction to computer science, and systems programming. He also served several terms as chairman of the mathematics department. His work on a "calculus renewal project" entailed a new formulation of the basic concepts of calculus. In a prospectus for his work, he wrote that most efforts to reform calculus courses put the derivative, rather than the differential, at the center. His formulation involved a systematic use of differentials.
His monograph, The Generalized Riemann Integral, is considered an important contribution to the mathematical literature. It was published in 1980 as a Carus Monograph by the Mathematical Association of America.
Robert is survived by his wife, Marguerite; a son, Brian; a daughter, Mary Anne; two grandchildren; a brother; and a sister.
CLARIFICATION:
The obituary for Albert P. "Wick" Wickham '52, published in the Winter 2008 edition of the Alumni Bulletin, failed to mention that he is survived by his wife, the former Miriam Titus, of Marshfield, Massachusetts. Miriam is the daughter of the late Paul Titus, a longtime faculty member and the Edwin Stanton Professor of Economics, and the late Catherine Titus, who was manager of the Kenyon Bookstore.
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