Vital Statistics: Summer 2010

Deaths

Obituaries from the Summer 2010 issue of Bates Magazine. Edited by Christine Terp Madsen ’73.


1932

Ernest Carl Allison, Dec. 8, 2009
Ernie Allison and his late wife, Dot Hanson Allison ’30, appreciated the power of words. After returning to campus for his 50th Reunion, they both wrote letters to President Reynolds urging that a few words to “The Alma Mater” be changed to reflect the College’s long tradition of serving women equally to men. (It took another 20 years before a change was made, so now Bates “daughters and sons exalt” the College’s name.) An award-winning poet, he wrote at his typewriter even after he could no longer see. He taught English at Rhode Island College for 25 years, retiring in 1972 and receiving an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from RIC in 1979. He also held a master’s in English from Boston College. He went into teaching directly from Bates and taught at high schools in New Hampshire and Massachusetts before military service during World War II. His wife passed away in 2008. He is survived by son Robert John Allison and two grandsons.

1935

Milton Lambert Lindholm, Feb. 27, 2010
At the Chapel memorial service for Dean Emeritus of Admissions Milton Lindholm, the homily was delivered by the Rev. Peter Gomes ’65, who explained just what it was that Bates’ longtime admissions dean gave to Gomes and to thousands of other alumni. “He made us feel young again,” Gomes said. “And that was because he knew us as young people. He knew us before we knew ourselves. He invested in our potential and he followed our careers, such as they were, with a keen and passionate interest. And that is a blessing. That is a privilege.” As admissions dean for 44 years, Milt Lindholm achieved a national reputation for his highly selective admissions operation executed with profound humanity and respect for students and parents. In 2004, on the occasion of Lindholm’s honorary degree from Bates, Gomes said that “institutions like Bates are measured, ultimately, by the character of their graduates. And Dean Lindholm was the chief architect of what a Bates student is. He looked for academic promise in the students he recruited, but he sought much more.” Lindholm himself once described those sought-after qualities as “motivation, imagination, initiative, strong personality, and character.” As a Bates student, he was a religion major, played four years of football and basketball, and was president of the YMCA, Athletic Council, Student Council, and his class in his senior year. A football center, he was a member of the Bates team that played Yale to a historic 0–0 tie in 1932 at the Yale Bowl, and he was credited with inventing Mayoralty, the epic mid-20th century student tradition at Bates. He received a master’s in education from Bates in 1939, and was the last alum to hold three Bates degrees (bachelor’s, master’s, and honorary). He and his wife, Jane Ault Lindholm ’37, were married on Sept. 3, 1938, and they returned to Bates in December 1944 when he was appointed director of admissions for men. Early in his admissions career, he was credited with advocating for returning World War II veterans, convincing his colleagues of the veterans’ resolve and purpose as students; he also admitted and supported students who had been interned during the war as Japanese Americans. Milt was an honorary member of the Bates classes of 1951, 1958, 1959, and 1962, and the Class of 1958 dedicated its retrospective 50th Reunion Book to Lindholm with these words: “We offer our stories to you.” In Bates alumni affairs, he served as class president, honorary national chair of Bates’ second capital campaign, and chair of Reunion committees. In 1981, he received the first Alumni Distinguished Service Award. Bates alumni established three endowed funds in honor of the Lindholms: for scholarships and library book purchases, and to honor the senior male and female varsity athletes achieving the highest grade-point averages. In 2009, he was inducted into the Bates Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame. The Bates admissions building on Campus Avenue is named for Lindholm, as is “Milt’s Place,” the snack, sundries, and sandwich shop in the New Commons Building. Milt and Jane lived on Nelke Place near campus for many years before moving to Brunswick in January 2010. In addition to Jane, he is survived by children Martha Lindholm Lentz ’64 and Karl L. Lindholm; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

1936

Alice Miller Lake, Jan. 4, 2010
Polly Miller Lake played field hockey, volleyball, basketball, and speedball at the College, and coached field hockey during her senior year. After teaching English and history for a year, she married Rex H. Lake and turned her attention to homemaking. Her love of sports endured: She played golf until she was 70. She lived in Maine and was an 80-year member of the North Jay Grange, and active in the Wiltona Club, local gardening organizations, and the First Congregational Church in Wilton. Her husband died in 1998. Among her survivors are children Howard Lake, Lorraine Carlton, and Edward Lake; seven grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Henry Porter Perkins, Feb. 25, 2009
After he paid his Bates tuition freshman year, Porter Perkins had exactly $3 left. He was counting on finding a part-time job to live on, but Lewiston was hard-hit by the Depression, and he was forced to leave the College after a year. He managed to piece together enough college work to teach through the 1940s (interrupted by service in the Navy) and then reinvented himself as an engineer at Westinghouse. Over the course of his career in atomic energy, he was awarded several dozen patents. He considered his year at Bates one of the best of his life. Among his survivors are wife Ruth; children Thomas Perkins and Barbara Treadwell; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Iris Provost Samuelson, Nov. 21, 2007
Iris Provost Samuelson was a French major and president of La Petite Academie, as well as an active member of the Outing Club. She taught in Connecticut for five years before joining the experimental engineering department at Sikorsky Aircraft during World War II. In 1962, she married Frank Samuelson; he died in 1990.

1938

Richard Atwood Preston, Feb. 8, 2010
“Good chemist and a great guy,” reads part of Dick Preston’s write-up in The Mirror. Captain of the football team and vice president of Lawrance Chemical Society, he wasn’t too busy to notice classmate Hilda MacInnes, whom he married in 1941. He returned to his hometown of Beverly, Mass., to teach high school science after earning a master’s in education from Boston Univ. His teaching was interrupted by service in the Navy as captain of a PT boat. In 1957, he was named head of the science department and in 1961 he became headmaster of one of the high school’s houses. He retired as assistant principal in 1979. He also held a master’s in chemistry from Simmons. He enjoyed what one daughter called “a perfect day” on campus for his 70th Reunion. His wife died in 2005. Survivors include daughters Sandra Nimblett, Christie Morris, and Cheryl Preston; and four grandchildren.

1939

Maurice Ollie Barney, Feb. 22, 2010
Maurice Barney enjoyed a varied medical career following graduation from Tufts Medical School. He interned at Boston City Hospital and at Central Maine General before entering military service. He was chief of the flight surgeons exam unit at the school of aviation medicine and served in the Air Force Reserves until 1962. As medical director of the Frontier Nursing Service in Kentucky, the first rural nurse-midwife service in the country, his firsthand knowledge of Jeeps was as much in demand as his medical skills. He left Kentucky for Rochester, N.Y., where he completed a residency in ob/gyn and one in pathology, as well as a fellowship in psychiatry. He also was a professor at the Univ. of Rochester School of Medicine, president of the medical staff at Highland Hospital in Rochester, and president of the ob/gyn section of the Rochester Academy of Medicine. He and his wife, Dorothy Davis Barney, had six children, Christine, Bruce ’78, Dee, Gerald, Catherine, and Susan. His wife passed away shortly after he did.

John Wellman White, April 12, 2010
John Wellman White pursued everything he did with unparalleled patience and dedication. He was a noonday regular at Tarbell Pool on campus and claimed third-place national records in Masters Swimming in 2009. While still in his 80s, he ranked first in the nation and second in the world in the 200-meter backstroke. He spent years perfecting new hybrids of Japanese and Siberian iris, and his gardens at his home in Minot were a must-see for enthusiasts. In 2007, his cultivar Dirigo Pink Milestone received the prestigious W.A. Payne Medal from the American Iris Society, the highest award a Japanese iris can win. At the time of his death, he believed he was close to producing the first true yellow Japanese iris, the product of years of experimentation and waiting. (Japanese iris differ significantly from the familiar bearded iris; the yellow iris seen in gardens today are not pure Japanese iris.) But all of this — the swimming, the iris — came in retirement. He spent most of his life living on and running the family farm, Whiteholm Dairy Farm in Auburn, established by his great-great-grandfather in 1794, until he retired in 1977. He then started a second career in real estate, retiring from that in 1995. He ran the farm with his wife, Evelyn Jones White ’38, raised five children there, and used his spare time to research his family’s history. He could trace his roots back to 1635, when William White arrived in Massachusetts. His roots at Bates spread far and wide, too. His family at one time owned Mount David. Family lore says that his mother, Marion Wellman White, Class of 1917, was asked to leave Bates her first year after she was caught ice skating on Lake Andrews (something young ladies did not do), but that didn’t stop John, two sisters, and a brother from matriculating: Sally White Byrkit ’47, Jane White Stoddard ’43, and the late Wallace White ’42. Other Bates relatives include brother-in-law Samuel Stoddard Jr. ’43, the late Claire Greenleaf White ’42, niece Cynthia Byrkit ’74, nephew William Stoddard ’75, and great-nephew Tobin White ’94. Among his survivors are children Janet Schwanda, Jeffrey White, Donald White, John White, and Edward White; 12 grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. His wife passed away in 2001.

1940

William Henry Sutherland, Jan. 2, 2010
“Each of us must choose our own battleground,” Bill Sutherland once told a newspaper. “I chose Africa.” Emerging from prison as a conscientious objector into a society gripped by McCarthyism, he believed the U.S. was going downhill. In 1951, inspired by the passion of African students seeking liberation of their countries from colonialism, Sutherland chose their cause as his. He was prepared for the task: His childhood experiences in an all-white New Jersey suburb were tempered by civil rights activities at his church, leading to a life dedicated to pacifism. He honed his beliefs at Bates through work with the New England Student Christian Movement, and lived his ideals by spending four years in jail. There he met others, such as Bayard Rustin and George Houser, who would become lifelong friends and fellow activists. After taking part in the Peacemaker bicycle project — biking with other activists from Paris to Moscow to speak against war — he met a group of African students in London. In 1953, he was instrumental in forming the American Committee on Africa. Soon afterward, he moved to Gold Coast, soon to become Ghana, the first African country to attain freedom, and attain it peacefully. He served on the organizing team of the All African Peoples Congress and was central to the formation of the Sahara Protest Team, which gathered pacifists from around the world to bodily block nuclear testing in the desert. In 1961, he helped found Peace Brigades International, working with both Lebanon and Israel. Later, while in Tanzania, he helped develop the Pan African Freedom Movement of East and Central Africa. In 1974, he joined the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization committed to nonviolent change, serving as its international representative. For a number of years, the AFSC hosted an annual Bill Sutherland Institute to train lobbyists and advocates. In 1983, Bates awarded him the degree of doctor of laws. On his 90th birthday, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said that “the people of Africa owe Bill Sutherland a big thank you for his tireless support.” He was awarded a special citation from the Gandhi Peace Foundation in India and, in 2009, received the War Resisters League’s Grace Paley Lifetime Achievement Award. His wife, Efua Theodora, a playwright and Pan-African activist, died in 1996. Among his survivors are children Esi Sutherland-Addy, Ralph Sutherland, and Amowi Sutherland Phillips; and many grandchildren, including Theodore K. Sutherland ’11.

1941

Marilyn Miller Pomeroy, Sept. 3, 2009
After 46 years in Detroit, Marilyn Miller Pomeroy was happy to return to her roots in Newport, R.I., where her friendliness prompted friends and admirers to dub her “queen of Goat Island.” The long stay in Detroit (and before that Iowa) was due to the career of her late husband, Donald Pomeroy ’40. She was an active volunteer for several organizations there, and became interested in environmental causes. Despite a complete hip replacement, she enjoyed rafting on the Snake River in Wyoming. Her degree from the College was in French, and she continued her studies first at Wellesley and then at Middlebury. She also taught for several years before marrying Don when he returned from overseas after World War II. He died in 1983. Survivors include son Jonathan and a grandchild.

1942

Jane Seavey Emerson, March 28, 2010
Jane Seavey Emerson came to Bates after graduating from Colby Junior College (now Colby-Sawyer) and left to marry Walter L. Emerson. Both were natives of Lewiston and happily made their home here. She was active in a number of civic and church organizations. She was a past president of the Woman’s Hospital Assn. of Central Maine Medical Center and was a director there for 25 years. She was also a past president of the Lewiston-Auburn Art and Literature Club, the Parish Guild of the High Street Congregational Church, and the Wheelock Club of Portland. She was a member of the Auburn Art Club, the DAR, and the Mayflower Society, and a covenant 50-year member of her church. Her father was John S. Seavey 1915. Her husband died in 2008. Survivors include daughters Mary Emerson and Jane Emerson Linnell; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Eleanor Wood Geary, Oct. 31, 2009
Teddy Wood Geary and her husband, the late Edward J. Geary, were a Bates couple — but not the usual kind. They met in Hathorn Hall during a summer session and married soon after. An English major, she taught for 36 years in schools in Maine, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. She received a master’s in education in 1947 from Boston Univ. and continued her studies at NYU and Columbia. When her husband joined the faculty at Bowdoin, they settled in Harpswell, where she taught for 15 years before retiring in 1981. They always spent his sabbaticals in France. In retirement, she was active in civic organizations and at the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum at Bowdoin. She also continued to sing, as she did at the College. Her husband died in 1997. Her grandfather was William R. Wood, a minister who received an honorary degree from the College in 1919. Her niece is Deborah Wood Burns ’74.

1943

Ida-May Hollis Thomas, Jan. 31, 2010
When Holly and her husband, Ted Thomas ’43, moved to Martha’s Vineyard in 1964, they had ample opportunity to indulge their love of sailing. For several years after retirement, they made a habit of sailing the Inland Waterway to the pleasant winter climate of Florida. They also cruised on small ships in the Caribbean and Europe. Her first career was in administrative services, first as a secretary before World War II, and later in the offices at the high school on Martha’s Vineyard. In the early 1980s, she became a certified home health aide and worked in this field for 20 years. She and her husband also ran a wholesale postcard business on the island. Along with her husband, her survivors include children Carl Thomas, Roger Thomas, and Nancy Monckton; and six grandchildren.

1944

John Llewellyn Scott, Jan. 26, 2010
John Scott received a master’s of divinity from Seabury Western Theological Seminary in 1949 and was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church in 1950. A Navy veteran, he became active in the civil rights movement, marching with Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala. Active in ministry for 59 years, he served parishes in Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Florida. He also was chaplain and professor of religious studies at schools in New York City and chaplain at the Univ. of Maine and the Univ. of Massachusetts. In 1958, he took part in a worldwide program of study for Episcopal clergy in Canterbury, England. His wife, Barbara Grant Scott, and two sons, Nicholas and Martin, predeceased him. Survivors include sons Christopher Scott and John L. Scott III; and four grandchildren, one of whom is Andrew J. Scott ’05. Other family members include Charlotte Grant Walker ’47 and Heather Ouimet McCarthy ’77.

1948

Jean Cheney Duesler, Dec. 26, 2009
Jean Cheney Duesler, a five-year student in the nursing program, enjoyed dual careers. The first was in nursing, first as a nurse at the New York Visiting Nurse Service and then as an instructor. She taught at schools of nursing in Madison, Wis., for 25 years and helped develop the associate degree nursing program at the Madison Area Technical College. Her second career was as a writer: poems, short stories, a novel, and plays. Her 2008 collection of short stories, The Other Side (published under her nom de plume Cheney Duesler), received very positive reviews from several sources. She wrote and rewrote her novel, Letters to Uncle Bernie, eight times. She also published a number of articles on nursing topics. An avid cyclist and white-water canoeist, she recalled for her 50th Reunion how difficult it was for her and her husband to give up white water and sell their canoes. “When they hauled away those canoes we couldn’t watch. We still paddle quiet water.” In retirement, she enjoyed playing the part of an undiagnosed patient for medical students at the Univ. of Wisconsin. Her husband, Paul Duesler, died in 1999. Among her survivors are children Paul Duesler and Kari Lonchar; and five grandchildren.

1950

Allen Culpepper Bullock Jr., Nov. 21, 2009
Al Bullock postponed college to serve in the U.S. Army in both Europe and the Pacific during World War II. A native of Auburn, he returned home to matriculate at Bates and major in chemistry. In 1954, he received his medical degree from the Univ. of Maryland. While working as a resident in Houston, he met Alicia Ramirez; they married in 1959. He practiced internal medicine in Houston before joining the staff of the Corpus Christi State School, retiring as chief of medicine in 2002. An opera buff, he and his wife attended all performances of the Houston Grand Opera — except one — for 17 years. She survives him, as do children Allen C. Bullock III, Delia Bullock, and Wilfred Bullock. Other survivors include two grandchildren.

Elaine Thomsen Eigelsbach, June 20, 2005
Elaine Thomsen Eigelsbach left Bates in 1948; her late sister was Winifred Thomsen Lowry ’46.

1951

Caroline Buschmann Barnes, Jan. 14, 2010
“You sound just like Brooks Quimby!” That was the enthusiastic reaction of a debate coach when Caroline Buschmann Barnes critiqued a high school debate tournament. She considered that moment the highlight of her 13 years as a debate coach at Shrewsbury (Mass.) High School. She grew up on the Bates campus, where her father, the legendary August Buschmann, was professor of German for over 40 years, but completed only two years as a student before marrying Bowdoin Barnes, a graduate of that college of the same name down river. It wasn’t until he became seriously ill a decade later that she returned to college, Clark Univ., to complete her bachelor’s and master’s so that she could find work as a teacher. She taught junior high at Sutton Memorial School and Shrewsbury Junior High School, both in Massachusetts, before returning to Maine to teach at Mount View Junior High in Thorndike for four years. She retired from teaching and became a certified nursing assistant, working in this field for nine years. In retirement, she was a proud member of the Knox Golden Girls, a decidedly local organization. Her family’s connections to the College are many. Her sister is Marion Buschmann True ’55, and her brother is Friedrich “Fritz” Buschmann ’71; their spouses are Robert True Jr. ’55 and Margaret Kendall Buschmann ’72, respectively. Her daughter is Dorothy Barnes ’72, and a niece and nephew are Stephanie True Peters ’87 and Robert True III ’91, who is married to Nancy Collins True ’91. Her first husband and her second husband, Norman Linson, predeceased her. Other survivors include daughter Catharine Busch; four grandchildren; and siblings Elizabeth Smith, Edmund Buschmann, Wally Buschmann, and John Buschmann.

Jean Macomber Deverill, Jan. 27, 2010
Kim Macomber Deverill refused to join the 21st century. “I have no cell phone and have never used an ATM,” she wrote in 2001. “Even if I’m living in the last century, it’s a great life.” She wrote that sentiment after her 30 years as an Army wife, traveling with husband Art to his posts in Germany, Japan, and the U.S. and in retirement to other parts of the world. Along the way, she managed to find jobs doing whatever she happened to be qualified for: working with disabled children, substitute teaching, managing an office for psychotherapists. She also did a lot of volunteer work, including running a NATO wives club — impossible to schedule anything that wasn’t too early for the French or too late for the Germans. A biology major at the College, she managed to work at the zoo in El Paso for a year, but nearly every day used what she learned in Cultch. Her husband survives her. Other survivors include children Dirk Deverill, Shane Deverill, Courtenay Pekkala, and Dorian Gorevin; and seven grandchildren.

1953

William Joseph Goodreau, Nov. 17, 2006
Bill Goodreau was careful with words: As a poet, he made each one count. His work was published in literary journals and in the 1980 Anthology of American Verse and Yearbook of American Poetry and the 1970 New York Times Book of Verse. He published two volumes of his work, The Many Islands (1961) and In My Father’s House (1964). After completing an M.F.A. at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the Univ. of Iowa, he taught at the College of St. Teresa in Minnesota. He chaired the English department there and was adviser to the literary quarterly (he was the editor of The Garnet at Bates). In 1979, he started three years as a Fulbright lecturer at the National Univ. of Zaire. After retiring from teaching, he made his home in Antibes, France. He enjoyed donating works of art from his collection to the Bates Museum of Art.

1954

William Armstrong Young, April 14, 2010
William Young attended Bates for a year before joining the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. He completed his education at the Univ. of Maine–Orono with both a bachelor’s and a master’s in education. After teaching at Lisbon High School for 12 years, he became its assistant principal for another 12. Survivors include wife Claire Fortin Young and many nieces and nephews. His father was Carl Richard Young ’21.

1955

James Douglas Fay, March 21, 2010
Doug Fay was a stalwart of both indoor and outdoor track during his four years at Bates. With a degree in economics, he entered the business world after three years in the U.S. Army. Initially an assistant manager for a Goodyear store in Connecticut, he managed Goodyear stores in Pennsylvania. For 35 years, he ran his own tire company in Exton, Pa., and was still active in the business at the time of his death. A native of Massachusetts, he never wavered in his support of the Red Sox. Survivors include wife Carol Johnson Fay; children Brian Fay, Nancy McCracken, Peter Fay, and Debra Fay; and eight grandchildren.

Marilyn Kelley Ibbitson, Jan. 17, 2010
Marilyn Kelley Ibbitson (known as Kelley at Bates) remained lifelong friends with her college roommate, Lois Stuber Spitzer (Stubie at Bates). They traveled together, bird-watched together, and ran an alumnae group together in upstate New York. Her degree was in nursing, and she worked as a registered nurse until retirement. She was a past recipient of the Woman of the Year award from the Baldwinsville (N.Y.) Chamber of Commerce, and a 50-year member of Grace Episcopal Church there. She was active in many community organizations, acted in the Baldwinsville Theater Guild, and played handbells. In addition to birding, she enjoyed traveling and in 2005 found a way to combine elements of both: geocaching, where participants use Global Positioning System receivers to search for hidden items. “It shows that new things that excite you can be just around the next bend in your life if you let it,” she wrote for her 50th Reunion. Survivors include children David Ibbitson, Susan Ibbitson, and Alan Ibbitson; four grandchildren; one great-grandchild; and several Bates alumni in-laws. Her husband, Loring “Ibby” Ibbitson, and a daughter, Janet Ritz, predeceased her.

Gail Olsen Pulsifer, Jan. 12, 2010
Gail Olsen Pulsifer left Bates to complete a nursing degree at New England Baptist Hospital. Her husband’s assignments in the U.S. Army took them to a number of posts, where she taught mother and baby care classes. When he retired, they settled in Woodbridge, Va., where she worked at Potomac Hospital and for doctors in private practice. Survivors include husband Donald W. Pulsifer; children Juliana Ackerman, Andrew Pulsifer, Douglas Pulsifer, and Heidi Maclin; and 10 grandchildren.

1956

William Manning Moriarty, Dec. 21, 2009
Bill Moriarty left Bates to serve in the U.S. Army and returned to graduate with the Class of 1956. A history major, he joined Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. and worked there for 35 years, mentoring new employees as he moved from the home office in Springfield, Mass., to New York, Oklahoma, and Dallas. He and his family lived in Walnut Creek, Calif., for 38 years. At the College, he played basketball and baseball and was active in the History Club. Survivors include wife Sandra; children Brian Moriarty and Julia Moriarty; and two grandchildren.

Lucinda Thomas Wright, Sept. 29, 2009
Lucy Thomas Wright’s fluency in Spanish allowed her to travel extensively in South America, and she was especially fond of Costa Rica. She built on her bachelor’s in Spanish from Bates with a master’s in Spanish from Middlebury, a master’s in Italian from Indiana Univ., and a doctorate from the Univ. of North Carolina. She taught at high schools in Florida and in Spain before she joined the Peace Corps, teaching English in Bogota, Colombia. She served as the assistant director of federally funded educational institutes through the late 1960s, then joined the faculty at East Carolina Univ. as an instructor in Spanish. She also advised foreign and nontraditional students. In 1980, she became the assistant to the chancellor for student life; five years later she was appointed assistant dean of students. Her husband, James Richard Wright, died a few months before she did. Her parents were Melvin ’29 and Phyllis Piper Wright ’29.

1957

Irene Yantz Dunbar, March 15, 2010
Irene Yantz Dunbar taught high school English and history in East Hartford and Bristol, Conn., the high school from which she graduated. In the latter part of her career, she was a private tutor and vocational counselor. She was deeply involved in politics at local, state, and federal levels, working in a number of campaigns. Her marriage to Bruce Dunbar ended in divorce. Survivors include daughters Jennifer Beausoleil and Heather Adamczyk; and two grandchildren.

1958

Beverly Toppan Langager, Nov. 1, 2009
Born in Maine and raised in New Hampshire, Beverly Toppan Langager spent her adult life in Winterhaven, Calif., where she taught high school for 34 years. She and her husband, Vern, moved to Yuma, Ariz., after her retirement. He predeceased her, as did her first husband, Richard Gardner. She is survived by children Michael Gardner, Stephen Combs, and Kathy Jensen; six grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

1959

Clifford Albert Baxter, Jan. 1, 2010
Bud Baxter left Bates with a degree in biology and headed for Andover Newton Theological School, where he received a master’s in divinity and soon became the minister at two churches in the White Mountains. In 1967, he joined the Navy and served as a chaplain for the next 20 years, including service in Vietnam. Among other accomplishments, he developed and ran the Navy’s first drug-awareness workshop. Midway through, he earned another master’s, this one in human resources management from Pepperdine. After leaving the Navy, he completed a Ph.D. in psychology at Clayton Univ. in 1989. He worked for several years at the Aroostook Medical Center as director of pastoral care before moving across country to become the pastor at the Congregational Church in Mojave, Calif., a position he held at the time of his death. He served as class secretary for eight years. Among his survivors are wife Rita; children Caryn, Candi, and Clifford IV; and four grandchildren.

Benjamin Trafton Getchell, March 25, 2010
The ending of Ben Getchell’s life describes one of his passions for life, as he died of natural causes while hiking Mount Major in New Hampshire. He had retired to New Hampshire in 2002 after a long teaching career, primarily in West Hartford, Conn., where he also coached cross-country and track. In addition to his geology degree from Bates, he held a master’s in liberal studies from Wesleyan. Active in the Outing Club at the College, he had been eagerly anticipating its 90th anniversary celebration at Reunion 2010. Besides hiking, another passion was woodworking — his skills ranged from carpentry to fine carving. He was active with the Oyster River Watershed Assn. and served as the membership director of the Active Retirement Assn. His son is Peter Getchell ’91. His wife, Judith Knight, also survives him, as does a grandchild. Another son, Brooks Getchell, died as a teenager.

Barbara Elizabeth Johnson, Jan. 12, 2010
Barb Johnson enjoyed an eclectic career. Over the course of 50 years, she moved from biological research to cloisonné jewelry design and production. After graduating with a degree in biology, she worked for Pfizer for a few years before joining United Fruit Co. She furthered her studies at Connecticut College and then at Harvard, from which she received a degree in biochemistry. This led to a position with the Univ. of Hawaii in its genetics department as a researcher in molecular biology. There, her interests started to diversify. She started work toward a master’s in architecture and also opened a business as a scientific illustrator. Soon she branched out into graphic design (classmates might remember the T-shirts she designed for their 25th Reunion). She became a real estate broker before she left the university in 1985. Before she left Hawaii for Massachusetts, she started to work in cloisonné and continued to design and create until her death. She served as president of the Bates Club in Hawaii for many years.

David Lingane Smith, March 20, 2010
Thanks to the Cuban Missile Crisis, Dave Smith liked to joke, he became a lieutenant in the Navy before John McCain did, much to the senator’s dismay. His five years in the Navy immediately followed graduation from the College with a degree in history. He played baseball and basketball for four years and was class president for three. But the best thing about Bates, he said, was meeting Joan Cartier Perry ’59; they married in 1960. He continued as class president until 1963, and was vice president of the Rhode Island Bates Club in the 1970s. After the Navy, he began his career in the insurance business, first with Connecticut Mutual Life in 1964 and then with Providence Washington Insurance Co. in 1968, both in Rhode Island. By 1975, he was executive vice president and senior operating officer at Providence. He went on to become vice president at the Life Insurance Co. of Connecticut and eventually had his own agency specializing in working with Medicare-related issues. He was especially active in his community. He coached basketball teams, was director of the Rhode Island Fresh Air Fund, served on the boards of YMCAs, and raised money for Paul Newman’s Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. He also founded I Love Seniors, an organization of business professionals that helps people with age-related issues. Along with his wife, survivors include children David L. Smith Jr., Kerry L. Smith, and Peter C. Smith; and five grandchildren. His cousin is William Dillon ’86, whose father is William Dillon ’58.

1960

Richard Henry Larson, Nov. 22, 2009
Dick Larson thanked his broad education for allowing him to pursue a number of interesting work opportunities. Not only did he teach high school English, history, and civics for many years, he also worked as a carpenter in his home renovation business and was a stakeholder in his brother’s hog farm. His education was based on his bachelor’s in religion and philosophy and augmented with a master’s and doctorate from American Univ. He also did post-doctoral work at the Univ. of Virginia, Virginia Tech, and George Mason Univ. Immediately after Bates, he became a U.S. Navy Seal, and was part of its underwater demolition team. He served for 32 years in the Navy, on active and reserve duty. He was reactivated during Desert Storm and served as assistant for counterinsurgency at the Pentagon. During his 26 years of teaching, he taught in Alexandria and Fairfax County, Va., and coached two varsity sports. He was deeply involved with St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Reston, Va., helping to rebuild the sanctuary and refurbish the pipe organ. His wife, Tuula Tamminen Larson, died in 1991. Survivors include son Lars Larson and two grandchildren.

1963

Bonnie Logie Bieder, Jan. 21, 2010
In 1983, after 14 years as a social worker investigating cases of abused children, Bonnie Logie Bieder decided she needed to try something new. She opened an art gallery in Pound Ridge, N.Y. — and went broke within a month. The artwork didn’t sell, but the decorative furniture scattered throughout the gallery did. She and friends regrouped and turned the business into one that provided custom painting of walls, ceilings, and floors, plus faux finishes, murals, upholstery, and hand-painted furniture. The new venture was so successful that she was able to add an art gallery on the second floor, one that continues to thrive. She handled the management of the business while four artists did the creative work. At the College, she had been active in the Art Association, and she decided to study landscape art with David Dunlop, the award-winning artist of Landscapes Through Time on PBS. She also traveled to France to practice plein air painting in some of the same sites visited by Renoir and Monet. She became involved with the Silvermine Guild Arts Center through her studies, serving as its vice president and as chair of its annual fundraiser. Her first marriage to Richard Carlson ’62 ended in divorce. Survivors include her second husband, Richard Bieder; children Erik Bieder and Julie Alleyne; and five grandchildren.

1964

Ralph Bartholomew III, Oct. 20, 2009
Ralph Bartholomew found his vocation early: finance. An economics major, he was treasurer of his class for a year and active in the Economics Club. He also was a member of the staff of The Bates Student. In 1966, he received an M.B.A. from Cornell, and joined Merrill Lynch Fenner Pierce & Smith as a trainee. Seven months later, he became an account executive. He remained with the firm until he retired in 1994, holding management positions in Cleveland, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Palm Beach, Fla. After retirement, he bought a second home in Stowe, Vt., near his brother, and, not coincidentally, in the middle of ski country — he was passionate about skiing. His brother died two weeks before he did. Survivors include a nephew.

1966

Dwight Homer Edwards, Feb. 13, 2010
Dwight Edwards spent summers in Maine as a child and left the state reluctantly when his career path took him to Florida. He had worked for 17 years at Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Maine as the vice president of sales and marketing, then briefly for E.A. Buschmann Co. — owned by the youngest son of Professor Buschmann. In Florida, he returned to BC/BS for 10 years and then worked as safety director for Ranger Construction for three years before retiring. His first marriage to Leola Morse ended amicably. His second wife, Tricia, is among his survivors, along with children Wendy Edwards and Brian Edwards and stepchildren Kelly Hopkins and Jamie Schneider; a grandchild and two stepgrandchildren; and his mother, Elizabeth Edwards.

1984

Cynthia Dolores Ryan, Jan. 13, 2010
Cindee Ryan liked to keep busy. During her last year of law school at Pace Univ., she clerked for a local law firm, taught English and Spanish, served as editor-in-chief of the Pace Journal of International and Comparative Law, and was president of the International Law Society — while carrying a full course load. She spent her Bates junior year abroad in Madrid and returned to Spain after passing the bar exam. She worked in international investments there, then opened her own law firm in New York, continuing her focus on international law and immigration issues. In addition to her Bates degree in history, she also held a diploma in advanced international business studies from the McGeorge School of Law in Salzburg, Austria. In 1997, she became a partner at the New York office of Siskind Susser, one of the country’s largest immigration law firms. She was a founding member of the New York Lawyers’ Network. Survivors include her life partner, Gail Johnston ’84; daughter Miren Dolores; and parents Donald and Dolores Ryan. A daughter, Andrea Dolores, predeceased her.

2004

Christopher Hartley Ganem, Nov. 24, 2009
Chris Ganem was an aspiring writer with a book in progress at the time of his death. A psychology major, he played soccer and lacrosse and enjoyed skiing. In 2003, he received the Stanton Environmental Award from the College. He had moved to North Carolina shortly before his death (to avoid Maine winters, he said) and there he spent the summer restoring a 22-foot sailboat he used to explore his new surroundings. His brother is Geoffrey Ganem ’00. Other survivors include parents John and Barbara Ganem.

Emeriti

Robert W. Hatch, Feb. 14, 2010
Of all that Bob Hatch gave to the Bates community, one of his greatest legacies is his early involvement in Title IX, the federal mandate that educational opportunities for students be equal for men and women, a law that famously came to bear on college sports. Finally women could play in Alumni Gymnasium, free from the undersized basketball court in Rand and the absurdly low, sloping ceilings of the Women’s Gymnasium. Even without Title IX, Hatch was eager to end unfair opportunities for women athletes. “Our intention is to work for the benefit of Bates students,” he said in 1977. “Their sex is irrelevant.” He eschewed pro football to come to Bates in 1949 after a standout career at Melrose (Mass.) High School and Boston Univ., from which he graduated in 1949 following three years as a Marine paratrooper during World War II. (He also held a master’s from BU.) He started as the freshman football coach, became varsity coach in 1952, and was named assistant athletic director in 1959. He became the College’s athletic director in 1973, retiring in 1991. His football teams won three CBB championships and, in 1956, the State of Maine title. In 1961, his team again “defeated” UMaine, 15-15, using a then-unusual spread formation. This was just one of the innovations he brought to athletics. While varsity baseball coach (1951-53), he developed a sophisticated analysis of a baseball player’s true value as a batter, aspects of which are used today, such as a batter’s on-base percentage (an extension of the simple batting average). He also was an early advocate of the NCAA adding a Division III, in which students’ academic experiences are at least as significant as their athletic experiences. He also was a visionary beyond athletics: In remembering Coach Hatch, Dick Hoyt ’61 wrote in an online tribute that he recalled him standing silently on the steps of Coram holding a peace sign while others (including Hoyt) stood nearby with signs advocating U.S. involvement in Vietnam. He was surprised, he said, to find that Coach Hatch was a member of four sports halls of fame: at his high school, at his college, in Lewiston-Auburn, and in the state of Maine. He kept his trophies and other awards in a back hallway in his house, where only family members saw them. Two of his children attended the College: Lynda Hatch Letteney ’73 and Karen Hatch Long ’81. They survive him, as does son Michael Hatch and three grandchildren. His wife, Lorraine Karston Hatch, died in March 2009.

Friends

Ursula P. Pettengill, Feb. 14, 2010
Ursula Prater Pettengill, an alumna of Indiana State Univ., came to know and love Bates through her husband, Frederick “Pat” Pettengill ’31. Following his death in 1986, she fulfilled his wish to enhance academics at the College through a gift that helped to make Pettengill Hall, home to the social sciences and related programs, a reality. She also endowed a scholarship in his name to benefit students from Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Ursula Pettengill was the manager of food services at Syracuse Univ., where she met her husband, a member of the faculty. She worked with several presidents of the university to build dormitories that included food service facilities and was, according to some, “a legend at Syracuse.” She was also deeply involved with Girl Scouts and worked with them well into her 80s. Her husband was an enthusiastic recruiter for Bates, and often came to campus to watch “his boys,” as he called them, play in sporting events. In 2003, following a hospital stay, she wrote to the College that she was feeling fine “but can’t run yet.” She was 91 at the time. Survivors include several nephews.

Leonard N. Plavin, April 15, 2010
To decades of Bates students, Leonard Plavin was as important a figure in their college lives as any of their professors. The husband of Marcy Plavin, founder of the Bates College Modern Dance Company and lecturer emerita of dance, Leonard was ever-present at company rehearsals and performances. He was a devoted chronicler of Bates dance, his artistry evident in the more than 10,000 photographs he shot over the years. The Plavins’ Mountain Avenue home became an extension of the campus, as Leonard conducted many an unofficial seminar in politics and world events at their dining room table, where he also served as adviser and confidante, dispensing wise advice on life, love, money, and career. Leonard’s profound influence on generations of Bates students was evident in the scores who turned out for his funeral service, where he was poignantly memorialized. Speakers included dance alums Geri FitzGerald ’75, Dervilla McCann ’77, and Michael Foley ’89. A native of Lewiston and a 1948 graduate of the University of Maine-Orono, he joined the business founded by his father, New England Furniture Company, Maine’s largest home furnisher. With his brother Manny, he extended the business into contract furniture, and Leonard’s design sense is evident in many of the academic and residential buildings at Bates. Leonard served as president of the Lewiston-Auburn Jewish Federation, and as a board member of the Lewiston Arts Commission, LA Arts, and Holocaust Human Rights of Maine. He also served on the Dance Panel for the National Endowment for the Arts and as president of Beth Jacob Synagogue and Martindale Country Club. He is survived by his wife and brother; his sister Shirley; children David ’77, Lynda Fitzgerald, and Stephen; and five grandsons. Gifts in memory of Leonard may be made to the Sakolsky-Plavin and Friends of Bates Dance Endowment Fund, c/o Office of College Advancement, Bates College, 2 Andrews Road, Lewiston, Maine 04240.

John Dillon Shortridge, Feb. 21, 2009
Just as the confluence of river and ocean helps to define the ecology of the Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area, the recent history of the area is defined by a happy confluence of human events. And many of them involved John Dillon Shortridge, who, with his wife, Linda, made a generous and unexpected gift to Bates in 1995 that not only preserved nearby land but made possible the College’s dream of an environmental research station. The Shortridges owned 80 acres about a mile from Bates–Morse Mountain, where it was impossible for Bates to build an overnight facility for student and faculty researchers. The couple dreaded selling their environmentally sensitive home and surrounding land to a developer who would have divided it into house lots. The Shortridges were friends with the St. John family, who had made possible Bates–Morse Mountain, so they approached Bates about giving their home and land to the College. After donating their house and land to the College — an anonymous alum donor made renovations to the house possible, part of the happy confluence — the Shortridges moved to New Mexico. He died there after a fall on rocks. Until 1961, he had been curator of musical instruments at the Smithsonian, but he left to become a harpsichord maker. He started his musical career playing calliope at county fairs, but became interested in historical instruments while practicing on a restored clavichord at Indiana Univ. He initiated the instrument restoration program at the Smithsonian. In 1962, he and Linda were married. He restored a number of significant organs, built reproduction instruments, and was friends with members of the Bates music faculty, which is how the College came to own one of his wooden baroque flutes. His wife makes violas da gamba.