March/April 2010

• previous
• March/April 2010
• next

1936

Robert C. Plumb, retired, Southbury, Conn., formerly of Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., on June 16, 2009. Plumb attended business school and retired in 1979 after 25 years with American Cyanamid. An avid skier and golfer, he was active in both sports well into his 90s. Plumb is survived by his wife, Eleanor Powers; son, Robert; daughters, Sally Haun, Catherine Croft and Margaret Karell; and seven grandchildren. Plumb was predeceased by his first wife, Carol Durham Plumb, in 1996.

Donald R. Thompson, retired math teacher and track coach, Sea Cliff, N.Y., on June 25, 2009. Thompson grew up in Valhalla, N.Y. He attended Furman University and the College, where he majored in education. Thompson served in the Army Air Corps during WWII; he was a sergeant working in enlistment and classification of recruits. In 1947, he got a job teaching mathematics at Sea Cliff School. He and his wife, Virginia, bought a home in Sea Cliff in 1952, where they lived the rest of their lives. When the local high schools were consolidated into North Shore H.S., Thompson taught and coached track until his 1975 retirement. After retiring, the couple traveled extensively around the United States, visiting the 48 contiguous states. Thompson was an avid bird watcher, eventually identifying more than 500 birds in his travels. For many years after his retirement, he and his wife volunteered at Muttontown Preserve, where they shared their knowledge of nature with groups of school children. He also enjoyed camping, sailing on Long Island Sound, collecting stamps, gardening, painting watercolors, and playing bridge and Rummikub. Thompson was predeceased by his wife in 2002 and is survived by his children, Jeanne and Norman.

1937

Philip D. Wiedel, surgeon, Redding, Conn., on July 26, 2009. Wiedel earned a degree in 1941 from P&S and later worked and taught there as an associate professor of surgery. He was a naval officer in the Pacific during WWII. Wiedel is survived by his wife, Monique; daughters, Suzanne and Janine; and three grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be made to The Danbury Land Trust, PO Box 32, Danbury, CT 06813 or the Philip D. Wiedel M.D. Fund for Humanism and the Surgeon, CUMC Development, 100 Haven Ave., Ste 29D, New York, NY 10032.

1939

Kermit “Kim” Easton, retired CPA and firm partner, Redding, Conn., on June 29, 2009. Formerly of Westport, Conn., Easton was born, raised and educated in New York City. He earned a B.A. from the College, an M.B.A. from the Business School (1940) and a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School. Easton served in the Navy in WWII and was assigned to the Japanese Language School as a naval intelligence officer. He became a senior partner of SD Leidesdorf & Co. when that firm merged with and became part of what is now Ernst & Young, from which he retired as a senior partner in 1980. Easton is survived by his wife of 64 years, Freda; son, Richard and his wife, Denise; daughter, Judith Shaw; and four grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be made to Friends of the Westport Center for Senior Activities, 21 Imperial Ave., Westport, CT 06880; the Prayer Book Fund of Temple Israel, 14 Coleytown Rd., Westport, CT 06880 or the Memorial Beautification Fund, Meadow Ridge, 100 Redding Rd., Redding, CT 06896.

W. Graham Knox Jr., surgeon, Greenwich, Conn., on June 26, 2009. Knox was born on March 18, 1918, in New York City. After earning a degree in 1942 from P&S, he joined St. Luke’s Hospital, with which he was affiliated for more than 45 years. Knox served in the Navy Medical Corps from 1944–46 and participated in the third wave of the invasion of Okinawa. He spent his entire medical career at St. Luke’s and St. Vincent’s Hospitals, where he held several leadership positions in their departments of vascular surgery. He also was a professor of clinical surgery at P&S and chief of vascular surgery emeritus at St. Vincent’s. Knox had been president of the New York County Medical Society, the New York Surgical Society and the New York Cardiovascular Society. After retiring, Knox continued to be a diagnostician. He also enjoyed participating in sports. Knox is survived by his wife of 58 years, Amie; children, Graham, Robert and his wife, Dorothee, Amie and her husband, Jim Kelley, and John and his wife, Page; and eight grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be made to the Joseph Collins Foundation, 787 Seventh Ave., Rm 3950, New York, NY 10019.

1940

Oswald Braadland, former bank president, Delray Beach, Fla., on May 30, 2009. Braadland was born in Charleston, N.D. He was an Army veteran of WWII and was awarded the Bronze Star. The former president of the Mass Bank and Trust of Brockton, where he spent more than 30 years, Braadland moved to Florida several years before his death. He was predeceased by his wife, I. Helen (Trafford) Braadland, in 2007, and is survived by his children, Peter, Suzanna Duquette and her husband, George; and three grandchildren.

1941

Charles E. “Chuck” Newlon, retired engineer, Knoxville, Tenn., on October 20, 2009. Newlon entered with the Class of 1941 but earned a B.S. and a Ph.D., both in chemical engineering, in 1942 from the Engineering School. Newlon was born on July 14, 1919, and was raised in Point Marian, Pa. He became known at the College as “Tuba Charlie” and was consistently a finalist in state band competitions. Newlon was class valedictorian and, as manager of the marching band, received the Gold King’s Crown. He was a member of Phi Gamma Delta. Newlon joined DuPont in Charleston, W.Va., and after enlisting in the Army was assigned to the Manhattan District Project in Oak Ridge, Tenn. After being discharged, he joined Union Carbide’s nuclear division. Later in life, Newlon competed in USTA tournaments, and he and his wife entertained nursing home residents with a music and poetry show. They established the Charles E. and Dorothy Newlon Scholarship at the College and established a chair for Oriental studies at Hiawassee Junior College. Newlon is survived by his sons, Charles and his wife, Donna Stephens, and Lisle and his wife Janet; daughters, Jeanne L. Haynes and her husband, Stephen, and Louise N. Irwin and her husband, Ray; five grandchildren; a step-grandson; a step-great-grandson; and brother John and his wife, Jane. Newlon’s wife of 65 years, Dorothy Jean Craumer, passed away five weeks after he did. Memorial contributions may be made to St. Mary’s Hospice, 7447 Andersonville Pike, Knoxville, TN 37938.

Harold Rogers ’41 Harold Rogers, teacher, Tokyo, on July 12, 2009. Born in New York City, Rogers attended the Navy Japanese/Oriental Language School at the University of Colorado with a number of other Columbia alumni, including Donald Keene ’42, James Di Crocco ’43, Paul Hauck ’42, Gene Sosin ’41, Bill Voelker ’42 and Owen Zurhellen II ’43. Rogers earned a degree from Teachers College in 1942. After being honorably discharged from the Navy, he went to California to teach French and Spanish to Japanese-American internees at Manzanar H.S. During the military occupation of Japan, Rogers became a teacher there and stayed from 1946–2009. Upon arrival, he went to Sendai to teach illiterate American soldiers to read and write English; he also worked in Fukuoka and Tokyo, where he taught French, Spanish and occasionally Latin at various Department of Defense Dependents’ Schools. In 1991, Rogers attended his daughter Paula ’91’s graduation, where he presented her with her class pin while attending his 50th class reunion. Rogers’ friends and relatives remember his storytelling, poetry recitals, sarcasm and jokes. He is survived by his wife, Sophie Fumie; brother George; daughter Paula Radetzky ’91; and son-in-law William.

1943

George H. Bissell, retired architect, Putney, Vt., on June 18, 2009. Bissell entered with the Class of 1943 but earned a degree from the Architecture School in 1951. He was born on June 12, 1922, in New York City and served with the Marines during WWII from 1942–46, participating in the landing on Okinawa on Easter Sunday 1945. Bissell was with American forces in Sing Tao, China, when America accepted the surrender of the Japanese at the end of the war. He was an architect in New York City until 1975, then in Cambridge, Mass., until his retirement. At the end of his career, Bissell was working for Benjamin Thompson & Associates in Cambridge, Mass. His career as an architect was heavily influenced by the “Modern” school. Bissell is survived by his wife since 1942, Elvira; daughters, Annette Woodcock Abel and her husband, Jonathan, and Beatrice; sister, Ophelia Louise Bissell Molla; and four grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be made to The Putney General Store Building Fund or Brattleboro Area Hospice.

Martin J. Klein, professor emeritus, Chapel Hill, N.C., on March 28, 2009. Klein was born in New York City on June 25, 1924. He earned an M.A. in physics in 1944 from GSAS and a Ph.D. in physics from MIT in 1948. Klein joined the physics department at Case Institute of Technology (now Case Western Reserve University) in 1949. In 1967, he joined Yale, where he chaired the Department of History of Science and Medicine from 1971–74. Klein won the first Abraham Pais Prize, the first major award for the history of physics, in 2005. He was elected to the Academie Internationale d’Histoire des Sciences (1971), the National Academy of Sciences (1977) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1979). At the time of his death, Klein was the Eugene Higgins Professor Emeritus of History of Physics and Professor Emeritus of Physics at Yale. He also was the former senior editor of The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein. Klein was predeceased by his wife, Joan Blewett, and is survived by his daughters, Rona, Sarah Zaino and her husband, Joseph, Nancy Klein and her husband, Paul Dailey, and Abby; and former wives, Miriam Klein and Linda Booz Klein.

1948

Benjamin J. Immerman, ob/gyn, Great Barrington, Mass., on May 27, 2009. Immerman was born in 1924 and was a 26-year resident of Great Barrington. He was a decorated WWII Air Force veteran who flew dozens of missions over Germany as a bombardier in the legendary B-17 Flying Fortress. Immerman graduated from SUNY Downstate Medical Center and became an eminent ob/gyn who practiced for nearly 40 years in Forest Hills, N.Y. He is survived by his wife of 18 years, Agnes; son, Bruce ’79; stepdaughter, Jennifer; brother, David; and eight nieces and nephews. Memorial contributions may be made to Tidewell Hospice, 5955 Rand Blvd., Sarasota, FL 34238.

1955

Donald M. Schappert, retired executive, Stuart, Fla., on November 30, 2009. Schappert was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on March 25, 1933, grew up in New Jersey and lived in East Greenwich, R.I., and Stuart, Fla., for the past 22 years. He earned multiple recognitions for his athletic accomplishments in baseball, basketball and football at Westwood H.S. and recently was inducted into the Westwood H.S. Sports Hall of Fame. At Columbia, Schappert was the first recipient of the Lou Gehrig [’23] Scholarship. Upon graduation, he entered the military as a 1st lieutenant in the Marine Corps. He had a 30-year career in sales and management with IBM, from which he retired in 1987. Schappert was an avid boater, sailor and fisherman, and enjoyed playing cribbage and reading. He is survived by his wife of 54 years Joan (Moseley) Schappert, children, Mike and his wife, Helen, Jim and his wife, Kathy, Rob and his wife, Cathy, and Ann Asadorian and her husband, Guy; brothers, Richard and his wife Sue, and H. Robert and his wife, Nancy; and 10 grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be made to the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, 3800 Fettler Park Dr., Ste 104, Dumfries, VA 22025.

1956

Garrett W. “Digger” DeGroff, Amsterdam, N.Y., on June 30, 2009. Born on April 6, 1934, DeGroff was a graduate of the former Wilbur H. Lynch H.S. After the College, he served in the Army in San Antonio, Texas, where he resided for eight years. DeGroff returned to Amsterdam in 1965 and was employed at General Electric in Schenectady, and its successors, until March 2009. DeGroff was a member of St. Ann’s Episcopal Church, coached Cinderella softball and church league basketball, and was an avid gardener, stamp collector, New York Yankees and Amsterdam H.S. Rams football fan. He enjoyed spending time with his family, especially their summer vacations on Cape Cod. DeGroff is survived by his wife of almost 53 years, Anne; daughters, Elizabeth A. “Betsy” Capel and her husband, Joseph, Karen L. Ressel and her husband, Scott, and Allison D. Busseno; son, Tomas and his wife, Amy; sister-in-law, Nancy Bebb and her husband, Warren; and nine grandchildren.

1973

John R. Eckel Jr., chairman and CEO, Houston, on November 13, 2009. Eckel was born on October 22, 1951, in Houston. Following his College graduation, he joined the securities investment department of The Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York as an investment analyst and subsequently was an assistant director of investments (energy and minerals). In 1977, Eckel joined Lehman Brothers as an associate in corporate finance and in 1978 was elected assistant v.p. in energy finance. Eckel then became involved in the energy industry, founding drilling, service, and exploration and production companies before founding Copano Energy in 1992, where he was president and CEO until April 2003, when he became chairman of the board of directors and CEO. Eckel was a member of the Director’s Counsel at the Whitney Museum of American Art and a member of the Director’s Circle and on the American Painting and Sculpture subcommittee for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. He is survived by his father, John Sr.; brother David and his wife, Sandra; sister Anne Lowery and her husband, Greg; and a niece. Memorial contributions may be made to the Whitney Museum of American Art, Attn: Michele Snyder, 945 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10021, or to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (American Painting and Sculpture), Attn.: Tammy Largent, PO Box 6826, Houston, TX, 77265.

1988

Daniel J. Selmonosky, financial executive, Bedford, N.Y., on May 16, 2009. Selmonosky was a partner at BC Partners of New York City. He is survived by his wife, Lisa; daughters, Olivia and Isabella; parents, Carlos and Sonia Selmonosky; sisters, Deborah, Monica, and Arlene Miller; in-laws, Kathy and Richard Smith; brothers-in-law, Josh and Jeffrey Smith; and sister-in-law, Allison Fisher.

• previous
• March/April 2010
• next