1960s

Richard Griffin Lennon ’60

Richard Griffin Lennon ’60, a physician and eye surgeon who practiced on Long Island for almost 30 years, was born on Jan. 8, 1939, in Jersey City, N.J. The son of George R., Jr., a bank manager, and Catharine McGuinness Lennon, a school teacher, he grew up in Weehawken, N.J., and was graduated in 1956 from Weehawken High School. Rich Lennon arrived on College Hill that fall. Already aspiring to become a physician, he pursued a premedical course of study. A member of Alpha Delta Phi and active in the Newman Club, he risked the future of his knees by lettering in soccer for four years and became the varsity team’s co-captain in his senior year. Academically excelling, he won the Holbrook Prize in Biology and received honors in biology and chemistry upon his graduation in 1960.

Rich Lennon went on to Cornell University Medical College, where he acquired his M.D. degree in 1964. While serving as an intern at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, he was recruited by the U.S. Public Health Service and assigned as an epidemic disease control officer, working out of Buffalo, N.Y. Discharged as a lieutenant commander after two years in 1967, he returned to New York City, where he took up a surgical residency at the Institute of Ophthalmology (now Harkness Eye Institute) at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. In 1970, he began his private practice with Southampton (Long Island) Eye Physicians and Surgeons, of which he became a partner.

Dr. Lennon, who pursued laser research and was elected to the American Eye Study Club based on the papers he had written, is credited with bringing the first effective ocular laser to Long Island in 1971. Board-certified by the American Academy of Ophthalmology in 1973, he served as chief of surgery at Southampton Hospital, where he was instrumental in establishing its outpatient surgical department in 1987. Elected president of the medical staff, he also served for 16 years on the hospital’s board of directors. In his spare time he avidly took to golf and was a founding member of the Southampton Golf Club.

In 1998, Richard G. Lennon, long a resident of Southampton, suffered a stroke that left him with partial paralysis. Thereafter he turned his attention to financial investing and writing poetry. His life ended in Southampton Hospital on Sept. 8, 2013. Surviving is his wife, the former Nancy S. Newell, whom he had wed on Jan. 22, 1966, in Wellesley, Mass. He is also survived by two daughters, Laura and Allison Lennon; a son, Richard G. Lennon, Jr.; and a sister, Lorraine Coe.

William Wilfrid Thomas ’62

William Wilfrid Thomas ’62, professor emeritus of French at Union College and long the inspirational leader of its international studies program, was born on Dec. 5, 1940, in Buffalo, N.Y. His parents were Wilfrid C., an advertising manager, and Mabel Schafer Thomas. Bill Thomas grew up in the Buffalo suburb of Kenmore, where he was graduated in 1958 from Kenmore High School. He arrived on College Hill that fall, joined Gryphon and served on the Freshman Council as well as the staff of The Spectator. He majored in French, and years later he paid tribute to three Hamilton professors, Otto Liedke, Franklin Hamlin and Thomas Johnston, whose inspiring example had led him into college teaching and whom he continually sought to emulate in instructing his own students in language and literature.

After his graduation in 1962, Bill Thomas returned to his home area, where he enrolled in the Ph.D. program in French at the State University of New York in Buffalo. Married on May 15, 1965, in Albany, N.Y., to Ann Manning, whom he had dated in college, he served as an instructor in French at the State University from 1965 to 1968 and spent the following year in France as a lecturer in English at the Université d’Orleans-Tours. He began his long tenure at Union College in 1969, the year before receiving his doctorate.

Promoted in the department of modern languages to associate professor in 1973 and full professor in 1989, Bill Thomas had been director of Union’s Terms Abroad program since 1979. He had also served as a faculty trustee of the College and chaired the Humanities Division as well as the faculty’s Academic Affairs Committee. In 1992, he was presented with the Faculty Meritorious Service Award by the College’s Alumni Council.

As director of Union’s international programs, Bill Thomas had a formative influence on the thousands of Union students who engaged over the years in study abroad. For three decades, with “unending passion,” he continuously and energetically expanded the program, seeing to all its myriad details. He came to know the students as individuals, occasionally bailed them out of trouble abroad, and countless numbers of them became his lifelong friends. As alumni, they would frequently visit his office, “crammed tight with books and French newspapers,” to engage in conversation, which he spiced with his “gently sarcastic humor.” He retired from Union as director of international programs emeritus as well as professor emeritus in 2011.

William W. Thomas, who first “fell in love with the small-college atmosphere” at Hamilton, remained an ever devoted and generously supportive alumnus throughout his life. Long a resident of Schenectady, N.Y., he died at his home there on June 11, 2013. In addition to his former wife, Ann Manning Thomas, he is survived by a son, Andrew S. Thomas ’90; a daughter, Caroline E. Thomas; and two grandchildren. The William W. Thomas Endowed Professorship of French is being established at Union College in his memory.

 

Jeffrey Golub-Evans ’63

Jeffrey Golub-Evans ’63, founder and director of the New Center for Cosmetic Dentistry and one of the country’s leading specialists in that field, was born Jeffrey Evans Golub in New York City on May 2, 1941. The son of Irving Golub, an attorney and investigator for the U.S. Department of Labor, and the former Eva Brown, an artist, he grew up on Long Island and enrolled at Hamilton from Malverne in 1959, following his graduation from Valley Stream North High School, where he was president of the senior class. Jeff Golub joined the Emerson Literary Society and contributed to The Spectator. By the end of his freshman year, he had determined upon a career in medicine or dentistry. After three years on the Hill he withdrew from the College, where he had majored in French, to enter the College of Dentistry at New York University.

After acquiring his D.D.S. degree in 1966, Jeff Golub served for two years as a captain in the U.S. Army Dental Corps. While stationed at Walter Reed Army Hospital, he gained considerable experience in all areas of dentistry. He subsequently spent a year in Vietnam as a MASH unit team member, in charge of his own dental clinic.

After leaving the Army, Jeff Golub established his private practice on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Gifted with artistic talent and sensibility, he developed a dental practice that specialized in creating “beautiful smiles.” His celebrity clientele earned him the title of “Guru of Cosmetic Dentistry” from Vogue magazine. He was  credited with having “sculpted over 500 smiles that have appeared on the covers of fashion and beauty magazines,” and also gained recognition for fashioning innovative dental costuming for Broadway productions such as the musical Big River, as well as for Hollywood films. Invited to travel extensively in this country and abroad to teach his concept of high-art cosmetic dentistry, he utilized the latest bonding and veneer techniques to create a new genre of cosmetic dentistry called “smile design.”

Dr. Golub-Evans, who shared his techniques with national audiences on such television programs as the Today show and Good Morning America, was a former president of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry as well as founding president of the New York Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. He was also director of cosmetic services at New York University’s Center for Continuing Dental Education.

Jeff Golub, who once credited the art courses he took at Hamilton for inspiring his artistic approach to dentistry, was also an artist in his own right whose works in a variety of media, including watercolors, collages and prints, can be found in New York galleries and several national museums. Described as “a Renaissance man” by his friends and colleagues, he was much admired not only for his professional work but also for his passionate commitment to the arts and for his “joie de vivre and legendary storytelling ability.”

Jeffrey Golub-Evans died on Aug. 1, 2013, while hospitalized in Manhattan. A resident of Warren, Conn., with his wife Alecia Adams, whom he had wed in 2001, and their daughter Eva, he had previously resided in Rye, N.Y., with his former wife, Laine Jastram, whom he had married in 1975, and their two children, Kristina and Chad.

 

Stephen Carter Frederick ’64

Stephen Carter Frederick ’64, whose varied career ended as technical writer and strategic planner in state government service, was born on April 22, 1942, in Port Jervis, N.Y. The son of Ralph C., managing editor of the Port Jervis Union Gazette, and Marietta MacKechnie Frederick, he enrolled at Hamilton following his graduation in 1960 from Port Jervis High School. Steve Frederick arrived on the Hill with a strong commitment to a future career in the ministry. He majored in Greek and served on the Chapel Board. A member of Tau Kappa Epsilon, he was graduated in 1964.

Steve Frederick went on to the School of Theology at Princeton University, where he earned his B.D. degree in 1967. He furthered his theological studies at Duke University’s School of Religion and acquired his Ph.D. in 1975. He served as a minister in Montague, N.J., and at the Presbyterian Church of Dover, Del. Subsequently he was an insurance agent, a gemologist and an adjunct professor of English, teaching courses at Wilmington University in Dover. However, for the majority of his working life, he was employed in the State of Delaware’s Office of Information Services and the Department of Children and Family Services as a technical writer and strategic planner. He retired in 2005.

An accomplished pianist and an avid reader, Steve Frederick enjoyed a variety of scholarly pursuits in addition to such activities as golfing, kayaking and bowling. In recent years his study of Buddhism became a particularly important part of his spiritual and intellectual life, which culminated in his writing of a personal prayer book.

Stephen C. Frederick retired to The Villages in west-central Florida, where he died on May 28, 2013. He is survived by his wife of 35 years, Lucille Wong Frederick; two daughters, Aimee Jane and Cecily Frederick; and four grandchildren, a stepson and two sisters.

 

John Louis Goodman ’66

John Louis Goodman ’66, a psychiatrist who practiced in the Boston area for 35 years, grew up in Baltimore, where he was born on April 5, 1945. A son of Louis E. Goodman, an oncologist and surgeon, and the former Lois Weinstein, a nurse who assisted in her husband’s practice, John Goodman received his secondary education at Baltimore City College. Following his graduation in 1962, he came to Hamilton. He was encouraged by his father to pursue a premedical course of study. However, when he encountered difficulties with chemistry, he switched his major to French and participated in Hamilton’s Junior Year in France program. Still thinking of a medical career, he took chemistry courses at the Johns Hopkins University during the summer prior to his senior year. He left the Hill with his A.B. degree as a French major in 1966.

For four years thereafter, John Goodman ventured along a couple of possible career paths. He went to law school for a year at the University of Maryland, taught high school French for two years and earned an M.A. degree in French in 1969 while enrolled in the Romance language Ph.D. program at the University of California, Berkeley. There, during the height of the ’60s counterculture movement, his longstanding interest in medicine, and especially in psychiatry, was rekindled. He entered the Boston University School of Medicine, and while there he met Lois Schwartzberg, then a student at Tufts University School of Medicine and later a practicing gynecologist. They were married on Sept. 3, 1972.

John Goodman acquired his M.D. degree in 1974 and completed his residency in adult psychiatry at Boston University Medical Center and a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at Boston Children’s Hospital. He began his private practice with Dedham Medical Associates in 1978 and moved his office to Needham in 2001. Committed to providing both psychopharmacology and psychotherapy to a wide variety of patients, Dr. Goodman continued to practice full-time for three and a half years after being diagnosed with cancer. He retired last June, only a month before his death.

John Louis Goodman, known as an avid reader, music lover and a devoted husband and father, died at his home in Wellesley, Mass., on July 13, 2013. In addition to his wife of 40 years and his mother, he is survived by two daughters, Amy Kass and Jeanne Goodman, and four grandchildren and a brother.

 

Kerry Daniel Marsh ’66

Kerry Daniel Marsh ’66, for more than 40 years a lawyer and lobbyist in the New York State capital of Albany, grew up in Rochester, N.Y., where he was born on April 19, 1944. A son of Lester V., employed in product control by Eastman Kodak Co., and Geraldine VandenBerg Marsh, he became a Boy Scout and, at the age of 14, was reputedly at the time to be the youngest Eagle Scout in the country. He never forgot the camping and survival skills he learned in Scouting, and his love of the outdoors and camping life would endure. Elected president of the senior class at Irondequoit High School in Rochester, he came to College Hill following his graduation in 1962.

Kerry Marsh joined Delta Kappa Epsilon, went out for football and played lacrosse for four years, lettering in the sport. He served as managing editor of the Alexander Hamilton Private Press and secretary-treasurer of the Charlatans, and was also known for his skills as an amateur barber. An enthusiastic participant in campus life, he would retain fond memories of notable houseparties and fraternity high jinks, as well as influential professors, and he especially recalled “four years of late-night conversations with some of the most diverse and interesting personages I have ever met.” He majored in religion and was graduated in 1966. He left the Hill in his 1952 Triumph with his barbering kit and a broken leg, “gratis of a huge Syracuse lacrosse player.”

Kerry Marsh went on to Albany Law School of Union University. On Aug. 24, 1968, while a student there, he was married to Patricia Ann Meagher, sister of Thomas C. Meagher ’76, in Rochester. In law school, he acquired his first introduction to lobbying as a part-time staff member of the State Senate’s Labor Committee and assistant director of government affairs for the State Association of Industries (later the Business Council). After obtaining his J.D. degree in 1970, he began his legal career as an associate with the Albany firm of McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams. Made a partner, he remained with the firm until 1990.

A year later, Kerry Marsh helped found the firm of Bogdan, Marsh & Faist, and in 1994 he founded his own firm, Marsh & Associates, focused on representing a wide variety of state and national business clients, including Fortune 500 companies, as well as state professional associations, in their governmental relations. In addition, he was a founding member of the Advocacy Group, an international governmental lobbying organization headquartered in Alexandria, Va. In January 2013, he took great pleasure and pride in establishing the firm of Marsh, Duryea Associates. By that time, he had acquired a solid reputation as not only hard-working but as a master at gaining his clients’ access to public officials.

Kerry Marsh’s volunteer activities included president and longtime member of the board of directors of Parsons Child and Family Center, a child-care agency for emotionally disturbed and handicapped youngsters, founded in 1829 and formerly named the Albany Home for Children. He took special pride in assisting Parsons in the establishment of its Korean adoption program. He also served as vice president of the board of directors of Camp Thacher, an affiliate of the Albany Boys Club, as well as a parent trustee of the Emma Willard School. A resident of the Albany suburb of Coeymans, he chaired the town’s zoning board for over 30 years and was for 20 years attorney for the town of New Baltimore.

Kerry Marsh’s “zest for life and adventure” was well known to his family and friends. He hiked the Himalayas and was an expert skier who “would take any trail on any mountain with snow.” He also enjoyed sailing on Lake George and throughout the Caribbean, and playing host at the family’s Adirondack camp at Birch Point on Upper Saranac Lake. There he took great pleasure in escorting friends on a history tour around the lake in his antique Chris Craft boat. With his wife, Pat, a lifelong collector of antiques, he helped restore their 1837 federal house and barns.

Kerry Marsh, a loyal and consistent supporter of the College and former president of the Northeastern New York Alumni Association, suffered a head injury in a fall in December 2012. He was apparently progressing well and had even resumed work again when he died on June 10, 2013. In addition to his wife of 45 years and his mother, Geraldine Marsh Olmsted, he is survived by two daughters, Jennifer Marsh Norton ’94, wife of Birch S. Norton ’94, and Sarah M. Leonard. Also surviving are six grandchildren and three brothers.

 

Robert Wesel Palmer ’67

Robert Wesel Palmer ’67, a retired orthopaedic surgeon, was born on March 6, 1945, to Thurston W. and Katherine Prumers Palmer, in Binghamton, N.Y. He grew up in nearby Endwell and was graduated in 1963 from Maine-Endwell Senior High School. Bob Palmer entered Hamilton on scholarship that fall, already determined upon a future career in medicine. He joined Psi Upsilon, became a member of the swimming team and was active in the Biology Club. While pursuing premedical studies, he also worked in the College Library. He was awarded his A.B. degree in 1967.

Bob Palmer subsequently enrolled in the School of Medicine at the State University of New York in Buffalo, where he acquired his M.D. degree. He completed his internship at Millard Fillmore Hospital in Buffalo in 1972 and his residency at hospitals affiliated with the university in 1976. Two years of active duty with the U.S. Navy followed. Assigned to the Great Lakes Regional Medical Center, he subsequently remained in the Naval Reserve and attained the rank of lieutenant commander before his retirement.

In 1978, Dr. Palmer joined a private practice in Maryland, in the Washington, D.C., area, specializing in athletic injuries and rehabilitation. He later became a partner of Shady Grove Orthopaedic Associates in Rockville, Md. Affiliated with Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville and Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, he retired in 2006.

Robert W. Palmer, a resident of Gaithersburg, Md., died on May 20, 2013, at a hospice in Rockville, of cancer. His first marriage, to Barbara Fricano, having ended in divorce, he is survived by his wife of seven years, Diane Bonanno Palmer. Also surviving are five sons from his first marriage, Brendan, Jay, Jonathan, Casey and Matthew Palmer.

 

Stephen Jay Wiley ’68

Stephen Jay Wiley ’68, an attorney-at-law who practiced in New York State’s capital of Albany, was born in Cooperstown, N.Y., on Feb. 12, 1946. The son of Leslie J. and Ruth Hummer Wiley, both educators, he grew up in Cobleskill, west of Albany. Following his graduation in 1964 from Cobleskill Central School, where his father was high school principal, Steve Wiley came to Hamilton. He joined Theta Delta Chi and was a member of the swimming team for two years. He subsequently became involved with student publications and was editor-in-chief of The Hamiltonian in his senior year. A member of the Publications Board and elected to the journalism honor society Pi Delta Epsilon, he was graduated, having majored in government, in 1968.

Not certain of his future plans, Steve Wiley sought shelter from the military draft by obtaining a teaching position, which would give him a deferment. Despite his lack of education courses, he found a post teaching English, science and mathematics at Sharon Springs Central School, not far from his hometown of Cobleskill. While there he assisted in the negotiation of a new contract between the teachers’ association and the board of education, and it sparked his interest in the law as his future career.

After three years of teaching, Steve Wiley entered Albany Law School. While a law student, he met Barbara L. Webb, whom he would marry in 1977. After obtaining his J.D. degree in 1974, he began his practice in Albany with the firm of Ungerman & Ackerman. He later became a senior partner with the firm of Featherstonhaugh, Wiley & Clyne, with a practice focused on legislation and lobbying, and general business transactions and litigation.

Steve Wiley, who resided with his wife, Barb, in Glenmont, south of Albany, served as treasurer of the board of the Albany Symphony Orchestra and was an active member of the First United Methodist Church in Delmar. An enthusiastic skier, he also enjoyed water sports, especially boating and water skiing. He was an avid gardener who maintained extensive flower gardens around his home, and he took special delight in spending time in the kitchen cooking “with gusto and creativity” for family and friends.

Stephen J. Wiley died unexpectedly at his home in Glenmont on July 19, 2013. He is survived by his wife of 36 years and his mother. Also surviving are a daughter, Katherine W. Wiley; a son, Matthew C. Wiley; and a sister, Helen R. Doane.

 

Robert Emmet Gaffney ’69

Robert Emmet Gaffney ’69, a direct marketing specialist and 35-year veteran of the advertising industry, grew up on Staten Island, N.Y., where he was born on Sept. 4, 1946. He was the son of Robert E. and Elizabeth Keuthen Gaffney, both teachers at Curtis High School, which he attended and where he edited the student newspaper. His teenage interests included journalism and especially music. He was a jazz pianist and bassist, and played those instruments at school functions as well as bass and guitar for folk music gatherings. Bob Gaffney entered Hamilton in 1964, following his graduation from Curtis, and joined Chi Psi. After three semesters, he left the College for academic reasons. He returned to Staten Island, where, following employment as a carpenter for Graphic Displays, Ltd., he took courses at Jacksonville University in Florida while petitioning for a return to Hamilton. With the encouragement of Dean Winton Tolles, who, with his usual keen insight, recognized Bob’s potential, he was readmitted to Hamilton in 1967. He majored in English and was graduated in 1969.

In the ensuing years, Bob Gaffney commuted to Madison Avenue in Manhattan, where he carved out his career in advertising. He became senior vice president and creative director of Dancer Fitzgerald Sample and executive vice president of Dorland Advertising. Until 1993, he was executive vice president and creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi, where his clients included AT&T, Con Edison, Lexus and NYNEX. Thereafter he founded his own agency, Action Marketing Associates.

A resident for 25 years of Pelham Manor, N.Y., Bob Gaffney was an avid woodworker who not only renovated his old Victorian home in Pelham and an 1830s farmhouse in Whately, Mass., but also built a log cabin upstate. In each he installed custom cabinets of his own design. As a craftsman, he was also fond of new and unusual projects, ranging from radio-controlled airplanes to archtop guitars. In addition, his artistry in woodcraft led to the creation of found-wood sculptures, which were recently exhibited at a gallery in Northampton, Mass.

Robert E. Gaffney was residing in Whately when he died at his home, after a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer, on Oct. 25, 2013. He is survived by Kay Klippel, his wife of 32 years. Also surviving are their three children, Catherine, Jules and Brendan. They, as well as his friends and neighbors, will long remember Bob’s generosity with his time and talent, and his unfailing helpfulness.

 

 

William Richard Thiele ’69

William Richard Thiele ’69, a financial administrator, was born on Feb. 12, 1947, in Orange, N.J. A son of Richard H. Thiele, a research analyst for the Prudential Insurance Co., and the former Elizabeth MacDonald, a school secretary, he grew up in Union, N.J., and prepared for college at the Pingry School in that state. An Eagle Scout, he was president of the Glee Club and chaired the Chapel Committee at Pingry. Following his graduation in 1965, Bill Thiele came to College Hill. He joined Theta Delta Chi and served on the staff of The Spectator as well as on the Publications Board. Having majored in economics, he was graduated in 1969.

Bill Thiele began his career in finance as an assistant cashier with the First National City Bank in New York City. On June 20, 1970, he was married to Cheryl H. Rogers in Millburn, N.J. Promoted to vice president in charge of the commercial banking department at the Rochester, N.Y., branch of what was renamed Citibank, he subsequently became chief financial officer for the Penske Corp., the truck leasing company, in Piscataway, N.J. (1978-84). He was president of Thiele Rogers, Inc. (1984-97) and most recently managing director of Harris Metrics Inc., and Harris Financial Group, providers of consumer finance services, located in Sevierville, near Knoxville, Tenn.

William R. Thiele, a faithful and highly supportive Hamiltonian, had relocated to Tennessee in 2000. He was residing in Knoxville when he died on Sept. 21, 2013. He is survived by his wife of 15 years, Patricia Harris Thiele. Also surviving are a daughter and two sons from his previous marriage, Jessie R. Schroeder and Tod R. ’99 and Scott R. Thiele; a stepson, David A. Bowen, Jr.; and two granddaughters and his brother, Donald F. Thiele ’72.