The University of Chicago Magazine February 1996
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What's the news? We are always eager to receive your news at the Magazine, care of the Class News Editor, University of Chicago Magazine, 5757 Woodlawn Ave., Chicago, IL 60637, or by E-mail: uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu.
To write us with your news directly, click here for our e-mail form: uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu.
No engagements, please. Items may be edited for space. For that reason, starting with the February/96 issue we will no longer list all of the U of C alumni present at a wedding, but only those alumni who are relatives or were members of the wedding party. As news is published in the order in which it arrives, it may not appear immediately.
Please specify the year under which you would like your news to appear. Otherwise, we will list: (1) all former undergraduates (including those who later received graduate degrees) by the year of their undergraduate degree, and (2) all former students who received only graduate degrees by the year of their final degree.
Diplomatic reception: On a November trip to Asia, U of C President Hugo Sonnenschein and Elizabeth Sonnenschein were greeted by 200 University alumni in Tokyo--at a party held at the embassy residence of Eleanor and Walter F. Mondale (left), U.S. ambassador to Japan.
Class News Highlights
"I enjoy working with young, bright, and vivacious M.D.s. Our present class denotes a bright future for medicine."
--Verrill J. Fischer, MD'37
"A second career emerges at age 6--I'm doing TV commercials, industrial films, and CD-ROMs (acting yet!)."
--F. Charles Woodruff, PhB'48
Within Class News:
Martha Gose Wright, PhB'25, writes, "When I told my family in 1919 that I had been offered a scholarship to the U of C, my mother, a widow who'd raised seven of us alone, exclaimed (in German), 'You'll not attend that godless school.' She was persuaded to let me attend.<\n>…In small ways, I used that degree to help four children live better lives (all honored in various ways, and one a grad of U of C)."26
Reunion May 31-June 2, 1996
Helen Wooding Sihler, PhB'26, AM'27, writes, "My present achievement is old age." Son William is a professor at the University of Virginia and son Andrew teaches linguistics at the University of Wisconsin.28
Frances A. Curtis, PhB'28, AM'38, age 91, retired after 46 years of teaching at the high-school level in Chicago's public schools. She lives in a retirement home in Newport News, VA, where she gives travelogues of her trips to other countries to the other residents. Allan A. Filek, SB'28, MD'33, took a trip to Chicago via Amtrak and wrote a 48-page report on it in June. Though 88, he still works one day a week at a plasma-donor center in Phoenix. Estelle Rochells Greenberg, PhB'28, is living in St. Agnes Hospital, a retirement home in Fresno, CA, with which she volunteered for 20 years. She would like to hear from members of her class.29
Alice McCollum Behring, AB'29, moved from San Clemente, CA, to Chino, CA, to be closer to family. "The climate doesn't compare but holidays and birthdays are very festive-especially my 85th birthday this year," she writes. Clifford A. Zoll, MBA'29, is "hale and hearty. Just past go, not yet retired."Victor Roterus, PhB'30, SM'31, age 88, plays golf in spite of a bad knee. H. Lloyd Stow, AB'30, PhD'36, of Nashville, TN, has sold his house and is moving to a retirement home.31
Reunion May 31-June 2, 1996
S. Eloise Webster Baker, SB'31, SM'32, writes, "I have a carefree existence, with reasonably good health, with my sister and brother-in-law, livened by eight nephews, two nieces, and more grandchildren than I care to count." Cora Pendergrast Scotten, PhB'31, has spent much time traveling since retiring from Wells High School, including a year-long trip around the world.32
Lila Lindsay Lange, PhB'32, and husband William celebrated their 60th anniversary.33
Gertrude Rolston Baldwin, PhB'33, visited Elizabeth Milchrist Hanlon, PhB'33, AM'37, in October. Albert J. Galvani, PhB'33, is "still delighted to continue helping in a small manner." Herman Wolf, AB'33, would appreciate any stories or anecdotes for a book that he is writing on R. Buckminster Fuller-1995 was the 100th anniversary of Fuller's birth.34
Warren S. Askew, PhB'34, and Mary Anna Patrick Askew, SB'38, celebrated their 55th anniversary in June. Hannah Posner Moss, PhB'34, still lives in Winnetka, IL, and celebrated her 82nd birthday in August.35
W. Edward Clark, AB'35, celebrated the 50th anniversary of VE Day in London, where he was before Normandy. He found the experience "touching, interesting, amicable"-and adds that of the three plays he saw there, only Indian Ink was pleasant. Robert A. Hall, Jr., AM'35, recently published a monograph titled How Cyrano's Bravoure Changes Comedy into Tragedy. Shirley Davidson Hobson, PhB'35, and Lawrence B. Hobson, MD'43, are "back to the Midwest after 50+ years on the East Coast!" Robert A. Preston, AM'35, has been enjoying intergenerational learning since 1983 as a member of the Academy of Senior Professionals at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL. Joseph C. Varkala, AB'35, AM'36, has retired from active management of the four companies he founded and spends summers on his 90-acre farm in northern New Jersey. He also takes cruises to the Caribbean and Alaska.36
Reunion May 31-June 2, 1996
Shirley Meyerovitz Fadim Zatz Berc, SB'36, is looking forward to her 60th reunion and hopes to see all her classmates. Jean Prussing Burden, AB'36, the poetry editor of Yankee magazine, is teaching two master classes of ten students each in poetry and still writing poems herself. Eleanor Sharts Cumings, AB'36, is enjoying her grandchildren in Evanston. Her son, Bruce Cumings-a professor at Northwestern and a former U of C professor in East Asian history-recently appeared on MacNeil-Lehreron a panel of historians discussing the Korean War. Eleanor looks forward to seeing classmates at her 60th reunion. Helen Still Hansen, X'36, was part of a team that went to China in October to discuss serving the elderly. A member of the board of directors of the Santa Clara County (CA) Council on Aging, Hansen is also mental-health chair of the county's Committee on Aging and on the board of Villa Sierra, a home for the elderly. Henrietta M. Herbolsheimer, SB'36, MD'38, is "going strong" and "still contributing her knowledge to the medical profession." Both she and her sister, Catherine Herbolsheimer Hoobler, SB'38, look forward to their 60th reunions in 1998. Helen Littig Hunt, AB'36, still enjoys receiving news of the U of C. Asa C. Isham, SB'36, was chosen 1995 artist of the year in Grand Prairie, TX. Richard D. White, SB'36, and Sara Baumgardner White, SB'36, hope to attend their 60th reunion.37
Verrill J. Fischer, MD'37, retired from active practice in 1984 but now teaches in a family-medicine residency program in North Dakota. "I enjoy working with young, bright, and vivacious M.D.s," he writes. "Our present classes denote a bright future for medicine." William T. Zusag, AB'37, age 80, writes, "I face each day with a smile and end with a prayer." He remembers his time as a POW in Germany during WWII.38
Mary Anna Patrick Askew, SB'38, see 1934, Warren S. Askew. Roy Dubisch, SB'38, SM'40, PhD'43, attended his 43rd and 44th Elderhostels this year. Catherine Herbolsheimer Hoobler, SB'38, see 1936, Henrietta M. Herbolsheimer. Margaret Fox Reed, AB'38, AM'40, PhD'51, and Richard Y. Reed, PhD'52, recently retired. Murray Senkus, PhD'38, who earned his M.S. from the University of Saskatchewan in 1936, attended an October ceremony honoring that school's current president. Held at Fedkovich University in Ukraine, the ceremony involved Saskatchewan's premier and representatives of six nations.39
Cynthia A. Hawkes, SB'39, SM'40, has chosen to "move out of rural Michigan and back to the excitements" of Chicago. Sara Chase Huff, SB'39, plays tennis and table tennis at the Senior Games, volunteers as a math tutor for adult high-school classes, and enjoys her daughters and grandchildren. Virginia Kenny Lamer, X'39, is "almost retired" after more than 50 years of social work.
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