1930s
Stephen Charles Mahady ’35
Stephen Charles Mahady ’35, a physician and specialist in pulmonary disorders, who became a medical administrator and educator, was born on May 2, 1915, to Frank M. and Margaret Meaney Mahady, in Utica, NY. He grew up in a farm family in Deansboro, not far from Clinton, and was graduated from Clinton High School at the age of 15. After staying on there for a year of postgraduate study, Steve Mahady came up the Hill to the College in 1931. Already committed to his future career while at Hamilton, he diligently pursued premedical studies and gained election to Phi Beta Kappa. A member of the local fraternity Beta Kappa, he left the Hill as an honors graduate in 1935.
Steve Mahady went on to Harvard Medical School, where he earned his M.D. degree in 1939. While serving his internship at Boston City Hospital, he encountered a patient with a lung disorder for which there was no adequate therapy. It challenged Dr. Mahady to specialize in pulmonary physiology, and he completed his residency in that field at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. There he was among those who participated in the first cardiac catheterization performed in this country.
After his three-year residency, Steve Mahady had intended to return to Boston. However, World War II interrupted his plans. Commissioned as a captain in the U.S. Army Air Corps, he served for two years until the end of the war in 1945. He was assigned as a research officer and instructor to the School of Aviation Medicine at Randolph Field in Texas. There, flying in nonpressurized cockpits at high altitudes left its debilitating effects and prompted him to give up his plans for private practice.
After military service, Dr. Mahady returned to New York State and spent a year as an assistant director of the tuberculosis division of Grasslands Hospital in Valhalla. Subsequently, he went all the way West to Seattle, WA, as chief of service and director of the research laboratory at Firland Sanitarium. After three years there, ailing parents brought him back to the East. Appointed in 1950 as a hospital medical management advisor in the New York State Department of Health, he was assigned to the Bureau of Tuberculosis Hospitals, taking responsibility for the programs in seven hospitals throughout the state. Two years later, he returned to Utica as director of Broadacres State Tuberculosis Hospital, where he established the first permanent chest clinic in New York. He remained at Broadacres for 15 years.
Dr. Mahady’s 20-year administrative career with the state’s Department of Health culminated with his appointment in 1967 as assistant commissioner for medical services, overseeing all direct care in state hospitals and clinics as well as the newly introduced Medicaid program. He retired from state service in 1970 and turned to medical school administration and teaching as chief of medicine at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady and later as clinical associate professor at Albany Medical College. He retired again in 1980, only to remain active in various capacities in the medical field, especially as a director of the American Lung Association of New York State and former secretary of its board, as well as director of its Lung Research Institute.
During his years in Utica, Dr. Mahady held numerous posts, including president of the Utica Academy of Medicine, the Catholic Physicians Guild, and the New York Trudeau Society. He was also president of the board of the Oneida County Tuberculosis and Health Association. Subsequently a resident of the Albany suburb of Guilderland, he enjoyed his retirement years playing as much golf as the weather permitted, traveling, and countless hours with his model trains.
Stephen C. Mahady, a faithful and generously supportive alumnus, died in Albany on February 2, 2010, in his 95th year. He is survived by his wife, the former Helen Lasher, whom he had married in Syracuse, NY, on August 2, 1942. Also surviving are two sons, Charles S. and Frank T. Mahady ’66, and four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Wynant James Williams, Jr. ’35
Wynant James Williams, Jr. ’35, who retired as a corporate secretary after 40 years with the Travelers Insurance Co., was born on March 28, 1914, in Albany, NY. The son of Wynant J., a professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Alice Carpenter Williams, he came to Hamilton in 1931, following his graduation from Albany High School. He joined the Emerson Literary Society and became manager of the varsity basketball team in his senior year.
Awarded his B.S. degree in 1935, “Wy” Williams returned to the Albany area, where he found employment prospects dim during that era of the Great Depression. Hoping to improve those prospects, he obtained an M.B.A. degree from R.P.I. in 1936. Immediately thereafter, he began his long career with Travelers Insurance in Hartford, CT, interrupted only by three years of service with the U.S. Army during World War II. He enlisted in 1942 and served with an anti-aircraft unit in the European theater until the war’s end.
Discharged as a staff sergeant, Wy Williams returned to Travelers as an insurance underwriter. Primarily engaged in rate-making on a company-wide basis, he often traveled extensively, meeting with company representatives as well as representatives of state insurance departments. In 1954, as assistant secretary, he became the youngest officer of the company. He retired in 1976 as the corporate secretary of its Property and Casualty Division.
A resident of West Hartford, CT, since 1946, Wy Williams enjoyed travel, especially to Europe, with his wife, the former Miriam Deiseroth, whom he had wed in Albany on May 20, 1939. He also enjoyed following the fortunes of the Boston Red Sox. Grateful for the Hamilton training in mathematics and public speaking that helped him advance his career, he was an ever loyal and generous supporter of the College.
Wynant J. Williams, Jr. died in Hartford on October 17, 2009, at the age of 95. Predeceased by his wife of 62 years, he is survived by a daughter, Christine A. Williams.
Richard Harry Gatland ’36
Richard Harry Gatland ’36, for many years treasurer of a chemical company, was born on December 10, 1914, to Arthur W., a bricklayer, and Miriam Irene Zimmerman Gatland, in Lancaster, PA. “Dick” Gatland grew up in Buffalo, NY, where he attended Fosdick-Master Park High School, and matriculated at Hamilton in 1932. Hailed by The Hamiltonian for his “stick-to-it-iveness,” he excelled academically and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He was graduated with honors in English and political science in 1936.
Richard Gatland, who served as an officer in the U.S. Navy during World War II, was married to Lillian A. Bickford in 1946, and they resided in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park for many years. Previously employed by the Goodyear Tire Co., Richard Gatland became treasurer of Pierce & Stephens Chemical Corp., a manufacturer of adhesives based in Buffalo. He was elected as its vice president of finance in 1962.
While residing in Orchard Park, Richard H. Gatland was active in a choral society and a volunteer at the local library. After his retirement, he took up residence in North Carolina and Virginia. A dozen years ago, he moved to Williamstown, MA. He died in Williamstown on December 6, 2009, four days before his 95th birthday. Predeceased by his wife in 2008, he is survived by a daughter, Judy Gatland, and three grandchildren.
Robert Bradley Lortz ’36
Robert Bradley Lortz ’36, employed for 37 years by a Massachusetts insurance company, was born on December 5, 1913, in Utica, NY. His parents were Arthur L., an accountant, and Jennie Martin Lortz. He grew up in Utica and enrolled at Hamilton in 1932, following his graduation from Utica Free Academy. While on the Hill, he was a member of the Charlatans. However, as a commuting student and a “neutral,” he missed out, as he later observed, on a significant part of college life.
Bob Lortz received his B.S. degree in 1936, when the Great Depression was still gripping the nation. It was not an auspicious year to find employment, and he was relieved to be accepted as an underwriter trainee by the Utica Mutual Insurance Co. While there he met Mildred (“Millie”) Newlove, a fellow Utican, and they were married in their hometown on September 6, 1938. That year, Bob began his long career with the Middlesex Insurance Co. in Concord, MA. Starting out as a trainee and part-time “office boy,” he moved up to underwriting in the casualty, liability, and fire and theft divisions. Promoted to middle management, he served as assistant secretary and later as an assistant vice president of the company. Named a vice president in 1971, he retired in 1975.
Following his retirement, Bob Lortz, with his wife Millie, moved from Acton, MA, to divide the year between Goffstown, NH, in the summer and Nokomis, FL, in the winter. They also bought an Airstream trailer and for five years traveled in it throughout the country for a few months each year. Earlier, while residing in Massachusetts, Bob had been active in community and church affairs. A charter member and past president of the Concord Lion’s Club, he had also been a 40-year member and past moderator of the Trinitarian Congregational Church in Concord.
Robert B. Lortz, known as a kind and gentle man with an engaging sense of humor, had recently relocated from Westborough, MA, to a health care center in Bedford, NH. He died there on November 15, 2009, in his 96th year. Predeceased by his wife, he is survived by two sons, Bradley P. and David A. Lortz; a daughter, Nancy E. Lortz; and eight grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
Roger Alfred Lyons ’36
Roger Alfred Lyons ’36, a Voice of America editor who taught Jungian psychology in retirement, grew up in New York City, where he was born on January 5, 1915. The son of Alfred J. and Florine Allen Lyons, he prepared for college at New Hampton School in New Hampshire and came to Hamilton in 1932. Credited by The Hamiltonian with having “read at least one page of every book in the library,” he focused his interests on biology and music while on the Hill and was a member of the Choir. After acquiring his B.S. degree in 1936, he returned to New York City, where, heeding the advice of Sol Linowitz ’35 to capitalize on his “nice voice,” he decided to pursue a career in radio. He had already been introduced to broadcasting in his senior year as a part-time announcer on radio station WIBX in Utica.
Roger Lyons became a staff announcer for station WOR in New York City from 1936 to 1940, and subsequently a freelance radio newscaster, producer, and narrator. During World War II he worked for the Voice of America in connection with the Office of War Information while also taking courses in religion and ethics at Columbia University. After the war, he studied analytic psychology for two years with Carl Jung and associates at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. Married on August 7, 1947, to Dirkje (“Vickie”) Suuring in the Netherlands, he returned to the States in 1948 and again joined the Voice of America, serving as special events officer and later as director of religious programming.
In 1954, following “a bout with Senator McCarthy,” Roger Lyons left the Voice of America to work for the National Broadcasting Company, and in 1956 he became public relations director for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He left that post in 1961 to join the U.S. Information Agency as a member of the Foreign Service. After serving for two years as program manager for the USIA at the U.S. Embassy in Bonn, Germany, he became the cultural attaché at the U.S. Mission in Berlin, supervising and administrating the USIA’s largest cultural and educational exchange program in Europe. From 1968 until his retirement in 1975, he was cultural editor for the USIA's Voice of America in Washington, DC.
After his retirement and until 1997, Roger Lyons taught at least three courses a year in Jungian psychology at Georgetown University's School of Continuing Education. He also did freelance writing and consulting work. His wife Vickie died in 1970, and in 1980 he was wed to Mary E. Kimball.
Roger A. Lyons, a resident of Silver Spring, MD, died on May 24, 2009, at the age of 94. In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter and son from his first marriage, Florine Carter and Timothy Lyons, as well as three stepchildren and two grandchildren.
