Necrology
Fenton Kelsey, Jr. '35
Jun. 28, 1913-Jul. 28, 1998
Fenton Kelsey, Jr. ’35, a former magazine publisher and promoter of hockey, was born on June 28, 1913, in Evanston, IL. The elder son of Fenton and Ruth Spicer Kelsey, he grew up in the Chicago area and was graduated in 1931 from Evanston Township High School. That year, young Fenton Kelsey came to Hamilton. However, after his freshman year he returned home to work in his father’s small publishing business. A member of Alpha Delta Phi, he spent one more year on the Hill (1934-35) before leaving for good to take charge of the family business back in Chicago.
In subsequent years, Fenton Kelsey continued his studies during evenings and summer sessions at Northwestern University and at schools specializing in printing techniques and advertising art. In 1938, he moved his company, which published business magazines and brochures and produced commercial advertising, to Madison, WI. There, when he was in his 40s, he attended the University of Wisconsin for three years.
In Madison, Mr. Kelsey launched a series of publishing ventures with mixed success. They included Trade and Sport Publications, Inc., and Americana Press. For a decade during his 50s, he published an environmental magazine. In the mid-1970s, he launched Athletic Business, which became a family enterprise involving two of his daughters and his brother, John S. Kelsey ’38.
Fenton Kelsey, who played hockey while at Hamilton, had a lifelong interest in the sport. He played amateur league hockey while in Chicago, and when he moved to Madison, he began coaching in youth hockey and continued to so for over 30 years. He also largely financed and built Madison’s first ice arena, which is now city-owned, and he aided the development of the University of Wisconsin’s highly successful hockey program. For his contributions he was inducted into Madison’s Sports Hall of Fame. He also served on the board of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame and, as an ever loyal alumnus, helped recruit students, and especially hockey players for Hamilton.
The College only recently obtained verification of Fenton Kelsey’s death on July 28, 1998. Three times a widower and predeceased by his brother John in 1991, he is presumably survived by two daughters, Gretchen and Kristine, born of his second marriage, in 1950, to Joanne England.
