Deaths
(A listing of deaths of which word has been received within the past month. Full notices may appear in this issue or a later one.)
Cowles, Russell '09, February 22 Sidley, Walter A. '09, December 23, 1978 Brewster, John D. '12, February 15 Akerstrom, Sidney M. '13, January 13 Meleney, Clarence C. '13, February 21 Burleigh, John R. '14, March 12 Rosen, Leo J. '16, October 4, 1978 Frost, Carlton P. III '18, January 17 Mudgett, William A. '18, April 4 Jackson, Robert A. '19, March Jeavons, William N. '19, March 16 Ruggles, Daniel B. Jr., '21, March 20 Pratt, Edward S. '23, August 12, 1978 Carlaw, Chester B. '24, February 12 Gorton, William D. '24, March 16 Treadway, A. Russell '24, February 12 Garrod, John E. '25, March 25 Linke, E. Gordon '26, February 14 Mac Donald, Roland B. '26, March 11 Keenan, Avery N. '27, January 15 Countryman, Wallace E. '28, December 6, 1978 McCathie, David M. '28, March 4 Treanor, William C. '28, March 5 Wright, Stewart C. '28, April 1978 Morgan, J. William '29, March 2 Fitch, Nelson M. '30, January 10 Smith, J. Donald '30, December 29, 1978 Whitcher, Wendell J. '31, March 4 Apthorp, Sterling T. '32, February 12 Faulkner, Charles '34, February 18 Gordon, John J. '34, September 1978 Meston, John L. '37, March 24 Olson, Bruce F. '38, March 14 Sterns, C. Frederick '38, April 10 Bowie, John M. '39, December 19, 1978 Cheney, G. Gordan '39, February 26 L'Engle, Francis P. Jr. '40, February 7 Coombs, Peter A. '41, January 23 Barlow, George H. '43, March 4 Whitlock, Charles B. '51, February 8 Lazarus, Richard K. '67, March 8
1909
RUSSELL COWLES died at his home on East 70th Street in New York, N.Y., on February 22, after a long illness.
Russ was born in 1887 at Algona, lowa, and entered Dartmouth after attending Algona High School and Cornell College, lowa. He graduated cum laude.
He was a member of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity.
He studied art in Paris and New York at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students' League. In 1915 he won the Prix de Rome painting fellowship at the American Academy in Rome, an award for which young American painters competed. During World War I he was a Naval Intelligence attache in Rome. After that he studied in Paris.
Returning to New York City in the mid-thirties, he had his first one-man show there at the Kraushaar Gallery. He had nine shows at the gallery, the last in 1973.
He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Dartmouth and Doctor of Fine Arts from Grinnell College.
His work is in many permanent collections and public buildings.
He is survived by his wife Nancy (Cardoza), whom he married in 1954, and by two stepsons.
WALTER AUGUSTINE SIDLEY, one of the oldest graduates of the College, died December 23, 1978, at the hospital in Lawrence, Mass., following a short illness. "Dick" was born in 1885 in Lawrence, Mass., and came to Dartmouth from the high school in that city. He was a member of the Class baseball team and in 1908 earned a second "D" on the varsity football squad. He was a member of the Class debating team.
He entered the teaching profession at the secondary level and retired in 1961 as head of the Social Studies Department of the Lawrence High School after 50 years of service in the one school. He also coached football, baseball, and track from-1911 to 1920.
He was a member of the New England Football Officials Association from 1921-36 and officiated at the college level in the Northeast.
He received a Master of Education degree from Calvin Coolidge College of Suffolk University.
He was secretary of the Dartmouth Club of the Merrimac Valley in 1932. For five years he was president of the state branch of the American Federation of Teachers AFL-CIO. He organized the Lawrence Teachers Union and served as president from 1932-42.
Dick is survived by two daughters, a son, 12 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.
1912
JOHN D. BREWSTER died February 15 in the skilled nursing care department of Heritage House in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., where he had been a patient since November of 1978.
John was born in 1891 in Windsor, Vt., and was a member of the Vermont Society of Mayflower ascendants. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1912 from the Thayer School of Engineering in 1914. He served in World War I as a captain in the 304th Engineer Regiment of the 79th Infantry and earned four battlestars in 1918. In that war, he was awarded the Silver Star, the Military Merit Medal, and the Verdun Medal.
After the war, John became an executive with the Wilkes-Barre Lace Company. During World War II, he served as a colonel in the Corps of Engineers and was post engineer at Camp Pickett, Va. He was awarded the Medal of Merit and retired from active duty in January of 1946. Following that time, he was associated with Howell and Jones in the real estate and insurance business in Wilkes-Barre.
He was a member of the Westmoreland Club; Dallas Post 672 of the American Legion; the Society of Real Estate Appraisers; Trinity Lodge AF & AM in Clinton, Mass.; Keystone Consistory; and Irem Temple, where he had been a member for 50 years.
He is survived by two sons, John and Edward, and by five grandchildren. His wife Ethelin (Conger) died in 1964.
1913
SIDNEY MALCOLM AKERSTROM of South Portland, Me., died on January 13 after a long illness. He was born in 1889 in Admiral Rock, N.S.
He prepared for Dartmouth at the Boston English High School, and on graduation he enrolled at the Harvard School of Dentistry. He received his D.D.S. on schedule, and in 1917 he enlisted in the Navy Medical Corps as a lieutenant. He was assigned to the U.S.S. Santiago, which was torpedoed in July of 1918. The crew was ordered to abandon ship, and three and a half hours later he was picked up by a freighter bound for Boston.
He served throughout the war, and Armistice Day found him in London, where he was one of five invited to Buckingham Palace.
On his return to America, he married Lilian Hecht, and they decided he would remain in the Navy as a career officer. In 1939 he retired as a lieutenant commander. He and his wife made their home in Littleton, where they lived until her death in 1977. His last days were spent in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Rudolph Gagnon of Portland, where he died.
He was a member of the American Legion, the Masons, the Dartmouth Alumni Association, and the Harvard Dental Association.
CLARENCE COIT MELENEY, four times Rollins Contest winner, business manager of the Aegis, class treasurer, commencement orator, and bequest chairman 1972-76, died on February 21 after a long illness. He was born in 1892.
He prepared for Dartmouth at the Erasmus Hall School and took from the College an A.B. degree in 1913. It was only natural that Clarence should go to Dartmouth, as had two brothers before him - Henry F. '09 and Frank L. '10. A younger brother, George '23, was also Dartmouth, and others of the family at the College were cousin Herbert C. '24 and a nephew Peter L. '59. He returned to Tuck School in the fall of 1913 and took an M.C.S. Then he enrolled in Columbia Law School, from which he took an LL.B. in 1917. By that time World War 1 was in full swing, so he enlisted. A year later, First Lieutenant Meleney was sent to France.
Before going overseas he married Mary Frazier, a graduate of Mt. Holyoke. They had two sons, John Coit and Douglas.
He began the practice of law in 1919 with the firm of Stockton & Stockton and then joined Ellerman & Smith. He later became a member of Booth & Meleney, where he remained until his retirement.
Clarence lived what he preached, and what he preached he outlined in his class day oration in 1913: "It seems to me that when we speak of the spirit which Dartmouth tries to instill in each one of us, we are thinking of a broader, nobler thing than democracy. We are here to do more than to learn to be citizens of a democratic government. We are here to learn to be brothers in a world-wide family and to deal equally with one another."
1918
On April 4, WILLIAM ARMSTRONG MUDGETT died at Redwood Villa, Mountain View, Calif., to which he had retired.
Born in 1895 in Everett, Mass., he spent many of his early years in Center Harbor, N.H. which he came to regard as home. He attended Boston Latin School and Stone School and was admitted to Dartmouth in 1914. He was a Sigma Chi, member of the Musical Club, Footlights, and from its inception a member of the Class's executive committee.
In 1917 he enlisted in the army, receiving his B.A. degree in absentia. In 1919 he went to Palo Alto, Calif., and in 1920 married Katherine Sheldon, a Delta Gamma in Stanford's Class of 1917.
He was employed by the Pacific Telephone Company for ten years before establishing his own insurance brokerage firm, which he operated until his retirement in 1966.
For 25 years he was active in Girl Scout work and served the same length of time as secretary-treasurer of the Palo Alto Insurance Association. He was a member of the University Club and Masonic Lodge and served a term as trustee of his church.
His wife died in 1976, and his survivors are two daughters and six grandchildren.
On behalf of the Class, sympathy has been expressed by the secretary to the family.
1919
The Class and the College lost one of their most loyal supporters when ROBERT ARNOLD JACKSON passed away in March in Jacksonville, Fla., after a brief illness. He had been a class officer and regularly attended all our reunions.
Born in Chicago, he entered college in the fall of 1915 and was on the freshman and varsity football squads. At the outbreak of the war, he enlisted with the field hospital unit of the 33rd Division and received an honor roll citation for conduct in the Meuse Argonne offensive.
After the war he joined Ward Baking Company and worked up from baker to general sales manager. He left Ward and went with National Biscuit and later with the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of New York, where he was vice president. In 1947 he rejoined Ward and became president and chair of the board before retirement in 1961 to Ponta Vedra, Fla.
Most of his life he lived in Pelham Manor, N.Y., and at one time he was president of the Huguenot memorial church there.
He is survived by his wife Mildred, his son William of Lawrenceville, N.J., two sisters and three grandchildren.
WILLIAM NORMAN JEAVONS died at his home in Shaker Heights, Ohio, on March 16 after an illness of several years. Norm was a very loyal Dartmouth man with a genial personality, and his presence will be missed at our class reunions.
He left College in 1917 at the outbreak of World War I and served as lieutenant with the 37th Division until 1919. After graduating from Western Reserve School of Architecture, he opened Jeavons & Associates, a business that he operated until he retired in 1960. He was a consultant to the Van Sweringens on the master plan for Shaker Heights and built many of the large Tudor and colonial homes in the suburb. He was active in a number of architectural organizations.
After retirement he spent much of his time at a country home in Hot Springs, Va. Norm was a model railroad buff, and a vast collection of steam locomotives and tracks covered his basement floor. He also painted water colors.
Surviving are his wife Ruth; three sons, Robert W. '48, William E. '41, and Norman S. '52; a daughter, Jacqueline Gummersbach; 13 grandchildren; and four grandchildren.
1921
DANIEL BLAISDELL RUGGLES JR. died on March 20 in the Salem (Mass.) Hospital after a short illness. He was 78 years old.
Dan entered Dartmouth in the fall of 1917 from Roxbury Latin School. He became a member of Beta Theta Pi. He served on the board of The Dartmouth for three years and was its managing editor in his senior year. After graduating in 1921, he entered second year Tuck, finishing in 1922 with an MCS degree.
His alumni years were filled with Dartmouth activities. He served as president of his class from 1931-36. He was elected president of the North Shore Dartmouth Club in 1947 and president of the Dartmouth Alumni Association of Boston in 1956, served on the Alumni Council from 1958-62, was given an Alumni Award in 1967, and was editor of his class newsletter from 1957-78.
Dan was active also in community affairs, serving as director of the Salem YMCA, trustee of the children's Hospital, and trustee of the Dorchester Savings Bank.
His business career was spent almost entirely with the former Boston Herald-Traveler. He started with them shortly after graduation and retired in 1957, having served in the latter years as director of advertising. After retirement from the Herald, he operated his own company, the United Display Corporation, until 1969.
Dan's great-grandfather was a member of the Class of 1827. His grandfather was in the Class of 1859 and his father in the Class of 1890. Three of his uncles were in the classes of 1894, 1897, and 1902. He had a cousin in the Class of 1937, and two of his sons, Daniel '46 and Thomas '50, were also Dartmouth.
Dan's first wife Dorothy (Johnson) passed away in 1955. He is survived by his wife "Tish" (Muriel Tischler), his three sons, and a sister.
Harry Chamberlaine '21
1923
EDWARD SUMNER PRATT died of cancer on August 12, 1978. He was a native of Hanover, N.H., came to Dartmouth from Holderness School, and was a member of Kappa Kappa Kappa.
Ed left College at the end of freshman year and after a number of earlier teaching assignments was appointed in 1930 to the position of principal of the North Kingston high school in Wickford, R.I. He retired from this position in 1969. During his teaching career he studied at the Rhode Island College of Education,, the University of Rhode Island, and Boston and Brown universities. He had been very active in the New England Secondary Schools and Colleges Association and chaired its board of accreditation on several occasions.
Ed's only survivor is his widow, the former Chariot Severance.
1924
CHESTER BOGART CARLAW died on February 12. He was with us in Hanover for one year and also attended Harvard and the University of Minnesota. He was a pioneer in television advertising and was involved in writing and publishing. He is survived by his wife Margaret, a son, and a daughter.
WILLIAM DOUGLAS GORTON died in Miami, Fla., on March 16 from emphysema. He was a resident of Lakewood, Ohio, but had a winter home in Key Largo.
Doug spent his entire career in the insurance business except for three years during World War II, when he was a lieutenant in the Naval Reserve in charge of conducting sea trials of newly constructed mine sweepers. At the time of his death he chaired the board of Insurance Management Services.
He was an excellent golfer and was twice club champion of Westwood Country Club. He once played an exhibition match with Bobby Jones. He served for 23 years on the board of trustees of Lakewood Hospital and also had been a member of the Lakewood Hospital Foundation.
He was a member and had been an officer of several clubs, including the Cleveland Yachting Club. He was a member of KKK and was a past president of the Cleveland Dartmouth Club.
He is survived by his wife Eunice, his son William '65, daughter Alice, and four grandchildren.
A. RUSSELL TREADWAY died on February 22 while on a cruise in the Pacific with his wife and daughter Anne.
Russ attended Harvard Business School after graduation. He spent his career in investment except for two years during World War II. Although he retired in 1966 as a partner in the firm of Ball, Burge & Kraus, investment .brokers, he continued to work as senior vice president of the successor firm of Prescott, Ball & Thurber.
He was a past president of the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center in Bay Village, where he lived, and he also served on the board of the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. He was a member of several country clubs and had a winter home in Green Valley, Ariz., having become interested in the development of Green Valley along with Charile French. He was active in alumni affairs and was a past president of the Dartmouth Club of Cleveland.
He is survived by his wife Margaret; a daughter, Anne Westover; a son, Francis W. '50; seven grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
1925
JOHN EDWARD GARROD died March 25 in Milford, N. H. He was born in Somerville, Mass., in 1902 and came to College from Somerville High School.
Johnny played hockey and ran cross-country. He was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa.
Going to work as a chemical engineer for the Hood Rubber Company division of B. F. Goodrich, he spent his entire career with this firm, becoming manager of process in 1954. His home was in Wellesley Hills during these years, and he retired in 1967 to New Boston, N.H.
Johnnie was an active alumnus, serving as a class agent, a member of the executive committee, and in local Dartmouth activities. He was a member of the Society of Professional Engineers and the American Chemical Society. His hobbies were fly fishing and badminton.
He is survived by his wife Drusa (Fielder), whom he married in 1926, by a son Miles '55, and by three grandchildren. His body was willed to the Dartmouth Medical School.
1926
As he was sitting in his chair at home in Los Altos, Calif., waiting to take his dog for a walk, EMIL GORDON LINKE died peacefully of a heart attack on February 4. Gordon was born in Hartford, Conn., and attended the Hartford public schools. He graduated as a member of the Class of 1926 having entered Dartmouth in 1921. He was a member of Zeta Psi fraternity, a well-known, well-liked undergraduate. Many classmates remember his early business venture, Wright & Linke. As freshmen we were sought out and urged to buy "pressing tickets," which entitled the buyer to have one suit pressed each week during the college year.
In 1926 Gordon joined Travelers Insurance Company, and he continued in insurance all his business life, becoming president of his own company, Mid- Peninsula Agencies, in 1958.
Gordon kept in touch with Dartmouth, meeting on occasions with classmates in the San Francisco area. E. Willis Brooks '57, who met Gordon and his wife Marjorie when he was a graduate student at Stanford University, had these words to say about him: "Besides family and classmates he also was deeply loved by others who appreciated his gentleness and kind humor, and who benefitted enormously from Linke moral and material assistance."
He is survived by his wife and by his daughters Katherine Pack and Barbara Durkin, who set up a memorial fund in Gordon's name in honor of the Class of 1926.
ROLAND B. MACDONALD died March 11 at his home in South Dennis, Mass. He was born in Water- town, graduated from Watertown High School, and was at Dartmouth during our freshman year, leaving after it to enter Harvard University, where he graduated in 1927.
He owned an insurance agency bearing his name in Boston until his retirement in 1971. He and his wife Priscilla, who survives him, made their home in New ton, Mass., for a number of years. There Mac was president of the All-Newton Music School, a layman with the United Church of Christ, and a deacon of the Second Church in Newton.
1927
AVERY NORBERT KEENAN died January 15 in the Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Newton, Mass., as the result of a massive heart attack several weeks prior to that date. He had suffered a previous attack in 1971 and had been troubled with related problems for the past seven years.
A very was born in Mexico, Me., in 1905 and came to Dartmouth from the high school in Berlin, N.H which he always considered his hometown and where he was president of his class and captain of the basketball team. After graduating from the College, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, he followed a varied and interesting business career. This began with 12 years with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and included several years with Corbin Screw Company, then Raytheon, and more recently with Ark-Les Switch Corporation in Water- town, Mass., where he was sales administrator at the time of his retirement. He had resided in Wellesley. Mass., for the last few years, during which he enjoyed extensive travel with his wife throughout Europe and the Far East.
Survivors include his wife Mary, a daughter, two sons, four sisters, two brothers, and seven grandchildren.
1928
DAVID M. MCCATHIE died suddenly March 4 apparently of cardiac arrest while sleeping in his apartment in Alexandria, Va. His daughter, who lives in same building, discovered this in the morning. Dave had sold his home in Ridge Manor, Fla., last fall and moved to be near his daughter and granddaughter.
Dave was a native of Port Jervis, N.Y., and graduated from high school there. At Dartmouth he was a member of Theta Chi and active in the Players.
He spent his career in restaurant management, industrial feeding, and personnel consultant work. He retired in 1971 and moved to Florida with his wife Alice, who died in 1975.
He is survived by his daughter, his granddaughter, and a sister.
WILLIAM C. TREANOR of 5 Black Tern Road, Hilton Head Island, S.C., died March 5 at the Hilton Head Hospital following a brief illness.
Bill had a prostate operation in April 1978, which cancelled his plans to attend his 50th reunion. He wrote that there was some malignancy but effective control seemed possible.
Ellen and Bill were vacationing at Santa Barbara when he had a relapse in late July, which necessitated a rush flight from Santa Barbara Hospital direct to his regular urologist at Savanah Memorial Hospital. Bill had written in September that he and Ellen were playing golf and enjoying life in Hilton Head.
As an undergraduate at Dartmouth, Bill was a reporter for The Dartmouth, a member of the Press Club for four years, and an officer of the Interfraternity Council. He was a member of Delta Tau Delta. He served as an assistant class agent for 15 years.
After receiving his LL.B. from St. Johns University in 1933, he became a trial attorney for the New York Labor Relations Board, and from 1938 until his retirement in 1972 he was an attorney with Union Carbide Corporation in New York City, with much of his work in the labor relations law field. After 1972 he was frequently called in by the Federal Mediation Service and the American Arbitration Association to serve as an arbitrator in labor disputes.
He is survived by his wife, the former Ellen Ford, a brother, and a sister.
STEWART C. WRIGHT died April 20, 1978, of a coronary attack in Minneapolis, where he had lived since 1937. Stew entered Dartmouth from his hometown of Newport, Vt., and left in his sophomore year He received his BS degree from Middlebury College in 1929. He was a partner in Wright and Mestemacher Company, manufacturers representatives for hardware and household items from 1950 until his retirement in 1975.
He is survived by two sons.
1929
J. WILLIAM MORGAN, 71, died peacefully after a brief illness on March 2 in Aberdeen, N.C.
Bill entered Dartmouth following his graduation from Hempstead High School in Garden City, Long island. During college he was a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity.
Following graduation he worked briefly for Geigy Chemical Company before joining International Paper Company. At the start of World War II he joined the U.S. Navy, underwent indoctrination at Dartmouth, served in the North Atlantic, and finished the war with the rank of lieutenant commander.
After the war he joined St. Regis Paper Company in New York City from, which he retired with 26 years of service in 1972.
Prior to moving to North Carolina in 1976, he lived in Rumson, N.J., where he was involved in starting the Dartmouth Club of Monmouth County in 1949 and was very active in enrollment work.
With death imminent, he expressed deep regret that he would be unable to join his classmates at their 50th reunion in June.
Bill is survived by his wife Elna, two sons - including J. Spencer Morgan '60, one daughter, two stepdaughters, and seven grandchildren.
1930
NELSON MARCUS FITCH died from a heart attack on January 10 at his home in Elyria, Ohio. Jim was the president of the Fitch Company in Elyria prior to his retirement. He had joined the business in 1931. During World War II he was a lieutenant in the Navy, serving at Memphis Naval Air Station and at Wright Field. In 1946 he returned to his clothing business in Elyria and became president of the company.
He was active in community affairs, holding offices in the chamber of commerce, Kiwanis, YMCA, Elks, and American Legion. Since retirement he had been teaching English at Firelands Junior High School.
The class extends its sympathy to his widow Jane, daughters Nancy and Phyllis, and son David.
JAMES DONALD SMITH died on December 29, 1978, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Jim left Hanover to attend New York University, where he received his M.D. in 1936. He had practised medicine for many years in Tuscaloosa, where he was connected with Bryce Hospital. His contacts with the Class and College were not numerous, but he served on the local executive committee for the Third Century Fund.
Sympathy of the dlass is extended to his widow Gwen and daughter Hunter.
1932
STERLING T. APTHORP died February 12 in Cleveland after a long heart ailment. Appie, as he was affectionately known to his classmates, was a very popular member of our Class. He came to Dartmouth after graduating from Shaw High School in East Ceveland, and while in college he was a member of the tennis team and the Glee Club as well as Theta Delta Chi fraternity. After graduating, Appie was associated with the Cleveland Division of the Standard Oil Company (Ohio), where he worked at the management level until his retirement in 1969.
Appie was extremely generous in his service to his community, and after being elected president of the Cleveland YMCA four times, he was made a lifetime trustee. He was also a trustee of the Salvation Army and for many years was active in the United Torch campaigns of Cleveland. His service with the YMCA led him to be a delegate from the U.S. to international conferences, and in 1946 he was instrumental in helping the United Nations during its formative years properly evaluate its concept of the working person. Appie is survived by his wife Alice, daughters Susan Travis and Nancy Peterson, sons Sterling T. Jr. '58 and Charles, and five grandchildren. The Class extends its condolences to his family.
1934
CHARLES FAULKNER passed away February 18 in Texas. Charley retired in 1977 from General Tire and Rubber Company, and he and his wife Charlotte spent six months in Michigan and six months in Texas. He is survived by a son William and a daughter Jane and by four grandchildren in addition to Charlotte. Our sincere sympathies are offered.
JOHN JAY GORDON died at his home in Palm Beach, Fla., last September. Since 1969, John had been director of the Society of the Four Arts, a museum and cultural center in Palm Beach. He was internationally known in the field of paintings and sculptures. He is survived by four brothers and a sister. Two of his brothers also graduated from Dartmouth, Charles '37 and James '39. Our sincere sympathies are offered.
1937
JOHN L. MESTON, creator of "Gunsmoke," died in Tarzana, Calif., of a cerebral hemorrhage on March 24. He was 64.
A native of Pueblo, Colo., who remembered himself as "quite a calf roper," Meston was educated at Exeter, Dartmouth, Harvard, and the Sorbonne. He served during World War II in the ski troops in the Aleutians and once taught in Cuba.
Between 1952 and 1975, Meston wrote 181 radio scripts and 197 television scritps for his four Gunsmoke characters, Marshall Matt Dillon, Miss Kitty, Doc, and Chester. He often mailed scripts from Paris, Rome, or cities in Mexico and Spain, where he followed bullfights. He was once married to bullfighter Bette Ford.
He leaves his wife Mary Ann (Hooper), a daughter Feather, and a sister.
Reflecting on my friend Johnny, I think he probably lived his happiest days during those summers of his teens and early twenties - riding, cussing, and roping aboard his handsome cowpony "Spotlight" in Rye, Colo., among the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. His family owned a summer compound there only one valley removed from the sprawling Rocking R ranch where John worked beef cattle with the best of a breed of men he respected.
Roomie Jack Hopwood and I spent our freshman summer there, where each summer Johnny bloomed like a one-of-a-kind cactus. With good ponies under us. Hop, John, and I packed 50 miles south to a 3-day rodeo. Johnny followed rodeos in those days as he later followed bullfights. Many of his Gunsmoke types emerged from those cattletown rodeos.
For Johnny Meston '37 "Gunsmoke" represented an ideal era. In that respect Matt Dillon never walked straighter nor drew faster than his creator.
Dave Camerer '37
1938
BRUCE F. OLSON died of a stroke in Naples, Fla., on March 14. At the time of his death, Bruce was the chief executive officer of Sundstrand Corporation.
Bruce was born and brought up in Rockford, Ill., and prepared for Dartmouth at Rockford High School. At Dartmouth he majored in sociology. He was president of Sigma Chi and served on the Interfraternity Council.
Except for service in the Navy in World War II, grace's entire career was spent with Sundstrand Corporation, which he served over the years as president, chair of the board, and as chief executive officer.
In 1942 Bruce married Ellen Bradford, and they had two sons and a daughter.
Sundstrand Corporation, with which Bruce started after graduation in 1938, is a diversified manufacturing corporation which supplies equipment to aviation. defense, metal-working, refrigeration, and airconditioning industries.
Bruce was a member of the National Machine Tool Builders Association, the Machinery and Allied Products Institute, the Oil Heat Institute of America, and the Aircraft Industries Association of America. He was a member of both the Rockford and the Illinois chambers of commerce. In 1968 he was elected a trustee of the Frank E. Gannett Newspaper Foundation.
C. FREDERICK STERNS of Lake View Road, Essex, Mass. 01929, died on April 10 at the Shaughnessy Hospital in Salem, Mass., after a long illness.
A native of Buffalo, N.Y., Fred transferred from Dartmouth to Purdue, from which he was graduated in 1940 with a B.S. in electrical engineering.
Fred entered the Army in 1940, was commissioned in 1942, and was discharged in January 1946 with the rank of captain in the Signal Corps, following service as an electronic specialist for anti-aircraft artillery while attached to British forces.
After the war he worked as electrical engineer for General Electric and as advertising copywriter before moving in the early fifties to Beverly, where he became associated with Dickie-Raymond, Inc., a direct advertising agency of which Fred, was group copy chief in 1952.
Fred was a national director of the Association of Industrial Advertisers and past president of its New England chapter. He served the North Shore Massachusetts communities in which he lived as United Fund director and as building commissioner for the new Beverly High School. He was a former deacon of the Maple Street Congregational Church, Danvers, and Second Congregational Church, North Beverly.
He is survived by his wife Elizabeth, four daughters, two sons, a stepson, and two sisters.
1939
JOHN MACGREGOR BOWIE, 61, died of a heart ailment, at his home on December 19, 1978.
Jack was born in Washington, D.C., an area that remained his base when he was not overseas. In College he was a member of the Glee Club; Boot and Saddle, and Sigma Nu fraternity. He started his career as a reporter for the Washington Evening Star, a position he held until he was commissioned an ensign in the USNR in 1941. He saw service in the Suez, Port Said, and Wellington, N.Z., before leaving the Navy as a lieutenant commander. In 1945 he joined the State Department and served in the Middle East, Germany, and France. He served as U.S. Consul in Alexandria, UAR, in 1964.
In recent years, retired from the Foreign Service, Jack was a lecturer at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. He leaves his wife Janine (Cabirol), and a son lan MacGregor.
G. GORDON CHENEY, 62, died of lung cancer on February 26 at the Maine Medical Center, Portland, Me. Diagnosis was made in early December, and Gordon had been taking radiation treatment. He worked as the fiscal officer of the York County Ceta program until the Tuesday before he died. Gordon had come to Dartmouth after graduating from the Biddeford, Me., high school and also the Tilton School.
He was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity and majored in English at Dartmouth. From 1939 to 1943 he was employed by Berst-Forster Dixfield Company, and shortly after joined the Northam Warren Company, cosmetics manufacturers, in the financial and planning departments, where he remained for 20 years, later joining Christian Dior Parfums in New York City as controller.
Upon retirement, he returned to his native Maine, but disliking retirement, he went to work in the CETA program in Biddeford. He was a member of the United Church of Christ in that city. Gordon leaves his wife Martha (Brock), whom he married in 1939, a son Bruce, a daughter Cameron, and three grandchildren.
Gordon and Martha had been looking forward to making our 40th reunion this June. He shall be sorely missed.
1940
WALTER G. DIEHL of 9 Gilchrest Road, Great Neck, Long Island, N.Y., who embarked a few years ago on his third career, as a self-employed security analyst, died January 5 in Manhasset Hospital after open-heart surgery. He was two weeks away from his 61st birthday.
Walt, who was born in Astoria, Long Island, and prepared for Dartmouth at Flushing High School, was an English major at College and was graduated magnacum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.
He started his career in broadcasting in New York City, joining radio station WQXR in 1940 immediately after graduation and becoming program and continuity editor and news editor, as well as serv- ing as secretary-treasurer of Armed Forces Master Records, Inc.
In 1948 he joined WABF-FM as program director and editor of the station's program magazine, and subsequently he became a producer-director for Radio Free Europe and then general manager for WNCN and the Concert Network, Inc.
For his second career, Walt shifted in 1958 to advertising, as art director and advertising manager of Vox Productions, Inc. He became promotion manager for the Radio Advertising Bureau and finally promotion writer for Outdoor Advertising, Inc., before launching a third career as a security analyst.
Walt never married and leaves no family.
FRANCIS P. L'ENGLE of 2970 St. Johns Avenue, Jacksonville, Fla., real estate developer and boating enthusiast, died February 7 in Houston, Tex., of a heart attack. He was 60 years old.
Dink, who prepared for Dartmouth at the Bolles School in Jacksonville, was a member of the varsity swimming team and Sigma Chi fraternity at College, and during World War II he served in the U.S. Navy, mostly on convoy duty.
Following the war, he returned to Jacksonville, where he established his own real estate firm, L'Engle Company. Some ten years ago he purchased the Ortega Development Company, of which he was president and co-owner.
Until about a year ago, when he began treatments for cancer, he was an ardent ocean sailor on his 50-foot motor cruiser. He had spent the month before his death at a cancer research hospital in Houston and was preparing to leave the next day, having been given a satisfactory bill of health, when he was stricken with the heart attack.
He leaves his widow, Joh-nana, a daughter by a previous marriage, and two grandchildren.
1941
PETER A. COOMBS died of a heart attack on January 23, 1979 at Mountainside Hospital, Glen Ridge, N.J.
"He had a very severe heart attack five years ago" Shirley wrote, "but had been back at work and most of his activities for four and a half of the five years since. Our children arranged a family reunion at Christmas, so we were all together for the first time in fourteen years. Glad we had that."
Pete was born in Montclair, N.J., went to high school there, and at Dartmouth was president of the Ledyard Canoe Club and a member of Delta Tau Delta. He majored in chemistry, worked for Dupont during World War II, joined Cairns and Brother, Inc Clifton, N.J., and in 1963 became its president, the fourth family generation to manage the manufac- turing company.
His son Christopher, Dartmouth '66 and Tuck '70, is continuing in the family business.
Pete lived in Cladwell, N.J., for 30-plus years and during that time served as a borough councilman, on the planning and zoning boards, and in a variety of other civic activities.
He leaves his wife, Shirley C. Coombs, Birkendene Rd., Caldwell, N.J., 07006; three sons, all Dartmouth graduates; three daughters; and five grandchildren. His brother, Sam Coombs, was class of '44.
1943
GEORGE HERBERT BARLOW, chief judge of the United States District Court for New Jersey, died on March 4, 1979, apparently of a heart attack. He served on the Federal bench with great distinction for nearly ten years. In its obituary concerning George, the New York Times wrote, "Confronted with some of the most controversial of New Jersey criminal cases, Judge Barlow acquired a reputation for humaneness and a sense of justice. Robert J. Del Tufo, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, said, 'He had great grasp of the law and he was also a fine gentleman. He dealt with everyone fairly and courteously.' "
George received his law degree from the Rutgers University Law School in 1948. After practicing law and holding various public law positions, he was appointed to the Mercer County Court in 1962 and to the New Jersey State Superior Court in 1966.
He is survived by his wife Jane, two daughters, Jane Purgavie and Elizabeth Barlow, both Smith College graduates, and a son, George H. 3rd '75. His brother is Judge Richard J. S. Barlow Jr. '48 of the Superior Court of New Jersey. Among others of George's family educated at Dartmouth are his father, a nephew, and two brothers-in-law.
Judge Barlow was an active College alumnus and served on interviewing committees for more than 20 years. At Dartmouth, he was a member of Sphinx and Phi Gamma Delta. He served in World War II as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy.
1951
CHARLES B. WHITLOCK died at home in Montclair. N.J., Feburary 8. Cause of death was a heart attack.
Following Dartmouth, Charles went to George Washington Medical School and then to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York for his residency. He practiced ophthamology in Montclair for 20 years and was a member of the Essex County Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He was a staff member of Mountainside and Community Hospitals and served in the Navy from 1954-56.
He is survived by his mother and three brothers.
