Class Notes May/June 2001

Class Notes May/June 2001

In my capacity as secretary of the Marshall Bell Fan Club, I’ve been chatting with Marshall by email recently about his favorite movie roles. He prefers “Twins,” “Total Recall” (both with Schwarzenegger), “Starship Troopers” and “The Vagrant.” My family’s favorites were his role as the heartless father (“It should’a been you”) in “Stand By Me” and chasing Kevin Costner up the down escalator in “No Way Out.” Van Dauler has been elected president of the board of trustees of Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children, which serves young people ages 5 to 21 who are blind with other handicaps. Congratulations on your good work, Van. He is also chairman and president of Neville Chemical Co. in Pittsburgh. Jim Hanson is enjoying teaching and research in economics at Willamette University in Oregon and has become a grandfather twice over since May. Bill Lake has a story with a happy ending and some excellent advice for us: “A routine physical exam in November 2000 opened a new chapter for me, when a blood test flagged what turned out to be prostate cancer. My hurried examination of the options led to surgery in January, in which I’m told the cancer was removed completely with my prostate. So the story ends well, with mending almost complete. But the episode gave me the occasion for a lot of thought and recalibration of priorities; and I used the enforced break from my law practice to read more broadly than I’ve been able to do since we left Yale. The loving support of my family was a joy to receive. So I’m better off in important ways for the experience. But the key was early detection –I hope all my classmates are getting that blood test every year.” Sharon and Chip Marshall have three grown children: Gary, a surgery resident in Seattle; Laura, with IBM in Austin; and Jonathan, in the electrical products business in Huntersville, NC. Sharon and Chip also have two grandchildren. He retired from IBM after 30 years and is now with Check Solutions in Charlotte. I saw Flo and Larry Meyer in Washington, D.C., where he is a Governor of the Federal Reserve, following 27 years in St. Louis at Washington University and then heading an economic forecasting firm that he founded. Their children Stephanie (’95) and Ken (’93) and daughter-in-law Kathy Reich (’93) are all Elis. Ladd and Harold Sheets are enjoying life in New Orleans, where he is chairman of the history department at the Newman School. Harold would like to catch up with his roommate, Tom Brownell. Jon Wahl writes that he and Debbie had a great time with Larry Meyer, AndyVillalou and various ‘66ers at the Princeton game, recalling that he “usually went to football games with Larry and Andy in our student days; it drizzled; and we usually lost to Princeton.” After the 2000 game, Debbie and Jon flew to Paris to meet their daughter, Elizabeth (’99), a Peace Corps volunteer in Uzbekistan. Sadly, I report the death of Forrest Armstrong on December 5, from cancer. Forrest was an enthusiastic and stalwart participant in Branford College athletics and always cheerful. In our graduation classbook he predicted that he would become a professor, and that is what he did. After receiving his Ph.D. in American Culture from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Forrest served as dean and professor of political science, first at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, and then for 20 years at Grand Valley State University, Allendale and Grand Rapids, MI. He is survived by his wife, Dorothy, son, Forrest, daughter, Allison, and granddaughter, Claire Montague. Dorothy’s address is 755 S. Dexter, #515, Denver, CO 80246. (303-504-9064)