1940s
Arthur Holmes Applegate ’41
Arthur Holmes Applegate ’41, who practiced medicine in Ilion, NY, for 30 years, was born on January 2, 1919, in Deansboro, not far from College Hill. The son of Robert D., a contractor, and Julia Alnetta Calhoun Applegate, he grew up in Ilion, near Utica, and was graduated from Ilion High School. Art Applegate enrolled at Hamilton in 1937, joined Tau Kappa Epsilon, and sang in the Choir. Thinking of a future career in the classroom, he changed his mind following “the humbling experience” of practice teaching at Proctor High School in Utica.
Art Applegate, who left the Hill with his diploma in 1941, was working for Remington Arms in Ilion when called into military service in 1942. Assigned to the Army Air Corps and later the Infantry, he was selected, because of his “rudimentary ability in French and German acquired at Hamilton,” for the Army's Counterintelligence Corps. Attached to a military intelligence team in Europe, he served in France, Belgium, and Germany, and was awarded the Bronze Star. He was discharged as a technical sergeant at World War II's end in 1945.
With further study made possible by the G.I. Bill, Art Applegate decided on a career in medicine. He returned to College Hill to take premedical courses for 18 months until 1947, when he was admitted to the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. On June 25, 1949, while a medical student, he was married in Frankfort, NY, to Betty Jane Weed-en, sister of G. Roger Weeden, Jr. ’39 and Willis F. Weeden ’41.
After acquiring his M.D. degree in 1951, Art Applegate served his internship at Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville, TN, and his residency at Strong Memorial Hospital back in Rochester. His postgraduate training completed, he returned to Ilion and established his practice in partnership with Roger Weeden, his brother-in-law, in 1954. During their 30-year partnership, they had as patients “the tall and the small, the rich and the poor,” and they shared in their “joys and sorrows, successes and failures, illness and times of good health, birth and death.” Dr. Applegate considered that sharing to be “a real privilege,” and he thoroughly enjoyed the day-to-day challenges of medical practice.
During his years of practice, Art Applegate, a past president of the Central New York Academy of Medicine, was involved in various ways in his community. A onetime member of the Ilion Central School Board and president of the Ilion Conversation Club, he had also been secretary of the Ilion Water Commission and a vestryman of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.
Art Applegate’s leisure-time activities encompassed reading, gardening, basket weaving, and needlepoint work, as well as music. An accomplished organist and pianist, he also loved to sing. After his retirement in 1984, and when not “rattling around in our 1830 Federalist home,” their longtime residence in Ilion, he and Betty enjoyed exposure to other places and cultures through travel.
Arthur H. Applegate, a devoted alumnus, died on November 21, 2009, in Granville, OH, in his 91st year. Predeceased by his wife in 2004, he is survived by two sons, Stephen H. ’74 and Robert W. Applegate ’75; a daughter, Mary H. Boyd; and 10 grandchildren.
Edward Gelsthorpe ’42
Edward Gelsthorpe ’42, a corporate leader famed for his consumer products marketing genius, and a former trustee of the College, was born on June 14, 1921, in Philadelphia, PA. The son of Albert E. and Susan Mills Gelsthorpe, he grew up in Winchester, MA, and Pleasantville, NY, where he was graduated in 1938 from Pleasantville High School. Ed Gelsthorpe was able financially to enroll at Hamilton that fall, only because a wealthy aunt, impressed with the young man, provided the funds for his college education. Her expectation was that Ed would become a minister following his graduation. That expectation would be derailed by World War II.
While on the Hill, Ed Gelsthorpe joined Sigma Phi and went out for baseball and football. He was in his senior year when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The following day, he skipped class, drove down to New York City, and enlisted in the Navy. His induction deferred until his graduation, he was awarded his B.S. degree in 1942.
Commissioned as an ensign, Ed Gelsthorpe was assigned as a gunnery officer to the destroyer escort U.S.S. Acree. On February 21, 1943, just before the Acree left for the Pacific, he was married in Pleasantville to Mary Ann McLaughlin. His vessel would participate in several major engagements in the Pacific theater, including the invasions of the Mariana Islands. During that campaign, Ed Gelsthorpe at one point engaged in hand-to-hand combat while rescuing by boat U.S. soldiers who had been driven into the sea by the Japanese. By the war’s end, he had been promoted to lieutenant and executive officer of the Acree.
Discharged after three years in uniform in 1945, Ed Gelsthorpe tried his luck as a salesman without spectacular success until he went to work for Bristol-Meyers in 1949. Beginning as a salesman for the consumer products company, he soon obtained his basic training in new product development, paving the way for his future achievements as a master marketer. During the 1960s, while still at Bristol-Meyers, he immediately recognized the potential in a new kind of deodorant application, which he helped develop. Marketed as Ban Roll-On, it became a major product for the company.
Promoted from director of merchandizing to vice president of sales, Ed Gelsthorpe was vice president and marketing director when he left Bristol-Meyers to move on to Colgate-Palmolive Co. in 1961. After two years as vice president and general manager of its toiletries division, he took up quite a challenge, that of reviving the fortunes of Ocean Spray, the cranberry sauce and juice farm cooperative on Cape Cod. Its growth potential severely limited by a product line that typically sold around Thanksgiving and Christmas only, it cried for innovative approaches, which Ed Gelsthorpe quickly provided. As president and chief executive officer, he directed Ocean Spray’s research and development staff to come up with new products. Among the many results was Cranapple, the mixture of cranberry and apple juices introduced in 1964 that proved highly popular.
Ed Gelsthorpe, who soon became known in the corporate world as “Cranapple Ed,” had turned the “tart little berry” into a huge money maker with Ocean Spray sales more than doubling, thanks to a variety of new hybrid cranberry products. His success in turning the cooperative around drew the attention of Hunt-Wesson Foods in California. Named president and chief executive officer of that food product company in 1968, he broadened its product line by introducing Skillet Dinners, Big John's Beans ’n Fixin’s, Hunts’ Snack Pack, and Manwich sandwich sauce.
Eager to return to the Northeast, Ed Gelsthorpe moved to Boston in 1972 and took up a new challenge as vice president of marketing for the Gillette Co. Soon named president and chief operating officer of the razor and shaving blade manufacturer, he found himself opposed by its “old-guard” executives who didn’t think Gillette needed “rescuing” by a marketing expert. Consequently, he left the company in 1974 to become executive vice president and COO of United Brands, also headquartered in Boston.
A year later, Ed Gelsthorpe made his final, and highly successful, corporate move to H.P. Hood, New England’s largest distributor of dairy products. As president and COO, he introduced and promoted such new products as Frogurt, the first frozen yogurt to be marketed, and soon made Hood nationally known. Besides improving on the company’s product line, he streamlined its operations. Ultimately deciding, however, that consolidation would create a more efficient marketing system, he engineered Hood’s sale to two farm cooperatives, including Agway, in 1980. He stayed on at Hood until his retirement in 1986.
Ed Gelsthorpe, a strong personality with decidedly strong views, prided himself on resisting conformity and acquired a well earned reputation as a maverick in the corporate world. In addition to his innovative approaches as a “turn-around” specialist, he was an outspoken advocate of corporate social responsibility and business integrity. In his private life he was always a good citizen, devoting his energies to community endeavors, especially on his beloved Cape Cod, where he had summered for much of his life and resided full-time in retirement.
Ed Gelsthorpe was also a man of many enthusiasms. He was a voracious and compulsive reader, and his hobbies included cabinet making as an expert woodworker and toy collecting. An avid sailor since boyhood, he took part in yachting events, and he was a passionate supporter of the performing arts. Among his enthusiasms was Hamilton, and his numerous volunteer activities on the College's behalf included service as a member of the Board of Trustees from 1966 to 1983.
Edward Gelsthorpe died at his home in East Dennis, MA, on September 12, 2009. He is survived by his wife of 66 years. Also surviving are three sons, Albert, Thomas, and Seth Gelsthorpe ’80; a daughter, Cynthia Fish; and four grandchildren. Ed Gelsthorpe once remarked that, “Like a growing plant I’ve always felt a need to re-pot, to learn things new to me, to undertake new challenges.” His distinguished business career amply reflected that approach to life.
Frank Brown Leonard ’42
Frank Brown Leonard ’42, an editor who became a publications supervisor for AT&T’s Bell Laboratories, was born on October 5, 1920, in Brooklyn, NY. His parents were Clarence F., a sales representative, and Bernice Brown Leonard. He grew up in New Jersey, where he was graduated in 1938 from Westfield High School. That fall, he enrolled at Hamilton and joined Alpha Delta Phi. Initially, he went out for football and hockey but soon concentrated his athletic activities on track. He lettered in track and also served on the Intramural Council.
Soon after his graduation in 1942, Frank Leonard was drafted into the U.S. Army. Following Signal Corps schools and training in radar installation, he transferred to the Air Corps and spent the remainder of World War II instructing B-24 bombardiers in the use of the radar-modified Norton bombsight. Discharged as a technical sergeant in 1946, he obtained a teaching fellowship at the University of Florida, and there earned his M.A. degree in English in 1948. On December 21 of that year, he and Claire Schmidt were married in Gainesville.
The newlyweds moved to New York City, where Frank Leonard went to work for Crowell-Collier Publishing Co. as an encyclopedia editor, followed by a stint editing college textbooks for the American Book Co. In 1952, he joined American Telephone & Telegraph Co.'s Bell Laboratories in New Jersey as an editor. Eventually, as publications supervisor, he managed the writing, editing, and design of all printed publications connected with U.S. Defense Department and Bell System projects. He also enjoyed the opportunity to work on the development of computer typesetting systems.
In 1984, after 33 years with Bell Labs, Frank Leonard retired, and the following year he and Claire moved from New Jersey to Maine, lured there by their lifelong love of sailing. In South Harpswell they built a home overlooking Potts Harbor and took to sailing their sloop among the many islands in Casco Bay, where they and their visiting children and grandchildren enjoyed hiking, picnicking, fishing, and swimming. The Leonards also enjoyed gardening, and Frank, in addition, devoted several hours a week to tennis.
The resident of a retirement community in Brunswick, ME, in recent years, and a dedicated member of Alcoholics Anonymous, Frank Leonard had remained ever steadfastly close to Hamilton. A past president of the Northern New Jersey Alumni Association as well as a member of the Alumni Council, he was also a generous benefactor of the College. Although in debilitated health since suffering a stroke in 1992, he nonetheless managed, assisted by his son, Peter, to attend and enjoy the 60th Reunion of his class, in 2002.
Frank B. Leonard died in Brunswick on September 25, 2009. Survivors are his wife of 62 years; two sons, Peter F. and Eric F. Leonard; two daughters, Susan Chiocca and Nancy Leonard; and seven grandchildren. Other relatives include his nephew, Thomas D. Schmidt ’87.
Randall Lake Williams ’44
Randall Lake Williams ’44, a retired sales manager, grew up in Rome, NY, where he was born in the family home on May 4, 1921. The younger son of James C., a textile mill executive, and Constance Lake Williams, he was a nephew of Robert M. Lake ’29. “Randy” Williams prepared for college at Salisbury School in Connecticut and came to Hamilton from Rome in 1940. He joined Chi Psi, went out for baseball and hockey, and became a member of the ski team. He left the College after two years and subsequently entered the U.S. Army Air Corps. Trained as a pilot and commissioned as a second lieutenant, he served for two years until the end of World War II in 1945.
Back in Rome, Randy Williams found employment in the sales field. On December 30, 1949, he was married in Rome to Winona ("Nonie") Flenard, not long after joining the sales staff of Revere Copper and Brass. The couple soon moved to St. Louis, MO, where Randy worked in sales out of the local Revere Copper offices, and where his two daughters were born.
In 1955, Randy Williams settled permanently in California, first as Los Angeles district manager for Revere Copper and later as West Coast district manager for the Rubbermaid Corp. He was subsequently with the Action Container Corp., a corrugated box manufacturer located in Orange.
Previously residing in Whittier, the Williamses made their home in nearby La Mirada in recent years. Randall L. Williams died there on December 29, 2009. Survivors, in addition to his wife of 60 years, are his daughters, Susan E. Williams and Carolyn Kimberly, and four grandchildren.
John King Backus ’46
John King Backus ’46, a research chemist who retired as manager of laboratory services for Mobay Corp. (a subsidiary of the German chemical corporation Bayer) in Pittsburgh, PA, was born on May 22, 1925, in Buffalo, NY. The only child of Arthur O. Backus, a newspaper editor, and the former Lois V. King, also a journalist as well as a pianist, he grew up in the Buffalo area and entered Hamilton in 1942 from Kenmore High School. He joined Tau Kappa Epsilon and became a member of Hamilton's first varsity swimming team. He also lent his baritone voice to the Choir and served on the College’s Press Board. In future years his devotion to choral singing as well as swimming would never wane.
Like most members of the Class of 1946, John Backus had his college days interrupted by military service during World War II. He left the Hill to enter the U.S. Army in the summer of 1944. Assigned to training in electrical engineering and subsequently a photographer for the Signal Corps, he remained in uniform for two years until July 1946, well after the war’s end. Thereafter he returned to College Hill to complete his studies, manage the swimming team, and rejoin the Choir. Winner of the Norton Foundation Prize in chemistry, he was graduated with honors in chemistry and mathematics in 1947.
John Backus went on to Cornell University, where he earned an M.S. degree in physical chemistry in 1950. On June 18 of that year, he and Marjorie (Marge) North, then a Cornell undergraduate whom he met while they were singing in a church choir in Ithaca, were married in Far Rockaway, NY. They stayed on at Cornell until 1952, when Marge was graduated and John acquired his Ph.D. It marked the beginning of a 38-year career in industrial chemistry, mostly related to plastics research and development, for John.
He began his career as a research chemist for Procter & Gamble Co. in Cincinnati, OH. A year later, he returned to his home area of Buffalo and became a chemical and research supervisor for O-Cel-O, a unit of General Mills, Inc. After nine years, when that operation closed down, he and Marge relocated with their four children to the Pittsburgh area, where John joined Mobay in 1962. Promoted from group leader to research administrator, he remained with Mobay until his retirement in 1990.
A contributor of numerous articles to technical journals and a patentee, John Backus at one time chaired the Pittsburgh section of the American Chemical Society. While residing in suburban Allison Park, he was also active in the community. Prompted by their lifelong love of choral singing, he and Marge sang together for many years in the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh, and the Pittsburgh Concert Chorale as well as church choirs. A past president of the First Lutheran Church of Pittsburgh, John also served on the Southwest Pennsylvania Synod Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In addition, the Backuses often hosted American Field Service exchange students from abroad, several of whom became a permanent part of their extended family.
An intensely devoted alumnus, John Backus served the College in innumerable volunteer capacities over the years. A former president of the Western Pennsylvania Alumni Association and district chairman of the Alumni Fund, he also served on the Alumni Council and as president of the Class of 1946. As an eye witness to the watershed years in Hamilton's history from 1942 to 1947, he conveyed their importance and meaning in his notable Half-Century Annalist's Letter at Reunions 1996. In addition, for almost 30 years he faithfully served as class correspondent for this magazine. His final class notes were submitted just days before his death.
John King Backus died at his suburban home on September 14, 2009, after a four-year struggle with pancreatic cancer. In addition to his wife of 59 years, he is survived by a son, David K. Backus ’75; three daughters, Lois V. Backus, Laura Hoffman, and Ruth Grillo; and five grandchildren. An ever genial and good natured man, John Backus will be greatly missed by them as well as by his many friends on College Hill and beyond.
Matthew Charles Finn, Jr. ’46
Matthew Charles Finn, Jr. ’46, a surgeon who practiced in the Boston area and on Cape Cod for 30 years, was born in Boston on April 24, 1925. A son of Matthew C., an industrial engineer, and Mary Ireland Finn, he grew up in a large family in Milton, MA, and came to the College at age 17 in 1942 from Milton High School. He joined Alpha Delta Phi, fenced and played football, and was elected to D.T. After a year, however, “Matt” Finn left the Hill to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps. He participated in the Navy’s V-12 program at Colgate University and served in the Marine Corps for two years during World War II. He thereafter briefly returned to Hamilton for the summer session of 1944. Away from the Hill again until 1947, he completed his premedical studies in 1949 and received his diploma in 1950.
Matt Finn, who was married to Patricia V. Havens in Boston on June 18, 1949, went on to the Tufts University School of Medicine, where he obtained his M.D. degree in 1953. After his internship and residency in surgery at the New York Hospital, Cornell Medical Center, he returned to Boston for surgical residencies at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and Boston City Hospital. During his years of residency he also served as an instructor in surgery at Cornell University’s College of Medicine as well as Tufts.
Dr. Finn practiced surgery at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA, for five years until 1965, when he moved to Wareham on Cape Cod. There, for 25 years, he continued to practice at Tobey Hospital where he also served as chief of surgery and president of the medical staff. A fellow of the American College of Surgeons and diplomate of the American Board of Surgery, he was known to his patients and colleagues alike as “more than a great surgeon; he was a great guy,” and one truly dedicated to his profession.
Matt Finn, who retired at the age of 65 in 1990, continued to reside in Wareham, in a waterfront home on Buzzards Bay. There, for many years he enjoyed getting out on the water several times a week during the sailing season. He also enjoyed a bit of golf as well as daily walks with his beloved golden retriever Caleb. Through the years he never lost his attachment to books and reading, first kindled while a freshman at Hamilton. His quest for learning never waned, and anyone visiting his home instantly knew that he was an ardent bibliophile. Once observing that Hamilton was for him “a lovely sphere encased in glass which I shake from time to time and let silent snow fall once again…,” he remained a devoted alumnus.
Diagnosed with bladder cancer last April, Matthew C. Finn, Jr. died at his home in Wareham on October 20th, 2009. He is survived by his wife, Jo-Ann Harper Finn, whom he had married in 1982. Also surviving is their son, Dante Matthew Finn; a son and two daughters, Mark Finn, Lucinda Tobin, and Perdita Finn, from his first marriage; and five grand-children and three sisters and two brothers.
John Frank Gallagher, Salutatorian ’48
John Frank Gallagher, Salutatorian ’48, an editor who carved out his career in the book publishing industry, was born on January 31, 1918, in West Pittston, PA. A son of George P. Gallagher, assistant general manager for a coal company, and the former Julia C. Gaffney, he grew up in West Pittston and was graduated in 1935 from the town's high school. He subsequently took extension courses offered by the University of Pennsylvania in Wilkes-Barre. In 1941, he entered the U.S. Army and served throughout World War II. Commissioned as an officer in the field artillery, he saw action in the European theater and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.
Discharged with the rank of captain in 1945, John Gallagher enrolled at Hamilton in the spring of 1946. With a wife and daughter (he was married to Sarah C. Phillips in Farmersville, TX, on July 9, 1942), he was among the many veterans who were family men on campus in those days. John Gallagher became noted as “a man of powerful intellect and personality.” He took an active part in campus life, editing The Continental and chairing the Honor Court. Tapped for D.T. and Pentagon, he also complied an impressive academic record, winning many prizes and achieving election to Phi Beta Kappa. With transfer credits and summer sessions, he completed his course of study in 2½ years and was graduated in 1948 with honors in history and as class salutatorian.
John Gallagher went on to earn an M.A. degree in English from the Johns Hopkins University in 1950. That year he entered book publishing as a salesman for Harcourt Brace & Co. He subsequently became an editor and managed the college departments of A.T. Crowell and St. Martin’s Press as well as heading the Michigan State University Press. He worked with such well known authors as Robert Penn Warren, Isaac Asimov, Alan Tate, Cleanth Brooks, and Jacques Barzun, and among the works he edited was the 1964 Grove Press edition of the memoirs of the late Victorian roué Frank Harris, My Life and Loves. With little tolerance for writing that was not of high quality, he adhered to high literary standards throughout his career and never hesitated to cast an acutely critical eye, even on Hamilton College publications.
John F. Gallagher died on January 29, 2010, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa, at the age of 91. He is survived by four daughters, Sarah W., Elizabeth C., Julia C.P., and Frances M.C. Gallagher.
Robert Doremus Hartshorne, Jr. ’48
Robert Doremus Hartshorne, Jr. ’48, an attorney who became associate general counsel for the New England Electric System, was born on February 9, 1924, in New York City. A son of Robert D., a stock broker, and Esther Kimball Hartshorne, he was a great-grandson of John J. Knox, Class of 1849. Bob Hartshorne prepared for college at St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire, where he lettered in football, hockey, and track, and captained the hockey team. He came to Hamilton following his graduation in 1942, but remained on the Hill for only a semester, leaving to join the U.S. Army. He served in the enlisted ranks of the Army Air Force through the end of World War II.
Discharged after three years in 1946, Bob Hartshorne returned to the College that summer. Despite athletic injuries (he hobbled on crutches and wore jaw braces for a time), he lettered in both football and hockey. Tapped for Was Los as well as Pentagon, he was elected president of the Sigma Phi house in his senior year. With credits earned in military service, along with summer sessions, he completed his requirements in 2½ years and was graduated in 1948.
Following a summer as a stable hand at Saratoga Springs Race Track, Bob Hartshorne went to work as a sales representative for International Paper Co. in New York City. While there, he played against Greg Batt and Hamilton friends with the Clinton Comets as a member of St. Nick’s Hockey Club. On June 10, 1949, while with International Paper, he was married in New Canaan, CT, to Sarah J. Dickson, his houseparty date at Hamilton.
In 1951, Bob Hartshorne moved up to Cambridge, MA, and entered Harvard Law School. After acquiring his LL.B. degree in 1954, and a year as a law clerk to a U.S. Court of Appeals judge, he began his law practice as an associate with the firm of Ropes & Gray in Boston. In 1956, he took time out to serve for two years as assistant to the Undersecretary of the Treasury during the Eisenhower administration. He remained with Ropes and Gray until 1963, when he joined the legal department of the New England Electric System, also in Boston. Named corporation counsel for its subsidiary, the New England Power Service Co., in 1973, he retired as associate general counsel of the parent system in 1989.
While residing in Dedham, MA, Bob Harshorne served as Republican town chairman and was active in town government. He retired to Conway, NH, taking up life on 55 wooded acres in the White Mountains. There he took to “heavy birding” while maintaining his interests in opera, choral singing, and thoroughbred racing. An ardent Boston Red Sox fan, he also enjoyed playing “rotisserie” baseball with his sons. A devoted alumnus ever since leaving the Hill, he served on the Alumni Council, assisted the College in its fundraising, and was always eager to steer prospective students to Hamilton.
Robert D. Hartshorne, Jr. died on February 19, 2010, at an assisted living center in South Hadley, MA. Predeceased by his wife in 2009, he is survived by four sons, Robert D. III, Stephen D., Paul H., and Charles K. Hartshorne. Also surviving are two grandchildren and his brother, Nathaniel H. Hartshorne ’52.
Edward Dawson Ives ’48
Edward Dawson Ives ’48, among the nation’s preeminent folklorists and a leading authority on the folk traditions of Maine and the Maritime Provinces of Canada, was born on September 4, 1925, in White Plains, NY. The son of Warren L., a real estate broker, and Millicent Dawson Ives, he grew up in White Plains and attended the Cambridge School in Weston, MA. In 1943, soon after his graduation in the midst of World War II, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. He served through the end of the war and was discharged as a corporal in 1946.
That fall, Edward Ives, known as “Sandy,” enrolled at Hamilton and joined Psi Upsilon. Given credit for courses taken in the Navy's V-12 program at Colgate University while he was in the Marines, he focused his studies on English and history and virtually completed his course requirements in two years. A couple of summer courses at Columbia University satisfied his final requirements and he was graduated in 1949.
After obtaining an M.A. degree in medieval literature from Columbia in 1950, Sandy Ives began his teaching career as an instructor in English at Illinois College in Jacksonville. On September 8, 1951, in New York City, he was married to Barbara Ann Herrel. He remained at Illinois for three years, followed by a year as a lecturer in English at the City College of New York. Soon out of money and having abandoned the pursuit of a Ph.D. at Columbia for “lack of enthusiasm,” he applied instead for another teaching post and received an offer from the University of Maine. He joined its faculty in 1955, marking the beginning of a long and distinguished career at that institution.
Originally attracted to the field of folklore through his interest in folk music, Sandy Ives supplemented his $3,500 a year teacher’s salary by entertaining locally with his repertoire of folk ballads and a guitar. At times literally “singing for his supper,” he helped cover the living expenses of his growing family. While adding songs sung in Maine's old lumber camps to his repertoire, he began to get curious about logging history and the lumberjacks themselves, and he sought out their stories as well as their songs.
His increasing interest in Maine’s folk traditions, soon extending to the backwoods balladeers of neighboring Canada, prompted Sandy Ives to resume his quest for a Ph.D., this time in folklore. He obtained the degree from Indiana University in 1962. That year he was promoted to assistant professor at Maine. With the publication in 1964 of the first of his many notable works in the folklore field, Larry Gorman: The Man Who Made the Songs, he became an associate professor.
Over the ensuing years, personally traveling through the woods of Maine and the Maritime Provinces, and often accompanied by his wife and three children, Sandy Ives recorded on tape the oral histories of those associated with the logging days of the early 20th century. In time he became recognized as “the bard and troubadour, the tireless collector of songs and stories, the recorder of history from the grass roots up.” By playing his recordings in the classroom, and punctuating them with a lively presentation of stories and jokes, he inspired many of his students at Maine to go out into the field and make recordings of their own. To help them (and others), he prepared a manual on oral history technique, The Tape Recorded Interview (1980).
In 1967, Professor Ives had left Maine's English department to join the anthropology department, having found it more hospitable to his folklore interests. Appointed professor of folklore in 1969, he chaired the anthropology department from 1983 to 1989. In the meantime, while introducing his students to the importance, and charm, of folklore through his charismatic teaching, he continued to write for a wider audience, contributing numerous articles to journals and expanding his list of books. They included Lawrence Doyle: the Farmer-Poet of Prince Edward Island (1971); Joe Scott: The Woodland Songmaker (1978); and Folksongs of New Brunswick (1989).
A founder of the Northeast Folklore Society and longtime editor of its publication, Northeast Folklore, Sandy Ives also served as associate editor of the Journal of American Folklore, and the Oral History Record. In addition, he established at Maine the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History (now the Maine Folklore Center), which he served as director for 22 years beginning in 1971. The Northeast Archives was largely built upon his own impressive collection of recorded interviews and vintage photographs.
Sandy Ives retired after 44 years at the University of Maine in 1999. That same year, the last of his 10 books, Drive Dull Care Away: Folksongs from Prince Edward Island, was published. His life’s work had gained much recognition and many awards, including honorary doctorates from the University of Prince Edward Island (1986) and the Memorial University of Newfoundland (1996). However, the honor that probably most pleased him was the tribute paid by his former students in a festschrift, Northeast Folklore: Essays in Honor of Edward D. Ives (2000).
Edward D. Ives, an ever loyal and generously supportive alumnus, died at his home in Orono, ME, on August 1, 2009. In addition to his wife of 58 years, he is survived by two sons, Stephen J. and Nathaniel E. Ives, and a daughter, Sarah Ruth Ives.
Earl Bryant Dedell ’49
Earl Bryant Dedell ’49, a retired purchasing agent, was born on January 21, 1926, in Utica, NY. A son of Lawrence W., a postal clerk, and Anna Albicker Dedell, he grew up in the Utica area and was graduated in 1944 from Whitesboro High School. He entered Hamilton in the spring of 1945, joined Lambda Chi Alpha, and remained at the College for five semesters.
By the 1950s, Earl Dedell had settled permanently in Hawaii, where he was employed as an accountant and office manager in Honolulu. He later became a state purchasing agent and was residing in Kaneohe, HI, when he died on August 5, 2007, as recently verified by the College. He was survived by his wife, Jane. His brother, Thomas R. Dedell ’38, died last June (see the Fall-Winter 2009 issue, p. 70).
