1940s
Robert Smith Merriman ’40
Robert Smith Merriman ’40, an avid outdoorsman with a talent for matching worthy causes with generous donors, was born on July 31, 1918, in Bristol, Conn. The son of George Merriman, a mathematics teacher, and the former Rachel Harper, he arrived on College Hill eager to engage in campus life. Described in the Hamiltonian as “a New England farmer who can skate,” he joined Delta Upsilon as well as the Choir, Outing Club and Winter Carnival Committee, and lent his athletic talents as a member of the hockey and track teams. Elected to D.T. and Quadrangle, he earned his degree in English literature.
Following his graduation, Bob Merriman was drafted into the Army and assigned to the Fort Benning Infantry School, subsequently serving in World War II’s South Pacific theatre. He was discharged as captain of infantry in 1946. For the next 20 years, he worked in sales for the New Departure division of General Motors, travelling frequently for his job. While on a sales call in Columbus, Ohio, Bob Merriman met Carmen Valentine, and the two were married on May 12, 1950, before relocating to Burlington, Conn.
In the mid 1960s, Bob Merriman left GM to join the non-profit sector as director of public relations and development for St. Joseph College — now the University of St. Joseph — in West Hartford, Conn. Working in fundraising, he soon found that while many individuals and corporations were ready and willing to make gifts, they lacked the time or experience to fully evaluate potential recipients. Three years later, with the help of several foundations and banks, he joined a small group of business and civic leaders in establishing the Coordinating Council for Foundations, Inc. With Bob Merriman as executive director, CCF served as a clearinghouse for Hartford philanthropy, researching contribution programs of corporations and introducing donors to worthwhile causes. Consequently, he delved into a variety of social issues in the area, such as housing, race relations, substance abuse, education and conservation. In addition to CCF, other community organizations benefitted from his expertise: He founded Friends of the Burlington Library, helping to raise funds to build the town’s first library, as well as Friends of Sessions Woods and the Burlington Bell Community Fund.
Bob Merriman left his position at CCF in the late ’70s and helped found another non-profit, the Main Street Foundation in Bristol, Conn., which awarded grants to organizations in nearby towns. He also had more time to spend with Carmen and his four children on their family-operated Christmas tree farm, which evolved into a landscaping business. His great passion for nature resulted in many hiking and canoeing trips with his family, taking them through New England, Alaska and Canada. They enjoyed time on the shores of Lake Huron during the summertime and skied the slopes of New England in the winter. In 1988, he and Carmen found an interest in remote rivers in China and, after several years of preparation, flew to Beijing to embark on a two-month kayaking excursion. His last big trip was through the Florida Everglades in the late ’90s.
Robert S. Merriman, whose spirit of philanthropy included support for his alma mater, died at the age of 96 on March 3, 2015. He is survived by his daughter, Valentine Merriman K’73, his sons, David and Macy Merriman ’81, as well as nine grandchildren, including Meghan Murray-Merriman ’04, and two great-grandchildren. His wife and son Jeffrey predeceased him.
Ralph Emil Hansmann ’40
Ralph Emil Hansmann ’40, respected both for his remarkable acumen as an investment manager and his compassionate nature, was born on May 25, 1918, the only child of Emil C. and Friedericka Fuchs Hansmann of Utica, N.Y. He grew up over his parents’ greengrocery and graduated from the Utica Free Academy. At Hamilton, he majored in history, joined the debate team and Emerson Literary Society, and excelled academically, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. The 1940 Hamiltonian showed some insight into his abilities, calling him “a promising financial czar.”
It was during his Hamilton days that Ralph Hansmann met the woman he would marry. Attending a regional conference with the debate team in 1938, he encountered Doris Macdonald, a debater for opposing Elmira College. They wed on Oct. 16, 1943, after both had completed their studies. After Hamilton, he earned a master’s of business administration degree from Harvard University. She graduated from Columbia-Presbyterian where she studied nursing.
Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Ralph Hansmann joined the U.S. Navy as an ensign in the Bureau of Ordnance, assigned to an administrative position in Washington, D.C. It was there that he met William T. Goldman, forging a friendship that would evolve into a lifelong professional relationship. Together with Harold F. Linder, they worked for 60 years as partners in a private investment firm in New York City. Ralph Hansmann’s exceptional skills as an investment analyst and portfolio manager also helped advance the New York Public Library, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and Hamilton, all three of which benefited from his guidance as a trustee.
For his alma mater, Ralph Hansmann served in numerous capacities, from Annual Fund volunteer to chair of the Metropolitan New York Alumni Council. He was elected a charter trustee in 1969 and became a life trustee in 1988. He served for 16 years as head of the trustee investment committee, during which time, thanks to his prudent fiscal management, the College’s endowment quintupled. In 1992, Hamilton awarded him an honorary degree, and in 2008 the Alumni Association presented him with its Bell Ringer Award. The citation stated, “While many have contributed to Hamilton’s prosperity in ways large and small, no one has so uniquely combined devotion to the College with dedication to its financial well-being more than you.” He was, the association said, “in many ways the chief investor” in the College’s future. He and his wife supported the Burke Library and the McEwen Chair. His friends honored him by creating the Doris and Ralph Hansmann Scholarship, the Hansmann Lecture Fund, the Hansmann Library Fund and the Hansmann Science Students Support Fund.
Throughout the years, Ralph and Doris Hansmann traveled near and far to Kenya, India, China and throughout Europe and the United States. His interests included golf, tennis and ballroom dance. The couple relished opportunities to meet Hamilton students who had benefited from their support. He also loved to tell a bawdy joke, his daughter said in his obituary in The Record of Bergen County, N.J., and always had a good word for everyone, be it board chair or cabdriver. She also said her father was indebted to Hamilton College: “He had humble beginnings and felt Hamilton gave him the potential to pursue the rest of his life.”
Ralph E. Hansmann died in his sleep on April 2, 2015, at his home in Ridgewood, N.J., at the age of 96. His family describes him first and foremost as a gentleman of wise counsel and goodwill, distinguished by a “disarming twinkle.” Survivors include his wife of 71 years; his son, Robert V. Hansmann ’72; his daughter, Jane; and five grandchildren.
Richard Lawrence Bertine ’42
Richard Lawrence Bertine ’42, a hardware store manager, was born on April 4, 1920, to Herbert and Esther Quackenbush Bertine, in New York City. Dick Bertine grew up in suburban White Plains, N.Y., where he graduated from high school in 1937. Lack of family funds in those Depression years delayed his entry into Hamilton until 1938. He soon had to drop out because of academic and financial struggles, but the College permitted him to return in the fall of 1939. A member of the Emerson Literary Society and described by The Hamiltonian as “stolid, dependable,” Dick Bertine not only made up for his lost credits but saw his name on the Dean’s List by the time of his graduation.
Immediately thereafter, Dick Bertine entered the U.S. Army. Commissioned as an officer, he served stateside in an anti-aircraft artillery unit on the East Coast during much of World War II. Stationed in England at the war’s end, he spent 17 months overseas in Europe before his discharge in 1946 with the rank of captain.
Dick Bertine was employed as an insurance underwriter for a time before turning to retail merchandising. On April 17, 1948, he and Barbara McGuhy were married in White Plains. Dick would later become office manager for Berger Hardware Co. in Hawthorne, N.Y., one of the largest True Value hardware stores in the Northeast. While residing in Hawthorne, he engaged in community activities and twice served as president of the local Rotary Club. For pleasure, he and Barbara enjoyed travel throughout the country as well as Canada, including “helicopter hiking” in British Columbia, a “tremendous experience,” as Dick later recalled.
Richard L. Bertine, a loyal alumnus, retired in 1986 and took up residence in Lakehurst, N.J. In recent years a resident of Wakefield, R.I., he died on Dec. 23, 2014, at the age of 94. He is survived by his wife of 66 years as well as two daughters, Marcia and Betty Anne.
Samuel Alfred McClung III ’42
Samuel Alfred McClung III ’42, a business owner, was born on Nov. 11, 1918, in Pittsburgh. The son of Samuel A., Jr., an attorney-at-law, and Mary Mellon McClung, he was a grandnephew of Andrew Mellon, the millionaire banker, philanthropist and longtime U.S. secretary of the treasury. Sam McClung prepared for Hamilton at the Berkshire School in Massachusetts. He joined Alpha Delta Phi and remained at the College for three semesters. After service in the Army Air Corps for three years during World War II, he was discharged as a corporal after the war’s end. He later attended the University of Pittsburgh, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1953.
Employed for several years by National Metal Products Co., Sam McClung established his own company, Universal Metal Moulding, in 1954, which was engaged in metal fabrication. As president and general manager, he operated the company for some 30 years until his retirement. A deacon and elder of the Presbyterian Church, he enjoyed travel abroad with his wife as well as spending summers at the family home on Cape Cod. He was especially proud of his 1908 Buick, which he took on the road on occasion. It is now housed in the Frick Museum.
Samuel A. McClung, a resident of the Pittsburgh suburb of Oakmont, died on Jan. 12, 2015, in his 97th year. He was predeceased in 2000 by his wife, the former Adelaide B. Smith, whom he had wed while still enrolled at Hamilton in 1941. Surviving him are two daughters, Mary and Judith, as well as three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Arthur Charles Ward ’43
Arthur Charles Ward ’43, who took over a venerable family business and turned it into the nation’s leading decorative hardware company, was born on June 13, 1921, in New York City. The youngest son of Samuel M. Ward, a buyer, and the former Edna M. Leopold, he grew up in Rutherford, N.J., where he graduated from Rutherford Senior High School. At Hamilton, Art Ward joined Chi Psi. President of his high school dramatic club, he soon graduated to the Charlatans while on the Hill. During the following four years he appeared in numerous productions, often playing the part of “the doddering old man.” He also had fun broadcasting music over campus radio station WHC when now-fabled Professor Wentworth Fling was in charge. However, he particularly excelled in debate and, in his first year, won the McKinney Prize Declamation. In his senior year he captured the prestigious Clark Prize and was elected to the forensic honor society Delta Sigma Rho.
After obtaining his B.S. degree in January 1943, Art Ward went on active duty with the U.S. Army. He served with the 293rd Engineering Combat Battalion through the end of World War II and accompanied it as part of Gen. Patton’s Third Army from Normandy to occupied Germany. Discharged as a warrant officer (j.g.) in 1946, he joined his aunt, Marguerite Guerin, in reopening the family business, which had been closed during the war.
His aunt had earlier taken over the business, P.E. Guerin, Inc., from her husband, Emmanuel Pierre Guerin. Located on Jane Street in Greenwich Village and the only metal foundry in New York City, it hand-crafted custom bathroom fittings, door knobs and other decorative hardware. Established in 1857 by French immigrant Pierre Emmanuel Guerin, father of Emmanuel Pierre, it was left to the latter’s wife to revive in 1946. Although Art Ward had an opportunity to return to Hamilton and teach speech at a salary of $2,200 per year, she countered with a $2,500 offer if her nephew would help her in ramping up the business with a skeleton work force and little money for investment.
In time, Art Ward took over ownership of P.E. Guerin, and despite no previous background in foundry work (he concentrated in English at Hamilton), he turned it into a highly successful enterprise, greatly admired for the quality of its products. He personally designed many of them, which were displayed in showrooms he had opened across the country. His clients included leading architects and interior decorators, and his products found their way into the homes of celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Bruce Springsteen as well as such public buildings as the Library of Congress and San Francisco’s famed Fairmont Hotel.
For four decades until his retirement as president and chairman in 1986, Art Ward led P.E. Guerin, the nation’s oldest decorative hardware company. In 1982, for the artistry and design of his bronze hardware and fittings, he received the inaugural Arthur Ross Award from New York philanthropist and socialite Brooke Astor. Those who knew Art Ward described him as not only an entrepreneur but also as an artist and true “Renaissance man.”
Long a resident of Franklin Lakes, N.J., Art Ward was active in his community, having served on its borough council and as president of its public library. He also headed the drive that resulted in a new library building. He served as president of the local Republican Club and as a member of the Bergen County Republican Committee. All his activities were despite three years of not walking and 20 operations over many years thereafter as a result of breaking a leg skiing in 1951.
In 1986, Arthur C. Ward and his wife, the former Ann “Nancy” Davies, whom he had met on a blind date and married on May 16, 1953, in Paterson, N.J., retired to Sea Pines, Hilton Head, S.C.
An ever loyal alumnus, he was still residing on Hilton Head when he died on June 5, 2015, just short of his 94th birthday. He leaves his wife of 62 years. Also surviving are a daughter, Kathryn; a son, Andrew, who succeeded his father as owner of the family business; and nine grandchildren.
Robert Lewis Hall ’44
Robert Lewis Hall ’44, an entrepreneur who parlayed his love of the outdoors into a highly successful business career, was born on April 9, 1923, in Champaign, Ill. A son of Russell A. Hall, a chemical engineer, and the former Vera M. Parren, he grew up in Schenectady, N.Y., where his father was head of the engineering department at Union College. Bob Hall came to College Hill following his graduation from Nott Terrace High School in Schenectady. He joined Theta Delta Chi and did some cheerleading for the Continentals. Determined to have a future career in engineering, he left the Hill after two years and transferred to the University of Michigan to prepare for that goal.
After a year at Michigan and in the midst of the Second World War, Bob Hall enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He served as a weather officer and air traffic controller in North Africa and Europe. Discharged as a first lieutenant in 1946, he returned to Michigan and obtained two B.S. degrees, one in chemical engineering and the other in mathematics, in 1948. He briefly worked for General Electric on color television research before enrolling at Harvard Business School. After acquiring his M.B.A. in 1951, he found employment as a plant manager with Gates Rubber Co., headquartered in Denver. During the 1950s, he built, started up and managed new factories for the company in Iowa and later in Mexico and Belgium. On Feb. 26, 1955, he and Doris I. Foster were married in Twin Falls, Idaho.
Bob Hall’s 11 years with Gates Rubber were followed by five years with Sunstrand Corp. in Denver. As industrial manager in its aviation division, he developed and marketed a line of high-speed centrifugal in-line pumps for the petrochemical industry. In 1967, he acquired an ownership interest in a small sporting goods firm and later became president of what would be the Gerry Division of Outdoor Sports Industries, Inc. in Denver. It marked the beginning of his management of small companies in the sporting goods field in which he shared ownership.
In 1972, Bob Hall obtained an interest in Eastern Mountain Sports, for which he designed or purchased private label soft-goods for retail sale. Six years later, he struck out independently by establishing his own business, Conimex, Inc., which imported down goods and silks from the Far East. It grew into a fruitful partnership with a young Chinese woman in Hong Kong and a network of customers in Europe as well as in the United States. In time it became the preeminent U.S. importer of down jackets, especially ski parkas, from China. In 1990, “after 20-odd Canton fairs and 39 visas to mainland China,” Bob sold the business to a friend and retired.
Bob Hall’s interest in the sporting goods field was no doubt stimulated by his lifelong devotion to outdoor activities. At the age of 14, he had spent an entire summer camping in the Adirondacks and had, early in his life, climbed all 48 peaks over 4,000 feet high in those mountains. He was also an avid skier, and while residing in Colorado, he was a ski patrol volunteer and served as director of the Denver Division of the National Ski-Patrol. With his second wife, Mary Jane Adriance Hall, he not only skied, camped and canoed, but also led trips for the Bicycle Adventure Club. They completed more than 45 bicycle trips in this country and abroad, from Europe to Australia and New Zealand. Winters were spent on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, where they loved to golf.
Robert L. Hall, a resident of Concord, Mass., and a generously supportive alumnus, died on April 25, 2015, while hospitalized in Bedford, Mass., at the age of 92. Surviving is his wife of 40 years. Also surviving are two daughters and a son from his first marriage, Susan, Deborah and David, and three stepchildren.
Douglas Warren Kuhn ’44
Douglas Warren Kuhn ’44, a lawyer and community leader in the Buffalo, N.Y., area, was born in that city on June 16, 1922. The youngest son of Edward G. Kuhn, who was engaged in machine manufacturing, and the former Marie W. Trapp, he grew up in Buffalo and graduated from Bennett High School. On College Hill, Doug Kuhn joined Delta Kappa Epsilon and soon became involved in athletics as well as other campus activities, beginning with intramural sports. Among the first swimmers in the then-new Alumni Gymnasium pool, doing the breaststroke, he also blocked for gridiron star Milt Jannone ’43 as an end on the 1941 football “dream team,” and lettered in that sport. In addition, he served on the Student Council and chaired the Honor Court. Well regarded by his classmates, he was elected to all four class honor societies, Quadrangle, D.T., Was Los and Pentagon.
Having accelerated his graduation by taking summer courses, Doug Kuhn was awarded his A.B. degree in September 1943. He immediately went on active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps, was commissioned as a second lieutenant and served in the Pacific theatre during World War II. Released from the Marines in 1946, he returned to his hometown and enrolled in law school at the University of Buffalo. On Nov. 23, 1946, he and Betty Lang were married in that city.
Doug Kuhn obtained his LL.B. degree in 1949, and the following year he came back to College Hill when appointed to the newly created post of financial secretary. In that post he was charged with planning and helping to carry out Hamilton’s first major capitol campaign, which had what today would be the highly modest ultimate goal of $3.5 million. He and Betty took up residence on the Hill, initially in the North Village.
Back in Buffalo after four years in 1954, Doug Kuhn belatedly launched his law career in association with the firm of Hodgson, Russ, Andrews, Woods, & Goodyear. Later named a partner, he would remain with the firm for more than 30 years until his retirement in 1986. He and Betty had settled in the Buffalo suburb of East Aurora where they reared their four children, and Doug occupied his spare time in home maintenance. He also served as attorney for the Aurora School District for 20 years as well as police justice of East Aurora for a term.
Doug Kuhn, a past president of the New York State Association of School Attorneys, also served on the board of the East Aurora Educational Foundation, Presbyterian Homes and the Orchard Park Library. For many years he was an active participant in the American Field Service (AFS), hosting many students from abroad. For his alma mater, he served as president of the Western New York Alumni Association and vice president of the Society of Alumni.
A seasoned traveler, along with his wife, Doug Kuhn found fascination in absorbing local cultures when abroad. Especially after his retirement, they visited several continents, including Africa and South America as well as much of Europe. At home, Doug occupied himself volunteering in the community and doing pro bono legal work in addition to reading (a favorite pastime), gardening, tennis and cross-country skiing.
Douglas W. Kuhn, a resident of the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park in recent years, died on Feb. 21, 2015, at the age of 92. In addition to his wife of 68 years, he is survived by two daughters, Candace and Katherine; a son, Eric D. Kuhn ’74; and 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. He was predeceased in 2005 by his younger son, Edward C. Kuhn ’80, husband of Karyn Bober Kuhn ’81, who survives. Doug Kuhn was a great-uncle of Marian E. Berryhill ’98.
Matthew Benvenuto McCullough ’44
Matthew Benvenuto McCullough ’44, a Central Intelligence Agency officer devoted to his country and his college, was born on May 5, 1923, in New York City, the son of accountant Matthew B. McCullough and the former Doretta Pfluger, a teacher. He grew up in Scarsdale, N.Y., graduating from Bronxville High School. In her letter of recommendation to Hamilton admission officials, his high school principal praised his excellent morals and manners. “He doesn’t seem to be wholly aware of his unusually high scholastic ability, for while he has made a very good scholastic record, it is not superior. I have a feeling that he will be likely to ‘ripen’ fast in college,” she wrote. Hamilton judged him to be a good bet and admitted him as a member of the Class of 1944.
World War II would interrupt his days on the Hill, where he majored in French and political science, but before he left to serve, he dove into college life. Freshman year he played soccer, joined the Charlatans, worked at radio station WHC, was assistant manager of the fencing team and wrote for the Continental and the Royal Gaboon, a humor magazine. He was a member of Theta Delta Chi.
He spent his war years in the Military Intelligence Service in Europe, including 13 months in Paris where he encountered Gertrude Stein, Igor Stravinsky and Jean-Louis Barrault, a renowned actor and director. A story about Matt McCullough in the 2003 Summer Alumni Review recounts that he participated in the famous Alsos Mission, an effort to gather information to determine Germany’s progress in developing atomic weapons. He was part of a military intelligence interpretation team, and in the Review, he described advancing through thick hedgerows in the French countryside dodging German bombs and fire. “We left the Hill inexperienced youth and came back as veterans,” he said. “The faculty welcomed us with open arms. We were better teaching material after our life-changing experiences. There was a bond with professors that hadn’t existed before.”
Graduating in 1947, Matt McCullough traveled to Switzerland to attend the University of Lausanne. After two years as an intelligence officer with the War Department, he joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1949 and considered himself fortunate to have a career that gave him “the immense satisfaction of work that was vital to the security of the country and the development and conduct of its national policies abroad.” A gifted linguist who spoke French and German, he also considered himself fortunate in his assignments, which were mainly in Europe; his work running and managing clandestine operations; and his associates, including Ruth Ellen “Tommy” Thomas, his future wife, whom he met while on assignment in Peru.
Matt McCullough retired from the CIA in 1972, tried a relatively short stint in the private sector and then retired for good at age 60 to embark on another productive phase of his long life. He and Tommy, who was also a CIA operations officer, married in 1974. In 1975, he volunteered to work with the Smithsonian Institution’s Information Program, where his knowledge of languages and cultures came in handy. Appointed to the Smithsonian’s Escort Program, he accompanied visiting foreign dignitaries on guided tours through the collections. The Smithsonian honored him with the title “volunteer emeritus” upon his retirement.
Throughout the decades, Matt McCullough faithfully supported Hamilton in myriad ways, all of which contributed to making his beloved Class of 1944 one of the College’s most cohesive. His work included decades of fundraising and service as class correspondent for this magazine, and he volunteered as a member of the Alumni Council and chairman of his 50th reunion committee. He also edited his 40th and 50th class reunion yearbooks. In 2004, the Hamilton Alumni Association presented him with the Bell Ringer Award for his diligence and loyalty to his alma mater and his class.
Throughout his life he was an avid skier and enjoyed birding, photography, travel and writing. He had relatives who were early settlers of Clinton, and both he and Tommy spent time traveling to research their family histories. Matthew B. McCullough died on Jan. 25, 2015, at the age of 91, in Williamsburg, Va. Survivors include his wife of 41 years. In one of his reunion yearbooks, he offered this thought for the future: “Let Hamilton continue to concentrate on the basic verities of human life and understanding. We may then graduate men and women with the perspective, wisdom and humanity to push, pull and shove us all into a better era.”
James Alexander McLaughry III ’44
James Alexander McLaughry III ’44, a World War II B-24 pilot who carved out a long career in aviation in civilian life, grew up in New Wilmington, Pa., where he was born on Feb. 14, 1924. His parents were James A., president of Quality Tools Corp., and Margaret Miller McLaughry. He came to Hamilton in 1940 at the age of 16, following his graduation from New Wilmington High School as valedictorian. Jim McLaughry joined Alpha Delta Phi and went out for basketball and hockey as well as the Choir. After a year on the Hill he transferred to Westminster College in Pennsylvania. Back home, he also worked for his father’s small company, Quality Tools, manufacturers of “Old Forge” tools, which had barely managed to survive the Depression. During those World War II years, it was engaged in defense-related production.
In 1943, Jim McLaughry joined the U.S. Army Air Corps and went into flight training. Commissioned as an officer in 1944, he was assigned to co-pilot a new B-24 Liberator bomber to Scotland. Stationed in England with the 8th Air Force, he flew 21 bombing missions. Grounded by hepatitis for a time, he was reassigned in early 1945 as personal pilot and aide to Major General Frederick L. Anderson, deputy commander of U.S. Strategic Air Forces in Europe. He flew the general to meetings and to assess bomb damage as the war wound down. Awarded the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf clusters and two European battle stars, he was released from active duty as a first lieutenant in September 1945.
For some years after the war, Jim McLaughry organized flight operations for Moral Re-Armament, an international organization devoted to peace and reconciliation headquartered in Switzerland. In 1967, he and Nancy Hawthorne were married, and they had one daughter, Ann. He later joined Beckett Aviation Corp. as a pilot, flying business executives for major corporations to and from various cities in the Midwest. From 1980 to 1984, he served as aviation manager and chief pilot for Jewel Companies, Inc., working out of Chicago. He subsequently became an independent contractor for aviation corporations.
James A. McLaughry, formerly a resident of Rockford, Ill., died on June 30, 2015, at a senior living community in Arden Hills, Minn., at the age of 91. The College has no information on survivors.
Owen Clark Thomas ’44
Owen Clark Thomas ’44, a teacher and clergyman, was born on Oct. 4, 1922, in New York City. The son of Harrison C. Thomas, Class of 1909, a teacher, and the former Frances M. Arnold, he grew up in Port Washington, N.Y., where he graduated as salutatorian of his high school class. His quest for academic excellence continued at Hamilton but not to the exclusion of extracurricular activities. A member of Psi Upsilon, the International Relations Club and the hockey team, Owen Thomas concentrated in physics, chemistry and mathematics, earning departmental honors in all three. His hard work was recognized with election to Quadrangle and Phi Beta Kappa, and he received the Southworth Prize in Physics and the Root Fellowship in Science, which he used to begin study toward a Ph.D. in physics at Cornell University. It was not long, however, before he began to perceive that math and physics did not address life’s most challenging questions, and his pursuits soon took a more philosophical route.
Owen Thomas joined the U.S. Navy and was stationed for a year at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. During that time, his religious convictions grew and, upon completion of his military duty, he remained in Washington to serve as lay assistant at St. John’s Church. In 1946, he entered the seminary at Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Mass., alongside Lyman Ogilby, his Hamilton classmate and hockey teammate. Upon graduation in 1950, he received a Kent Fellowship from the National Council on Religion in Higher Education and continued work toward his Ph.D. at Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University, where he was awarded a University Fellowship.
After a brief stint as director of college work for the Episcopal Diocese of New York, Owen Thomas returned to Episcopal Divinity School (which was renamed) in 1952 and rose through the ranks from instructor to professor of theology during his 41-year career. During his time teaching, he took several sabbaticals, traveling domestically as well as throughout Europe and the former Soviet Armenia as a member of the Cambridge-Yerevan Sister City Academic Exchange Program. On June 6, 1981, Owen Thomas married Margaret Miles, the first woman to be tenured at Harvard Divinity School. He and Margaret attended Hamilton’s commencement in 2004 when she offered the baccalaureate address and received an honorary degree.
A prolific writer even after his retirement in 1993, Owen Thomas authored or edited 10 books and contributed numerous articles to such publications as the Anglican Theological Review and Religion in Life. He spent 22 summers in Dublin, N.H., as the summer rector and teacher at Emmanuel Church. A fellow with the Society for Religion in Higher Education, he served as president of the American Theological Society, worked part-time at the state prison in Concord, N.H., and was elected to the Cambridge Democratic City Committee. In his free time, he enjoyed windsurfing on the island of Paros, where he frequently vacationed, and playing golf and tennis.
Owen C. Thomas, who maintained close ties to his alma mater throughout his life, died on June 29, 2015, in Berkeley, Calif., where he and Margaret had moved in the mid ’90s. In addition to his wife, he is survived by three sons from his first marriage to Bernice Lippitt, twins Aaron and Addison, and Owen; five grandchildren; and one great-grandson.
Henry Stirling Blair, Jr. ’45
Henry Stirling Blair, Jr. ’45, a retired metallurgical engineer, was born on Sept. 27, 1921, in Almirante, Republic of Panama. His parents were Henry S. and Charlotte Bennett Blair, who had separated when he was young. He grew up splitting his time between boarding schools in the Eastern United States and the banana plantation his father managed for United Fruit Co. in Panama. After arriving on College Hill, he became a member of Theta Delta Chi. He played football, joined the Charlatans and was elected to D.T. After three semesters and a summer session, he left the Hill in early 1943 to enlist in the U.S. Army.
Henry Blair served in Europe during World War II and received several commendations. Awarded the Purple Heart for an injury sustained with an infantry unit of the Seventh Army in Germany, he was discharged in 1946. Wed during the war to Arlene Grammar, he enrolled at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he acquired his bachelor’s degree in metallurgical engineering. He later obtained a master’s in engineering from the University of Notre Dame.
Beginning in 1949, Henry Blair worked as an engineer for several companies in New Jersey. In 1967, he moved to Niles, Mich., and went to work for Clark Equipment Co. in nearby Buchanan. He retired in 1987. Known for his wry sense of humor, he enjoyed outdoor activities ranging from golf and tennis to skiing and camping.
Henry S. Blair, Jr. died at his home in Niles on April 4, 2015, at the age of 93. Predeceased by his wife in 1985, he is survived by his second wife, Ann Rudman. Also surviving are his two daughters, Kathy and Carol; a son, Kevin; and four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Ellis Eugene Bradford ’45
Ellis Eugene Bradford ’45, an expert in international banking, was born in Ithaca, N.Y., on May 8, 1924. The son of Paul Bradford, a banker, and the former Emily Willson, a teacher, Ellis Bradford graduated first in his class at Ithaca High School before making his way to the Hill. When he left for college, his father instructed him to write to his mother every week, and he complied over the decades, from five continents and even after his mother died, until his father’s death in 1994. Ellis Bradford was elected president of his freshman class but put his promising education on hold to enlist in the U.S. Navy in 1942, the day after his 18th birthday.
He attended V-12 officer training at St. Lawrence University where he would meet the woman who would later become his wife, Jane Lois Dolan. He served three years of active duty and was in the Pacific theatre aboard a ship at Okinawa from the beginning of the battle to the end of the war, upon which time he returned to Hamilton to finish his studies and graduate in 1947. Ellis Bradford, a math and history major, won numerous academic prizes and scholarships, was tapped for Pentagon and earned a Phi Beta Kappa key. He was president of his senior class, lettered in football and fencing, and was a member of the Emerson Literary Society. The 1947 yearbook pegs him this way: “Brad is by all odds the most sincere person in school. Aggregated campus honors almost as easily as he did hot jazz discs, and has a prize collection of each.”
He and Jane exchanged wedding vows in the Hamilton College Chapel the summer after his graduation and soon boarded a ship to Ireland where he earned a second bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree at the University of Dublin. (The university awarded him an honorary doctorate of laws in 1989 for his service to the institution.) The young couple made the most of their time abroad, bicycling throughout Ireland, England and France, and becoming fluent in French. In 1950, they returned to College Hill where Ellis Bradford worked in the Admission Office for two years. From there, thanks to a job offer from a man who would become his friend and mentor, Grant Keehn ’21, he embarked on a career in banking starting as an assistant teller in New York City with the First National Bank, which later became the First National City Bank and eventually Citibank. He joined the bank’s overseas division and, in 1957, the family moved to Caracas, Venezuela, just in time for the overthrow of dictator Pérez Jiménez. Later posts included Switzerland, France, Morocco and Liberia. In 1962, he opened the first branch of a foreign bank in Switzerland. After the couple moved to New York City in 1973, he worked in the general counsel’s office and advised the bank on regulatory relations, working closely with the Federal Reserve System’s board of governors. He retired from Citibank in 1989 as vice president and secretary.
Throughout his life, Ellis Bradford prized education, books, writing, music and the life of the mind. And although his career took him far from College Hill, he never lost contact with or affection for his alma mater. An Annual Fund volunteer and chair of his class’ reunion gift committee, he served as an alumni trustee from 1974 to 1979 and later became a life trustee. He and Jane established several funds at the College that benefited professors, particularly of writing and literature, students with financial need and the Burke Library. The Bradford Auditorium in the renovated Kirner-Johnson Building and a conference room in Sadove Student Center, the former home of the Emerson Literary Society, are named in his honor. For his years of service and philanthropy, the Alumni Association awarded him its coveted Bell Ringer Award in 2005.
Ellis and Jane Bradford retired to Pendleton, S.C., where Jane died in 1990. He married Clara Wood Golay, to whom he was introduced by a mutual friend, in 1991. They lived in Pendleton and eventually moved to a retirement community in Pittsboro, N.C., where Clara died in 2011.
Ellis E. Bradford died at age 90 on March 9, 2015, in Syracuse, N.Y., where he’d moved to be closer to his children and grandchildren. He is buried in the Hamilton College cemetery. Survivors include three children from his first marriage, Carol, Timothy and Geoffrey Bradford ’76, and four grandchildren, among them Isabelle Bradford ’16. Other survivors are four stepchildren and nine step-grandchildren.
Hoyt Henry Harmon, Jr., ’45
Hoyt Henry Harmon, Jr., ’45, an attorney who spent more than 20 years with the law department of Gulf Oil Corp., was born on Sept. 30, 1923, in Waterbury, Conn. His parents were Hoyt H. Harmon, a U.S. Army colonel and civil engineer, and the former Marian Lambert. He prepared for college at Vermont Academy and came to Hamilton from Watertown, N.Y. Hoyt Harmon joined Chi Psi, later becoming its house president. However, he withdrew from the College in early 1943 to go on active duty with the U.S. Army Air Corps. He served in the enlisted ranks for a year during World War II. In the spring of 1946, after a year stationed in Italy as an ambulance driver with the American Field Service in the late stages of the war, he returned to the Hill to resume his studies. In addition to singing in the Choir, he became president of the Interfraternity Council as well as manager of the hockey team his senior year.
Following his graduation, Hoyt Harmon enrolled in Albany Law School. He acquired his LL.B. degree in 1950 and, after three years as assistant counsel with the Department of the Navy in New York City, entered private practice in 1954. On May 5, 1956, he and Judith Button were married in Needham, Mass. During the 1950s, he was active in local Republican Party politics and served on the New York Executive Committee of Youth for Eisenhower in 1956.
In 1960, after six years of practicing with the firm of Kissam & Halpin in New York City, Hoyt Harmon began his career in corporate law as assistant counsel for Campbell Soup Co. in Camden, N.J. Four years later, he joined the law department of Gulf Oil in Philadelphia and later in Houston. Soon after Gulf merged with Standard Oil of California and became known as Chevron, he received an attractive retirement package, of which he took advantage in 1985.
Hoyt Harmon sold his home in Houston and that year moved to Chatham, Mass., on Cape Cod, where he had earlier purchased property. There he built his retirement home. In Chatham he joined the board of directors of the Friends of the Council on Aging and also volunteered as a historian with the Cape Cod National Seashore. In addition, he became fascinated with genealogy and engaged in considerable research in that field. His diligence as a volunteer earned him a staff position on the genealogy department of the Chatham Eldredge Library. His athletic activities included golf, and for many years he enjoyed playing with the Cape Cod Old Timers Softball League.
Hoyt H. Harmon, a supportive Hamiltonian and former president of the Cape Cod Alumni Association, was still residing in South Chatham when he died on May 21, 2015, in his 92nd year. In addition to his former wife, Judy, he is survived by two sons, Bruce and David, and a daughter, Barbara.
Robert Hiteshew Insley ’45
Robert Hiteshew Insley ’45, a ceramics engineer and research director long associated with Champion Spark Plug Co., was born on June 20, 1923, in Washington, D.C. A son of Herbert Insley, Class of 1914, and the former Margarette Hiteshew, he was a nephew of Robert Insley, Class of 1916, and Norman Insley, Class of 1918. Bob Insley grew up in the Washington area and graduated from Bethesda-Chevy Chase (Md.) High School. At Hamilton he joined the Emerson Literary Society and went out for swimming, lettering in that sport. After the spring semester of 1943, he withdrew from the College to go on active duty with the U.S. Navy. Assigned to the Navy’s V-12 program at St. Lawrence University, followed by Midshipmen’s School at Northwestern University, he was commissioned as an officer and served on a minesweeper in the South Pacific during World War II.
Released from the Navy as a lieutenant (j.g.) after the war’s end in 1945, Bob Insley returned to College Hill to complete his studies. Having concentrated in geology and physics, he was awarded his A.B. degree in 1948. Thereafter, intending to prepare for a career in exploration geology, he began graduate study at the University of Colorado. Soon, however, he decided to change fields and transferred to Pennsylvania State University where he acquired an M.S. in high-temperature mineralogy in 1952.
That year, Bob Insley began his 35-year employment with Champion Spark Plug Co. as a petrographer in its Ceramics Division in Detroit. Promoted to senior research engineer in 1958, he was named manager of ceramic research in 1968. He served as assistant director of research and engineering from 1973 until 1975, when he became the division’s director of research and development. He retained that post until his retirement in 1987. Honored as a fellow of the American Ceramics Society for his achievements in the ceramics industrial field, he also received the society’s Purdy Award for his contributions to the technical literature on ceramics. In addition, he received the American Society for Testing and Materials’ Award of Merit. His research included the petrography of ceramic raw materials and finished products as well as high temperature investigations of oxides, and he held several U.S. patents.
Married in Washington on May 15, 1947, to Betty Hughes, whom he had met in high school, Bob Insley resided for many years with his wife and family in Royal Oak, Mich. Following his retirement, they divided the year between “the glorious summers of Michigan and the warmer winters of Hilton Head, S.C.” The Insleys later took up full-time residence on Hilton Head, where they enjoyed golf, bridge and walking the beach. Bob also volunteered as a docent at the Coastal Discovery Museum. He guided beach and nature walks as well as tours of Civil War sites.
In 2009, the Insleys moved to Minnesota to be closer to their son. Robert H. Insley, an ever loyal and supportive Hamiltonian, was still residing there when he died on March 8, 2015, while hospitalized in Saint Cloud, at the age of 91. Predeceased by his wife in 2013, he is survived by two daughters, Susan and Patricia; his son, Donald; three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren; and his brother, Herbert H. Insley ’51.
Maynard Harold Mires ’45
Maynard Harold Mires ’45, a distinguished physician and epidemiologist, and former state director of public health, was born on March 18, 1924, in Ithaca, N.Y. His parents were Maynard H. Mires, a veterinarian, and the former Ethel E. Coon. He grew up in Sherburne, N.Y., southwest of Utica, and graduated from Sherburne High School. Having entered the College to receive his pre-medical training, “Duke” Mires joined Lambda Chi Alpha and spent two years on the Hill before transferring to the University of Buffalo College of Medicine.
On June 22, 1946, the day he received his M.D. degree, Duke Mires was married to Ruth Bingham in Buffalo, N.Y. In 1948, following his internship at the U.S. Marine Hospital in Boston, he went on active duty with the U.S. Public Health Service as an epidemiologist. Assignments took him to Mississippi and Texas, and, on loan to the Department of State, he also served with the Special Technical and Economic Mission to Thailand, supervising malaria control programs in 1951-52. Thereafter he was appointed director of communicable disease control in the Vermont Department of Public Health. In that post he was involved in field trials of the Salk polio vaccine. In 1957, after five years in Vermont during which he earned an M.P.H. degree from Harvard University in 1954, he became a director of local health services for the Delaware State Board of Health in Dover.
Besides taking responsibility for preventive health services throughout Delaware as deputy state health officer, Dr. Mires went on several trips to bring health services to the indigenous people of Panama. Named director of the Division of Public Health Services in New Hampshire in 1973, he also served as executive secretary of the State Board of Registration. A past president of the Merrimack County Medical Society, he was in addition an associate professor of community health at Dartmouth Medical School. In 1981, Dr. Mires and his wife returned to Delaware, where he took on his final professional post as health officer of Sussex County. He retired several years later. He had earlier received Delaware’s Distinguished Service Award from then Governor Michael N. Castle ’61.
Duke Mires enjoyed a parallel career in military medicine, beginning with his internship at the Marine Hospital just after World War II. He remained an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve for many years and retired in 1985 with the rank of captain. In addition, he was active in numerous professional and fraternal organizations as well as the Episcopal Church in various capacities including senior warden. A 33rd degree Mason and former illustrious grand master of the Cryptic Masons of Delaware, he served as a national trustee of the Sons of the American Revolution, which awarded him its Patriot Medal in 1998.
Maynard H. Mires was residing in North Carolina when he died in Morganton on Aug. 2, 2015, at the age of 91. Predeceased by his wife of 62 years in 2009, he is survived by two sons, Stephen and Peter; two daughters, Martha and Amy; and nine grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Charles Greenough Mortimer ’49
Charles Greenough Mortimer ’49, who carved out a long and successful career in television and film before devoting himself to inspiring in young people a love for the dramatic arts, was born on Feb. 12, 1926, in Glen Ridge, N.J. The son of Marion Lewis and Charles G. Mortimer, a chairman and chief executive officer of General Foods Corp., “Duke” Mortimer’s Hamilton roots ran deep. His mother, who died in childbirth and is buried in the College Cemetery, was the daughter of Calvin Leslie Lewis, Class of 1890 and the Upson Professor of Speech and Rhetoric (1908-35), who was instrumental in establishing Hamilton’s speech program.
Duke Mortimer graduated from Glen Ridge High School in 1944 and entered the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. He served in the U.S. Navy as a midshipman in the Atlantic theatre during World War II. After his military service, he enrolled at Hamilton, which was hardly a surprise given his family’s history. In the 1930s, he would stroll College Hill with his professor grandfather and became a Hamilton “believer.” In 1947, Duke Mortimer married Elisabeth “Bette” Smith. One of his most poignant memories was of their time at Hamilton where they lived in North Village housing for married students who had returned from the war. “My wonderful and resourceful wife provided the main sustenance of life by working as a registered nurse while I tried to balance education and our financial plight through ‘innovation,’ such as selling used fur coats and pots and pans from the back of our old Buick between classes,” he wrote in his 40th reunion yearbook. A psychology and English literature major, he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, lettered in football and was involved with the Charlatans, The Spectator, the Hamiltonian and WHCL. By working hard and attending summer school, he was able to graduate in three years.
During what was known as the “Golden Years” of the industry, Duke Mortimer soon embarked on his career in the emerging field of broadcast television as a staff producer and director at CBS. He later moved to ABC to form its first program department and became supervisor of on-air programming. In 1957, he moved to the William Esty Co., a top advertising agency in New York City, where he rose to the position of senior vice president in charge of programming. He ascended to the ranks of the foremost network television buyers where his hit shows included The Beverly Hillbillies, Get Smart and Bonanza.
In 1972, Duke Mortimer struck out on his own and formed Westfall Productions, Inc., and soon began producing and directing such films as The Hideaways starring Ingrid Bergman, which debuted at Radio City Music Hall. Other creative successes included the television movies The Last Giraffe and Emmett Otter’s Jug Band Christmas in collaboration with Jim Henson. A charter member of the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences, he earned The Christopher Award in 1976 for his television production of Death Be Not Proud.
Beyond his professional accomplishments, Duke Mortimer was a passionate proponent of making the arts accessible, especially to young people. In 1985, he built a barn theatre at his home at Westfall Farm in Montague, N.J., where he directed the Mortimer Dramatic Arts Workshop for middle- and high-school students. Complete with professional lighting, stage sets, props and sound equipment, the “big red barn” became host to year-round workshops teaching “anything and everything that spells entertainment.” Duke and Bette Mortimer established a dramatic arts scholarship at Hamilton in Professor Lewis’ name in 1989. The couple loved hosting scholarship winners during their annual “Hamilton College Day” when prize scholars often had the chance to interact with workshop participants. The Hamilton Alumni Council honored him with a College Key Award in 2003.
Charles G. Mortimer, whose love for the dramatic arts was matched only by his abiding love for Hamilton, died on Feb. 9, 2015, at age 88, on the 18th anniversary of the death of his wife. Survivors include his two daughters, Nancy and Bonnie; two sons, Charles and Loren; seven grandchildren, among them Loren “Mike” Mortimer ’07; and a brother.
Ronald Colgan Powers ’49
Ronald Colgan Powers ’49, a lawyer and former city judge, was born on Aug. 17, 1927, in Pittsfield, Mass. The son of William J., Jr., also an attorney-at-law, and Esther Berry Powers, a legal secretary, Ron Powers grew up in Rome, N.Y., where he graduated from Rome Free Academy. After a year at Hamilton, where his great-grandfather, Michael H. Powers, had earned his law degree in 1874, he left the Hill to join the U.S. Marine Corps. He served for two years until 1948. Discharged as a corporal, he returned to the College. A member of Delta Upsilon, he lettered in baseball and basketball.
Ron Powers left Hamilton in early 1950 without obtaining a degree. He soon enrolled in Albany Law School. Married on April 27, 1953, to Eileen Levintan, he acquired his LL.B. degree from Albany in 1954. Having returned to his hometown, he established his practice in Rome and continued to practice there, primarily as a trial attorney, for 55 years.
During his long legal career, Ron Powers, a former investigator for the Oneida County Social Services Department, also served as counsel for Rome Urban Renewal (1962-63) and as special city judge (1963-65). Elected city judge in 1965, he sat on the bench until 1969. Thereafter he held the post of Rome corporation counsel.
Ronald C. Powers, a member of numerous community service organizations as well as professional associations, died on June 29, 2015. He is survived by his wife of 24 years, Delia Rush Powers. Also surviving are two children from his first marriage, William and Patricia; three children, Shannon, Thomas and Andrew, from a second marriage, in 1973, to Cheryl Raymond; and three stepchildren and eight grandchildren.
William Anders Sharman ’49
William Anders Sharman ’49, an architect, was born in New York City on June 16, 1926. His parents were William Sharman, a banker, and the former Margaret Anders. He grew up in Briarcliff Manor, north of New York City, and graduated in 1943 from Briarcliff High School. That year, when the country was embattled in the Second World War, Bill Sharman enlisted in the U.S. Army’s Specialized Training Program (ASTP) while attending Princeton University. He went on active duty with the Army Air Corps at the end of 1944 and served as an aerial engineer on B-26 bombers until the war’s end a year later.
Bill Sharman enrolled at Hamilton in the spring of 1946 and joined Delta Upsilon. He remained on the Hill for three semesters before transferring to the Cornell University School of Architecture. There he acquired his B.Arch. degree in 1952. At Cornell, he met Audrey Rossman, and they were married in 1950. While residing in Briarcliff Manor, he was associated with architectural firms in New York City and White Plains. In 1965, he established his own private practice in his hometown.
In the ensuing years, Bill Sharman designed homes, retail stores, and apartment and office buildings in New York and Connecticut. He was also the architect on the conversion of the old railroad station into the Briarcliff Library. Highly active in his community, he chaired the board of deacons of the Briarcliff Congregational Church and also sang in its choir. A member of the Briarcliff Fire Department since the age of 16, he served as captain of the fire police and president of the fire company. In 2001, he was named grand marshal of the fire department’s centennial parade. In addition, he was the first president of the Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society and served as a Boy Scout troop leader and president of the Briarcliff Little League. For his many community contributions, he was elected to the Westchester County Senior Citizen Hall of Fame.
William A. Sharman died on April 18, 2015. Predeceased by his wife in 2006, he is survived by two daughters, Karen and Leslie, as well as two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
