1940s

Lloyd White Knox '41

Lloyd White Knox '41, a retired investment banker long active in Hamilton alumni affairs and fund-raising, was born on February 8, 1919, in Montclair, NJ. His parents were John B. Knox, Jr., who sold insurance, and the former Frances B. White. When Lloyd was a year old, the family moved to Portland, ME, where he was graduated in 1937 from Deering High School. He enrolled at Hamilton that fall, joined Delta Kappa Epsilon, played varsity baseball and soccer, and became sports editor of Hamilton Life.

After receiving his B.S. degree in 1941, Lloyd Knox entered Boston University Law School. However, a year later he left to enlist as a private in the U.S. Army, the country having entered World War II in the meantime. Commissioned as an officer in the Transportation Corps, he served in the European theater for 2½ years through the end of the war, stationed primarily in the Channel ports of Southampton, Cherbourgh, and Le Havre. Discharged with the rank of captain in 1946, he returned to his law studies at Boston University. On June 26, 1948, not long after receiving his LL.B. degree, he and Margaret (Peggy) Bent, a Smith College graduate, were married in Taunton, MA.

Although Lloyd Knox became a member of the bar, he never practiced law. Instead, he turned to banking, first with the Connecticut Bank & Trust Co. in Hartford. In 1949, however, the Knoxes decided to move to Lloyd's hometown of Portland where the cost of living was cheaper. There he found employment in the trust department of the Canal National Bank. In 1956, Lloyd and Peggy Knox moved again, to Massachusetts, when he was offered the opportunity to develop a trust department at the Norfolk County Trust Co. in Brookline, which, despite its name, had no such department at that time.

As vice president and trust officer, Lloyd Knox remained with the bank while residing in Needham, also just outside of Boston, for 17 years. He and Peggy reared their children there, and Lloyd devoted his non-banking hours to community and family-oriented activities, including Little League, Cub Scouts, and church and school events. He also began to involve himself extensively in Hamilton alumni affairs, serving as regional chairman for the Alumni Fund and secretary-treasurer and later president of the Eastern New England Alumni Association.

In 1973, Lloyd Knox concluded 25 years of employment in bank trust departments by returning once again to the Portland area to join the investment banking firm of H.M. Payson & Co. as a partner. Established in 1854, it was the oldest and largest such firm in Maine. Until his retirement in 1987, he was happily engaged in its various activities, including investment advising and managing trusts, and he found the work both challenging and stimulating.

Lloyd Knox, a resident of the Portland suburb of Cumberland for 30 years, took part in community affairs, serving as chairman of the board of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, president of the board of the Home for Aged Women in Portland, and a member of the board of the Maine Charitable Foundation and the finance committee of the Portland Society of Art. "Due more to his leadership skills than his golfing skills," he was also elected president of the Portland Country Club. He continued to take part in Hamilton affairs and was for a time class correspondent for this magazine.

Lloyd W. Knox, who moved to Scarborough, ME, in 2001, was residing in that town near Portland when he died on October 1, 2008. Predeceased by his wife, he is survived by three daughters, Sara Mulvaney, Margaret Dawson, and Elizabeth Peck; a son, John C. Knox '74; and nine grandchildren and a sister.
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Fay Bernard Elliott '42

Fay Bernard Elliott '42, a retired footwear manufacturer and community leader, was born on December 17, 1921, in Fort Covington, in far northern New York, near the Canadian border. The younger son of A. Roy and Mabel LaBelle Elliott, and a lifelong resident of that area, he attended rural schools and was graduated in 1938 from Bombay High School. He came to Hamilton in 1938 and joined the Squires Club, but withdrew from the ­College after two years.

In 1942, during the Second World War, Fay Elliott enlisted in the U.S. Army. Transferred from the Signal Corps to the Air Corps, he served through the end of the war and was discharged in late 1945. He returned to his home area and went to work for Northeast Footwear Corp., becoming a plant superintendent. By 1960, he was co-owner of E & W Moccasin Co., located in Moira. Later, he became its owner and operator.

Fay Elliott, who retired in 2003, served for 14 years as mayor of nearby Brushton. He also chaired the Board of Assessors of the Town of Moira and was a longtime member of the Brushton-Moira School Board. In addition, he was Franklin County commander of the American Legion and a past president of the Brushton-Moira Kiwanis Club. His favorite leisure-time activities included doing carpentry work and dancing.

Fay B. Elliott died at his home in Moira on December 25, 2008. He is survived by a son, Phillip Elliott, born of his marriage in 1943, to Lois Dean. She died in 1998. Also predeceasing him, in 2005, was his second wife, the ­former Ruth Miller Yaddow, whom he wed in 2003. Besides his son, survivors include two grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and his brother, Donald J. Elliott '42.
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Ralph William Leavenworth, Jr. '42

Ralph William Leavenworth, Jr. '42, a retired advertising sales manager, was born on May 26, 1920, in Cleveland, OH. The son of Ralph W. '14, an advertising executive, and Florence Connolly Leavenworth, he was a nephew of Clarence E. '09 and Loyal E. Leavenworth '10. Young Ralph Leavenworth, who came to be known as "Bill," grew up in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, where he was graduated from Shaker Heights High School. He entered the College in 1938, joined his father's and uncles' ­fraternity, Delta Upsilon, and quickly became a campus leader. A versatile athlete, he skied and lettered in track and football. On the same gridiron team with the remarkable Milt Jannone '43, he was credited with having "sliced through holes in the line and [knifed] his way down the field for yard after yard," making ground-gaining runs Saturday after Saturday. He also sang in the Choir and with the Octet, and served on the Honor Court and Student Council. Named to Quadrangle and DT, he became governor of Pentagon, to which his father had also been elected.

Bill Leavenworth, following his graduation in 1942, spent ­several months at Harvard Business School before World War II caught up with him in the form of a call to active duty from the U.S. Navy. On December 19, 1942, just 10 days before his active service began, Ensign Leavenworth and JoAnn Smith were married in Shaker Heights. Until his discharge from the Navy as a lieutenant after the war's end, in 1946, he was a "dry-land sailor," on duty for the most part in the Ports­mouth-Norfolk area ­of Virginia.

Thereafter, Bill Leavenworth entered the field of advertising, initially with Time Inc. as sales manager for Life magazine in the Cleveland area. For 37 years, beginning in 1948, he was in ­succession the advertising representative in Cleveland for the publishers Street & Smith, Condé Nast, and Hearst. In 1962, he was central district manager for Street & Smith, selling ads for such magazines as Mademoiselle, when he joined Condé Nast as district representative. He was a divisional manager for Hearst magazines when he retired in January 1986.

In retirement, Bill Leavenworth, "aside from a few exotic trips with JoAnn and volunteer duty with 'Meals on Wheels'," enjoyed much time on golf courses and tennis courts. Long a resident of the Cleveland suburb of Beachwood, he was a faithful alumnus who frequently visited the campus, especially when his sons were on the Hill.

R. William Leavenworth, Jr., who last resided in Hudson, OH, died on September 24, 2008. In addition to his wife of 65 years, he is survived by his two sons, Eric J. '67 and Philip B. Leavenworth '69; a daughter, Leslie Fincun; six grandchildren, including Kelly Leavenworth Kimball '89; and three great-grandchildren. He was an uncle of Peter C. Herbruck '63.
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Benjamin Franklin Leonard III, Salutatorian '42

Benjamin Franklin Leonard III, Salutatorian '42, whose distinguished career as a geologist spanned six decades, was born on May 12, 1921, in Dobbs Ferry, NY. His parents were Benjamin F., Jr., a civil engineer and surveyor, and Florence Smith Leonard. Young Ben grew up in Tarrytown and in Katonah, NY, where he was graduated in 1938 from Katonah High School as valedictorian of his class. He entered Hamilton that fall, joined Lambda Chi Alpha, and concentrated on his studies with little extracurricular distraction. With "a determined glint in his eye and a grim expression on his face," he swung "a hefty geology hammer," according to The Hamiltonian, and "probably spent more time on the books than the rest of the senior class together." Elected to Phi Beta Kappa and the recipient of the Rogers Prize in Geology, he received his B. S. degree as salutatorian in 1942, with honors in chemistry and geology.

Awarded the Root Fellowship in Science, Ben Leonard left the Hill to work as a field aide for the Geological Survey of Newfoundland before entering graduate school at Princeton University in the fall of 1942. The following year he joined the U.S. Geological Survey, the federal research institution, and spent most of the next eight years mapping and studying the magnetite deposits of the northwest Adirondacks. He used that survey work for his Ph.D. ­thesis at Princeton and was awarded the degree in 1951. He had already received his M.A. from Princeton, in 1947.

Married to Eleanor Vande­water on March 18, 1950, in Princeton, Ben Leonard went west with his bride and settled in Golden, CO. There he continued to be employed by the Geological Survey, with headquarters in ­Denver but focusing his attention on 500 square miles of central Idaho as his field area. In that area he mapped the regional geology and studied deposits of gold, silver, mercury, antimony, and tungsten, and found and described several new ore minerals. He became a specialist in ore microscopy and, as its vice chairman, assisted the International Mineralogical Association's Commission on Ore Microscopy. In 1962, he established the Geological Survey's laboratory for ore microscopy in Denver and remained geologist-in-charge of it until his retirement.

Besides teaching at his ­Denver lab, Dr. Leonard served as a visiting and adjunct professor at the Colorado School of Mines. The author or coauthor of numerous articles in professional journals, he was associate editor of two of them. A onetime president of the Colorado Scientific Society and a fellow of the Geological Society of America and the Mineralogical Society of America, he was recognized for his work with many awards, including the Meritorious Service Award from the U.S. Department of the Interior. In 1985, a new ore mineral was named benleonardite in his honor.

Ben Leonard, a former ­Presbyterian Church elder who acquired a liking for trout fishing, sourdough hotcakes, and horses while in the field in Idaho, also had a lifelong love of music, which was first nurtured at ­Hamilton. An ardently devoted alumnus and former president of the Rocky Mountain Alumni ­Association, he generously assisted the College with its fund-raising and his class with its reunion activities. To those at Hamilton who had been privileged to know him, he was one of the finest gentlemen they had ever met.

Benjamin F. Leonard III retired as geologist emeritus from the Geological Survey in 2001 and left Golden after 50 years to take up residence with his wife in McCall, ID. There he continued to occupy himself, studying lichens and fungi. He died at his home in McCall on September 5, 2008. In addition to his wife of 58 years, he is survived by a daughter, Ruth O'Neal; a son, William C. Leonard; and three grandchildren.
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William Henry Lohden '42

William Henry Lohden '42, a journalist whose investigative reporting helped win a Pulitzer Prize for the Utica Observer-Dispatch and Daily Press, was born on June 17, 1920, in the Bronx, NY. The son of Henry C., an accountant, and Minnie A. Lohden, he grew up in nearby Port Chester on Long Island Sound and was graduated in 1937 from Port Chester High School. Bill Lohden enrolled at Hamilton the following year, joined Alpha Delta Phi, and went out for baseball. Ironically named "Swifty" because, according to The Hamiltonian, he had "never been seen to move at any pace faster than a slow crawl," he was also known for wreathing himself in pipe smoke and his penchant for cowboy gear. He left the Hill with his B.S. degree in 1942.

After serving briefly with the U.S. Army Coast Artillery in Panama during World War II (he received early discharge due to chronic asthma), Bill Lohden returned to New York City, where he began his long career in journalism. ­Initially employed in the editorial and business departments of ­various publications including Time, Fortune, and The New Yorker magazines, he returned to central New York in 1948 to become editor of the Clinton Courier. In partnership with him as business manager for the local weekly was his wife, the former Bernadine Tivis, whom he had wed in New York City in 1947. The couple managed the paper for three years.

In 1953, after a year in public relations with the West End Brewery in Utica, Bill Lohden joined the staff of the Observer-Dispatch as a reporter and copy editor. Following the raid on the notorious mob convention in Apalachin, NY, in the fall of 1957, the national press focused its attention on organized crime. Utica, which had been labeled "Sin City" by the New York Daily News, soon became a focal point of that attention. The Gannett Co., which owned the two Utica newspapers that up to that time had not given coverage to local vice and political corruption, was galvanized to send Jack Germond (later a well-known national political columnist) to Utica to head a special investigative team. He joined with City Hall reporter Bill Lohden and Anthony Vella (later managing editor of the Observer-Dispatch) to lead the effort. Tenacious and fearless despite threats to their well-being, they persevered, and the result was a series of articles that led to a state investigation of political corruption and numerous convictions. It also resulted in the Pulitzer Prize for "meritorious public service," the first awarded to newspapers in upstate New York.

In 1961, Bill Lohden ventured out to California to work as a reporter for the Sacramento Bee. The following year, however, he was back in Clinton and soon in a new job as publicity manager for Mohawk Airlines, the regional ­carrier headed by Robert E. "Bob" Peach '41. However, in 1968, he left the public relations field to return to journalism and rejoin the Observer-Dispatch as a special-assignment reporter. Later named editorial page editor of the Daily Press, he retired in 1987.

Drawn to journalism because of his fascination with people and "what made them tick," Bill Lohden had a reporter's gift for friendly rapport and a way of eliciting information that people would normally be reluctant to reveal. Allied with his reporter's determination was a strength of mind and fierce independence that did not always ideally suit him for the public relations field in which he had twice ventured. A onetime member of the Board of Editors for this magazine, he seemed to have become soured on life in his later years, a negative attitude that was unfortunately extended to the College.

William H. Lohden, plagued with asthma most of his life, moved to Prescott, AZ, some years ago. He died in Prescott on November 24, 2008. Divorced from his wife, who predeceased him earlier in 2008, he is survived by a son, Matthew, a daughter, Sarah, and four grandchildren.
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William Charles McGhee '42

William Charles McGhee '42, a retired advertising sales executive, was born on July 29, 1921, in Brooklyn, NY. A son of William H., a clerical worker, and Anna Kueffner McGhee, he grew up in nearby Queens and was graduated in 1938 from Jamaica High School. Bill McGhee enrolled at Hamilton that fall and became a member and later president of the Squires Club. He went out for track and lettered in fencing, and, with a future career in teaching in mind, excelled scholastically. Credited by The Hamiltonian with having "concealed a neat stack of brains behind an ever-present grin," he achieved election to Phi Beta Kappa and received his B.S. degree with honors in education and German in 1942.

Soon thereafter, Bill McGhee enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps, and he remained in uniform throughout World War II. He spent over three years as an in-flight radio operator with the Air Transport Command, first as part of a crew delivering bombers from the­ ­factory to the theaters of operation, and, later, moving ­sensitive cargo and personnel around Africa, Italy, and India.

Discharged as staff sergeant at the end of 1945, Bill McGhee acquired an M.A. degree in history from Columbia University in 1947. By then he had concluded that "I had no taste for the research needed for a Ph.D., and since secondary school teachers were not yet earning a living wage, I wound up selling advertising space in newspapers for 40 years."

Married to Elizabeth Y. (Betty) Brown on December 4, 1948, in Rockville Centre, NY, Bill McGhee had begun his long career in newspaper advertising with the New York Daily News the year before. He remained with the Daily News until 1960, when he went to work for O'Mara & Ormsbee, Inc., newspaper representatives in Manhattan. Promoted to vice president and assistant to the director of marketing and sales, he commuted from his home in Farmingdale on Long Island until 1977, when the company, then Cresmer, Woodward, O'Mara & Ormsbee, asked him to open an office in Florida. He and Betty relocated to Coral Gables, where Bill served as vice president and Florida manager for the firm until his retirement in 1986.

Rather than "wallow in sloth" in retirement, as he had feared he might, Bill McGhee remained busy with charitable projects such as Habitat for Humanity. He also enjoyed a weekly golf game as well as cruising Biscayne Bay and into the Keys on his 25-foot sloop, Moderate Chop. In addition, he served as president of the ­Venture Sailing Club of South Florida. An exceedingly loyal and supportive alumnus who remained in close touch with the College, he continued to reside in Coral Gables until 2004, when he moved to Pleasanton, CA, in the San Francisco Bay area, to be near his daughter, Nancy Newman.

William C. McGhee, who had a marvelous talent for interacting with people, always ready with a story or joke to delight them, died at his home in Pleasanton on May 29, 2008. In addition to his daughter, he is survived by his wife of 59 years; a son, Scott McGhee; two grandchildren; and his brother, Richard McGhee '49.
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Leopold Joseph Meier '42

Leopold Joseph Meier '42, for 40 years a chemist with Church & Dwight Co. in Syracuse, NY, was born in Munich, Germany, on May 19, 1920. He came to the United States with his parents, Charles and Anna Hutterer Meier, at the age of 14, and the family settled in Baldwinsville, near ­Syracuse. Young Leopold, known as "Leap," adjusted quickly and remarkably well to an entirely new environment, although he never entirely lost his German accent. He entered Hamilton with enthusiastic recommendation from Baldwinsville Academy in 1938. On the Hill, he joined Lambda Chi Alpha and was active in the Newman Club. He also played hockey and soccer, lettering in both sports. To help with his expenses, he did household chores for Professor John Mattingly. Years later, he recalled getting up at 4 a.m. three times a week to trudge to the Mattingly home to wash dishes, vacuum rugs, and dust ­furniture "for the princely sum of $5 a week."

After receiving his B.S. degree in 1942, Leap Meier enlisted in the U.S. Army as World War II was raging. He was trained in military intelligence, and his fluent command of the German language was put to good use as an interrogator of German prisoners of war. He participated in the Italian campaign, from Anzio and Cassino to Rome, and the Allied march from Southern France to Germany, ending at Berchtesgaden, in his Bavarian homeland, and beyond to Salzburg, Austria. He was among the first Americans to arrive and liberate the inmates at Dachau, the notorious concentration camp outside of Munich. Along the way, Technical Sergeant Meier subjected newly captured German soldiers to "tactical interrogation." Sixty years later, in a Hamilton sophomore seminar on World War II in 2003, he recalled those experiences, bringing the reality of war to his student listeners in a highly personal and grippingly told way.

Awarded the Bronze Star, Leap Meier was discharged from the Army in late 1945, after the war's end. He returned to his hometown and went to work as an analytical chemist for Church & Dwight. He soon became liaison manager for the company with Allied Chemical. In 1966, when new management took over, he was instrumental in the reorganization and modernization of the small, old-established private company, which produces sodium bicarbonate and is best known for its Arm & Hammer line of products. Over the years, while serving in various capacities in both the consumer and industrial divisions of Church & Dwight, he found the most satisfaction in helping to set up its environmental department, including water and pollution control.

Leap Meier, who had spent his last years with Church & Dwight conducting seminars throughout the country, retired in 1985. Thereafter he enjoyed "catching up on books I had to defer reading in my working years, traveling, and leading the life of a country squire." A former president of the Syracuse Alumni Association and a faithful and generous supporter of the College, he also visited the Hill frequently for reunions and to avidly attend hockey games. Always ready with a clever joke or saying, he was usually seen puffing on a corncob pipe.

Leopold J. Meier, long a resident of Cazenovia, NY, died on December 26, 2008, while hospitalized in Syracuse. He is survived by two sons, Carl W. '64 and John J. Meier, from his first marriage, on July 11, 1942, in Baldwinsville, to Phyllis C. Long. She predeceased him in 1960. Also predeceasing him, in 1997, was his second wife, Laura Park Meier, whom he had wed in 1965. His other survivors include four grandchildren, among them Richard L. Meier '88, and five great-grandchildren.
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Charles Beard Tennant '43

Charles Beard Tennant '43, a research chemist and supervisor long employed in the metals industry, grew up in Syracuse, NY, where he was born on July 21, 1921. The only child of Henry R., an insurance broker, and Miriam Beard Tennant, he came to Hamilton in 1939 from Syracuse Central High School with a future career in chemistry already in mind. Chuck Tennant joined Psi Upsilon and became president of its "Barn" in his senior year, as well as an enthusiastic supporter of fraternities for the rest of his life. A versatile athlete, he lettered in hockey, soccer, and skiing. Elected to all four class honoraries, Quandrangle, DT, Was Los, and Pentagon, he served as president of the Student Council during the hectic spring of 1943 when the campus was being rapidly deserted by students going off to serve in World War II.

Chuck Tennant himself was called to active duty with the U.S. Navy immediately after receiving his B.S. degree, majoring in the sciences, in 1943. Commissioned as an ensign, he was stationed in the South Pacific as a radio-radar maintenance officer aboard PT boats as part of a motor torpedo squadron. His postings took him from New Guinea to the Philippines, where he arrived the day after U.S. forces landed on the Japanese-occupied islands, when the fighting was still going on.

Released from the Navy as a lieutenant (j.g.) in 1946, after the war's end, Chuck Tennant enrolled in the Ph.D. program in inorganic chemistry at Cornell University. On April 16, 1949, he and Natalie M. Phelps were married in Henderson, NY. After obtaining his doctorate in 1949, he and his bride moved to Palmerton, PA, where Chuck went to work for the New Jersey Zinc Co. He would remain in its research department in Pennsylvania for almost 30 years, becoming supervisor of products application and manager of new products research. In the late 1970s, he moved to Bloomfield Hills, MI, to become director of product development for Gulf & Western Industries (which had taken over New Jersey Zinc). After retiring from Gulf & Western in 1982, he found new employment as manager of technical services for the Zinc Institute, Inc., also in Michigan. He considered himself "mostly retired" by 1985, by which time he had settled in Sanford, NC.

Active in community affairs, Chuck Tennant was a former member of the Palmerton Planning Commission as well as a trustee of Lehigh County Community College, and served as president of the Property Owners Association in Sanford. A loyal Hamiltonian, he also volunteered his time to the College.

Charles B. Tennant, a resident of Chapel Hill, NC, in recent years, died on December 10, 2008. He had long been ill with mesothelioma (asbestos poisoning). He is survived by his wife of 59 years and a son, Martin P. Tennant. He was predeceased by a younger son, Charles E.
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William Curtis Adams '45

William Curtis Adams '45, whose distinguished career as a physician encompassed more than 40 years, was born on March 5, 1924, to William C., Sr., and Dorothy Buell Adams (later Dobbs) in Fort Smith, AR. His father died when Bill Adams was 15 months old, and he was reared by his mother and stepfather, Harold R. Dobbs, in Ridgewood, NJ. He came to College Hill from Ridgewood High School in 1941, already intent upon a future career in medicine. While on the Hill, he joined Chi Psi and lettered in fencing and soccer. At the end of his sophomore year, however, he became part of the wartime exodus of students from the ­College by withdrawing to enter the U.S. Navy. Thirty years later, in 1973, upon petition and factoring in credits earned elsewhere, the ­College finally awarded him his A.B. degree.

Assigned in 1943 to the Navy's V-12 program at St. Lawrence University, Bill Adams next went under Naval auspices to the Temple University School of Medicine, where he received his M.D. degree in 1947. He had been released from active duty with the Navy two years earlier, at the end of World War II. In 1950, following an internship at ­Paterson General Hospital in New Jersey and a residency in pediatrics at the University of Illinois Medical Center, he was recalled to military service upon the outbreak of the Korean conflict. During his two years back in uniform he was chief attending pediatrician at the U.S. Army Station Hospital in Bremerhaven, Germany, and subsequently chief of pediatrics at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Newport, RI.

In 1952, Dr. Adams returned to Temple's School of Medicine and served for two years as chief resident in pediatrics at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, also in Philadelphia, PA. Thereafter he moved to Kentucky, where he became attending physician and later chief of pediatrics at Louisville Children's Hospital as well as originator and coordinator of the Louisville poison control program.

In 1960, with his wife, the ­former Donna J. Phillips, his high school sweetheart whom he had wed on June 23, 1955, in Denver, CO, Bill Adams relocated to Florida, where he took over the medical directorship of Variety Children's Hospital in Miami. Private practice from 1964 to 1975 in Coral Gables followed. He subsequently entered the field of emergency medicine and served for over a decade until 1987 as medical director of the emergency department of Southeast Alabama Medical ­Center in Dothan. He subsequently established a full-time industrial and occupational medicine practice, also in Dothan, from which he retired in 1991.

Dr. Adams, board-certified in both pediatrics and emergency medicine, also held various academic appointments over the span of his career, and was a ­special consultant to several state and federal health agencies. Active in the American Academy of ­Pediatrics, he was in addition a founding member and former president of the American Association of Poison Control Centers as well as president of the Alabama chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians. His list of articles in professional journals on respiratory disorders and pediatric therapy, combined with papers presented at national and international conferences and meetings, was extensive.

In 1993, Bill Adams moved to Fort Worth, TX. Although retired, he remained active as a health-care-advocate and consultant. He also avidly engaged in travel and bird watching, and was an ardent Miami Dolphins fan. He was known to his family and friends, and especially to his patients, as a man of gentle nature and compassion, and his devotion to Hamilton and generous support of the College remained constant.

William C. Adams died at his home in Fort Worth on October 29, 2008, following a battle with cancer and myasthenia gravis. In addition to his wife of 53 years, he is survived by a son, William C. Adams III; a daughter, Victoria Ann Adams; and two granddaughters, a sister, and his brother, Harold I. Dobbs '53.
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Herbert Clapsaddle ­Getman, Jr. '45

Herbert Clapsaddle ­Getman, Jr. '45, who practiced medicine for more than a half-century, grew up in Oneonta, NY, where he was born on December 4, 1923. The only child of Herbert C., president of the Oneonta Coal & Supply Co., and Genevieve Whipple Getman, he was a grandson of Albert D. Getman, Class of 1880, a physician, and a nephew or cousin of numerous other Hamilton alumni through three generations. Herb Getman attended Oneonta High School and prepared for college at the Loomis School in Connecticut. He came to Hamilton in 1941 and joined his grand­father's fraternity, Theta Delta Chi. He lettered in hockey and soccer, and was elected to DT, but left the Hill at the end of his sophomore year in 1943 when called to active duty with the U.S. Army.

Already intent upon a career in medicine, Herb Getman was assigned as a medic to the Galapagos Islands, where the Army Air Corps guarded the Panama Canal. He served as an X-ray technician and medical supply sergeant for more than two years through the end of World War II and was discharged in 1946. He returned to Hamilton that summer, completed his studies, and was awarded his A.B. degree in 1948. He went on to earn an M.A. in biology from Brown University in 1950 and then came back to College Hill for a year to serve as a biology instructor.

Herb Getman subsequently entered the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, where he obtained his M.D. degree in 1956. Following his residency at the Harrisburg (PA) State Hospital in 1959, he and his wife, the former Nancy Lee Pipkin, whom he had wed on June 19, 1954, in Pittsfield, MA, moved to the West Coast where he established his general medical practice in the San Francisco Bay area.

With offices in various ­locations over the years, Dr. ­Getman earned a reputation as a compassionate, dedicated, and skilled physician, beloved by his patients. In later years he settled in El Dorado County, east of Sacramento, and devoted his spare energies to helping his wife Nancy, a medical illustrator, on the ranch they had bought in Martinez, and where she had developed and managed an equine business for the breeding and showing of ­Arabian horses.

Herbert C. Getman, Jr., a ­former president of the Northern California Alumni Association, continued to practice urgent-care medicine in Cameron Park, near Sacramento, until a few months before his death. He died at his home on September 19, 2008, of cancer. With him at the end were his wife of 54 years and their four children, Laura Getman, Carolyn Getman-Cohen, Damon Getman, and Genevieve Getman-Sowa. Also surviving are seven grandchildren.
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Frederick Tewksbury Staats, Jr. '45

Frederick Tewksbury Staats, Jr. '45, a longtime sales executive with Dun & Bradstreet, Inc., and an activist on behalf of his college and community, was born on August 3, 1923, in Jersey City, NJ. His parents were Frederick T., a lumber broker, and Louise Johnson Staats. When young Fred was a teenager, his family moved to New York City, where he was graduated in 1941 from Horace Mann School for Boys in Riverdale, the Bronx. He enrolled at Hamilton that fall but left the College in the middle of his sophomore year in early 1943 to enlist in the U.S. Army. He served through the end of the Second World War, including two years with the Signal Corps in the Pacific theater, and was ­discharged as a staff sergeant in early 1946.

That spring, Fred Staats came back to College Hill to resume his studies. A member of Alpha Delta Phi and a soccer player who was described in The Hamiltonian as "the quiet master of satirical, dry wit and verbal eloquence," he was awarded his A.B. degree in 1948. He left the Hill with pleasurable memories and having acquired many lifelong friends.

Fred Staats returned to New York City, where he was married in Riverdale to Barbara S. Haynes, a Wells College graduate, on ­September 24, 1949. He found employment in Manhattan with Dun & Bradstreet, the well-known provider of business information, services, and research. Named a business information manager and later director of sales promotion, he remained with the firm until his retirement in 1986.

While residing in Hastings-on-Hudson and later Dobbs Ferry, he took an active role in church and community affairs. He served as a vestryman of Barnabas Protestant Episcopal Church in Ardsley and as a vestryman and warden of Zion Episcopal Church in Dobbs Ferry. In addition, he was a volunteer fireman with the Riverview Manor Hose Co. in Hastings-on-Hudson and vice president of the Dobbs Ferry ­Historical Society. To Hamilton over many years, he faithfully and ­generously contributed his time and means, chairing the regional Alumni Fund as well as his class's reunion gift committee, and serving as class agent for the Annual Fund.

Frederick T. Staats, Jr., a tall and habitually quiet man who once, in typically understated fashion, described his life as "rather prosaic, raising children, paying taxes and tuition," died at his home in Dobbs Ferry on October 17, 2008. He is survived by his wife of 59 years. Also surviving are three daughters, Maren, Diana, and Roberta, and five grandchildren.
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Bruce Charles McLean '46

Bruce Charles McLean '46, an attorney and longtime community leader, was born on May 11, 1924, in Waterville, NY. A son of Charles W., a funeral director, and Mary Allen McLean, he grew up in Waterville, south of Clinton, and was graduated in 1942 from Waterville Central High School, where he had been president of the senior class and the Student Council. He entered Hamilton that year and joined Psi Upsilon. However, after a single semester, he left the Hill to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Sent to Brown University for training in meteorology, he spent two years in Panama before his discharge as a sergeant in 1946, after World War II's end. He returned to College Hill that summer to resume his studies. His extracurricular time was devoted to fencing and ­soccer, and singing in the Choir. He also enjoyed "great times at the Psi U house," where his house party date was his future wife of almost 60 years.

In 1948, the year before he stopped back at the College to pick up his diploma, Bruce McLean began law studies at ­Cornell ­University. On June 18, 1949, while in law school, he was married to Eleanor M. (Lea) Hart in Deansboro, NY. After receiving his LL.B. degree in 1951, he joined the Utica law firm of Kernan & Kernan. Four years later, he signed up for an exhilarating adventure, helping Robert E. Peach '41 build up his regional carrier, Mohawk Airlines.

Named assistant to the vice president, Bruce McLean was soon promoted to director of legal affairs and elected secretary to Mohawk's board. In 1963, he added the title of vice president, and he became senior vice president and a company director as well as general counsel in 1968. Working in association with ­several other Hamilton alumni in addition to President Bob Peach, he traveled extensively, contributing greatly to Mohawk's fast-growing success.

In 1971, however, the company was forced to merge with Allegheny Airlines (now USAirways) and Bruce McLean chose to leave corporate law in 1972 to become counsel to the New York State Power Authority. During his years with that agency, he was involved in the licensing and building of nuclear plants as well as transmission lines and other challenging and ­controversial projects.

In time, commuting to New York City and later Albany from his home in New Hartford became quite tiresome, and Bruce McLean decided in 1983 to join still another Hamilton alumnus, Jack B. Riffle '50, chairman and chief executive officer of Utica National Insurance Group, as a corporate counsel. It cut his commute to less than a mile, and he retained that post for a decade before his third and final retirement in 1993.

Through the years, community involvement continued to be a fulfilling part of Bruce McLean's life. Appointed as a trustee of Mohawk Valley Community College in 1966, he later chaired its board and that of the MVCC Foundation. In addition, he was president of the Family Services Corp. of Greater Utica and a director of the Oneida County Industrial Development Association, and he served on the boards of numerous community and charitable organizations, including the Utica YMCA, Rotary Club, and ­Rescue Mission. Also New Hartford village attorney for a decade, he chaired the Greater Utica Area Chamber of Commerce Airport Committee and became a staunch proponent and supporter of the Oneida County Airport. In 1995, in recognition of his dedication to that cause, the road in front of the ­airport was named McLean Way.

Bruce McLean, an elder and former board president of the New Hartford Presbyterian Church, also served as president of the board of the House of Good Shepherd in Utica. On Hamilton's behalf, he chaired the College's regional fund-raising and presided over the Utica Alumni Association. In addition, he chaired class reunions on the Hill and remained generously supportive of the College.

The McLeans divided the seasons between a summer home on Brantingham Lake in the Adirondacks and a winter home in Englewood, FL, while continuing to reside in New Hartford. Bruce C. McLean was in Florida when he died on January 18, 2009. In addition to Lea, his wife, he is survived by two sons, Gardner H. '74 and Gregory B. McLean; two daughters, Deborah Hameline and Jennifer McLean-Bove; 10 grandchildren, including Carolyn Y. McLean '04; and a sister and two brothers, including ­Roderick A. McLean '42.
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Jack Gordon Record '46

Jack Gordon Record '46, born on June 26, 1923, in Whitesboro, NY, grew up in that Utica suburb. The son of Gordon R., an automobile mechanic, and Perle Barnard Record, he enrolled at Hamilton in 1942 from Whitesboro High School. However, he withdrew from the College after a semester to go on active duty with the U.S. Army Air Corps. He completed its pre-meteorological program at the University of ­Virginia and subsequently the Army Air Forces' precision navigation course. Commissioned as a second lieutenant, he served through the end of World War II and took part in numerous B-29 bombing raids over Japan.

In 1946, Jack Record returned to College Hill and resumed his studies. Affiliated with Tau Kappa Epsilon, he was a leading participant in the reactivation of its Hamilton chapter in 1948. Intending a career in mathematics education, he practice-taught at Clinton Central School. A member of the Choir and noted for his "shiny Studebaker," as reported in The Hamiltonian, he received his A.B. degree in 1948.

The College lost touch with Jack Record following his grad­uation and has no information about his subsequent activities. In 2003, however, he contacted Hamilton to provide his then ­current address in North Bay, NY, and thereafter contributed generously to the Annual Fund. Last summer, after a letter to him was returned marked "deceased," ­verification was obtained from Social Security records that he had died on November 24, 2006. The College has no information regarding survivors.
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Willis Raymond Burrows, Jr. '49

Willis Raymond Burrows, Jr. '49, a retired market research consultant and business development administrator, was born on January 10, 1927, in Marion, IN. His parents were W. Raymond, a sales engineer, and Wilma Marks Burrows. "Ray" Burrows, who grew up in Deposit, NY, entered the U.S. Army following his graduation from Deposit High School in 1944. He served for two years through the end of World War II and was initially assigned to the Army's specialized training program in basic engineering on Hamilton's campus. After his discharge as a staff sergeant, he returned to the College as a matriculated student. A "friendly soul" who threw himself into everything he did with "appalling vigor," according to The Hamiltonian, he joined the Emerson Literary Society and was active in the Camera Club. He was also on the staff of campus radio station WHC and earned election to the honorary journalism society Pi Delta Epsilon.

Ray Burrows, who was awarded his diploma in 1949, went on to the Harvard Business School. After acquiring his M.B.A. degree in 1951, he found employment with the R.E. Dietz Co., ­manu­fac­turers of lanterns and directional signals in Syracuse, NY. He became assistant to its president and was promoted to assistant sales manager. He was a division manager in 1960 when he left Dietz to become manager of market research for the Carborundum Co. in Niagara Falls, NY.

Subsequently employed in a similar position by the Xerox Corp. in Rochester, NY, Ray Burrows left Xerox in 1966 to establish his own business as a marketing and research consultant. In succeeding years he served in addition as executive vice president of the Health Marketing Group and of Harvey Research Organization, both in Rochester. A former president of the Central New York Chapter of the American Marketing Association, he also taught business courses at Monroe Community College and the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Ray Burrows later moved to North Carolina, where his last employment was for that state as a regional administrator for business development. Throughout his working life, he found time for involvement in church and community affairs. A former elder of the Penfield (NY) Presbyterian Church, he held many volunteer positions and became known for his warmth and generosity of spirit.

A resident of Wesley Village in Wilmore, KY, during the last few years of his life, W. Raymond ­Burrows, Jr. died in Wilmore on September 27, 2008. He is survived by his wife, Jeanne Graves Burrows, whom he had married on September 19, 1949, in Syracuse. Also surviving are two sons, Keith A. and David M. Burrows; a daughter, Lynn A. Burrows; and four grandchildren.
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Chauncey Rowan '49

Chauncey Rowan '49, a retired telecommunications executive who had experienced more than one unwelcomed adventure abroad during his lifetime, was born on July 10, 1920, in Elmira, NY. A son of Howard W., a prison officer, and Agnes Johnson Rowan, "Chaunce" Rowan grew up in Ellenville, NY, west of New Paltz, and was graduated in 1938 from Ellenville High School. Called into uniform during the Second World War in 1942, he served in the U.S. Army Air Corps, received pilot training, and while stationed in England, flew more than 50 missions as a P-47D combat pilot over Nazi-occupied Europe.

In May 1944, he had just completed a bombing run over Germany when his fighter plane was shot down by antiaircraft fire, forcing him to bail out over enemy territory. Captured, the injured first lieutenant was held for 11 months as a prisoner of war, surviving on little more than powdered milk and Spam. He and other American prisoners were forced to march long distances in sub-zero temperatures as Soviet troops advanced from the East. He was in Nuremberg, a city subjected to constant Allied bombings, when General Patton's 3rd Army arrived in April 1945 and liberated the P.O.W. camp.

Released as a captain after the war's end in late 1945 (he would remain in the Air Force Reserve and retire in 1971 as a major), Chauncey Rowan had been awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses and four Air Medals, as well as the Purple Heart. ­Married to Patricia Taylor on June 13, 1945, while on leave in Ellenville, he enrolled at Hamilton in the spring of 1946. With his wife, he joined other returning veterans and their families in North Village, the temporary housing set up for their use. The Rowans' first son was born while they lived on the Hill.

Chauncey Rowan, who joined Sigma Phi, majored in ­economics and was graduated in 1949. He soon entered a training program with the New York Telephone Co. in Utica, and before long he was appointed traffic supervisor for the company in Schenectady. He subsequently served as district traffic superintendent in Plattsburgh, Auburn, Glens Falls, and back again in Utica, during which time he and Patricia resided in Clinton.

Later employed in contract administration by American Bell International, Chauncey Rowan was in Tehran, Iran, in 1978 when he and his wife were forced to leave the country during the political upheaval that followed the ousting of the Shah. He concluded his career in the legal department of American Telephone & Telegraph Co., at times engaged in antitrust litigation work in Florida. He retired in 1982.

Chauncey Rowan, active for many years in alumni affairs, ­continued his interest in flying and enjoyed attending the reunions of his 8th Air Force fighter squadron. A 4-handicap golfer, he also enjoyed sailing and racing Star-class sailboats on the Finger Lakes. A clarinet player in an Ellenville band in his youth, he turned to the study of oil painting later in life and continued to paint oil portraits, especially of children, relatives, and friends, in recent years.

Chauncey Rowan, who had retired to Cape Cod, and subsequently to Scottsdale, AZ, died in Scottsdale on November 23, 2008. Predeceased by his wife Patricia in 1994, he is survived by his ­second wife, the former Margaret Horner Van Keuren. Also surviving are two sons and a daughter from his first marriage, Stephen B., Nicholas C., and Julia H. Rowan, and two grandchildren and a stepson.
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