Obituaries

1937

William W. Ragsdale Jr., retired accountant and professor, Williamsburg, Va., on June 24, 2017. Ragsdale was born March 1, 1915, in Rutherford, N.J. He earned an M.S. in 1947 from the Business School. Ragsdale joined the firm of Pricewaterhouse­Coopers (formerly known as Lybrand Ross Bros. & Montgomery) as a C.P.A. and worked in Birmingham, Ala., and New York City. He became a partner in 1958. Upon retiring from the firm in 1972, he taught accounting at Fairleigh Dickinson, Seton Hall and Monmouth College. In 1987, Ragsdale moved to Williamsburg Landing and sat on various finance committees within the community. He was a member of Williamsburg United Methodist Church and the Crown Colony Club, where he had been president. Ragsdale enjoyed reading, sailing and playing tennis and golf. He was predeceased by a brother, John Perrin Ragsdale, and his wife of 73 years, Helen Oswald Ragsdale, and is survived by his daughters, Peggy Peterman and her husband, Ted, Betsy Wright and her husband, Charlie, and Mary Saalfield and her husband, John; four grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

1945

Charles M. Greenwald, retired radiologist, Olmsted Falls, Ohio, on June 21, 2017. Greenwald, a 1948 alumnus of P&S, was a Renaissance man with wide-ranging interests. In addition to professional organizations, he devoted time and energy to activities supporting theater, music, science and education in his community. Born in Queens, N.Y., Greenwald was a lieutenant in the Navy Medical Corps, completing training in radiology at the Cleveland Clinic. In 1961 he was founding director of the Department of Radiology at Parma Community General Hospital for 25 years. Green­wald began and was the director of the School of Radiologic Technology. He was assistant clinical professor for Case Western Reserve University and was a fellow of the American College of Radiology, councilor for the Ohio chapter and president of the Ohio State Radiological Society. A lifelong passionate learner, his travels touched all seven continents with trips focusing on wildlife and early civilizations. Greenwald’s passion for bones continued in retirement with work at the Cleveland Museum of National History in the Physical Anthropology Department. He coauthored several papers and journal articles during his retirement years. A Rotarian, Greenwald was honored as a Paul Harris Fellow for his service and 50 years of perfect attendance. He was married to Margaret (née Paschall) for 60 years.

1951

Robert H. Flynn, retired teacher and banker, Manhasset, N.Y., on February 20, 2018. Flynn was born in Astoria, Queens. At the College, he studied music under Vladimir Ussachevsky and English under Mark Van Doren GSAS’21. Flynn earned a degree from Teachers College and attended Middlebury’s Bread Loaf School of English. He taught English in the Levittown school system and at Great Neck North Senior H.S. Transitioning to finance and banking, he wrote speeches, annual report letters and press releases for politicians and CEOs. Flynn later became an account executive at private banking firm Brown Brothers Harriman, where he spent the bulk of his career. He was a regular attendee of Dean’s Days, reunions, football games, receptions and concerts on campus. Such was his enthusiasm that his children heard lectures by Karl-Ludwig Selig, Edward Said and Pellegrino D’Acierno ’65, GSAS’73 while in high school. Though a banker and investment counselor by day, Flynn’s calling was as an amateur, mostly auto-didactic etymologist. If it is accepted that etymology, the Brooklyn Dodgers, the New York Mets, composer Charles Ives, 19th-century Russian composers and daylily cultivation are fields of intellectual inquiry, then Flynn was a polymath. Survivors include his wife of 61 years, Margaret; brother, Donald; children, Maura Arcidiacono, Christopher ’80, Hill and Geoffrey; and nine grandchildren, including Julia Flynn Chinniah GS’16.

1959

William U. Bridge, retired USPS clerk, Yonkers, N.Y., on May 29, 2017. Bridge was born on April 16, 1932, in Mt. Vernon, N.Y. A lifelong Yonkers resident, he served in the Army during the Korean War (1952–54) and was honorably discharged at the rank of corporal. He then attended the College. Bridge married Janet Hook on July 14, 1983. She survives him, as do his children, Andronica Meade and her husband, Donald, and Natalia Hook and her husband, Robert Terracuso; and four grandchildren.

1966

Natale M. Ceglio Jr., physicist, Pleasanton, Calif., on July 2, 2017. Ceglio earned an M.S. and a Ph.D. in nuclear science and engineering from MIT after a B.S. in applied physics from Columbia Engineering in 1967 and a B.A. in physics from the College. He was a physicist by training and became an authority in the fields of plasma physics, lasers, optics and extreme ultraviolet lithography. Ceglio began his career at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1976. After 20 years there, he set his sights on Silicon Valley, where he held several top management positions. Ceglio was the recipient of 11 R&D 100 Awards, more than any other individual worldwide. He was also the recipient of the Department of Energy’s Award of Excellence and was awarded multiple patents in optics, microscopy, lithography, particle beams, sputter deposition, information storage and wafer inspection. Ceglio was a Vietnam veteran who proudly served as a lieutenant in the Navy. He was a tennis enthusiast, and also enjoyed downhill skiing, movies, music and working. His latest endeavor was authoring a comic book featuring “Jonathan Safer,” who was going to make the world a safer place. He also loved animals, including his cat, Alexa. Survivors include his wife of 28 years, Kelly Montgomery; sister, Marietta Kinane; brothers, Michael and his wife, Sara, and Chris and his wife, Amy; in-laws, Kathy and Kerm Montgomery; and nieces and nephews.

1969

William R. “Max” Carey Jr., marketing and sales consulting executive, Marietta, Ga., on May 24, 2017. Raised in Allendale, N.J., Carey attended Columbia on an NROTC scholarship. A three-year letter winner in football, he was an “All-Ivy League” defensive halfback in 1968 and set an NCAA record for career kick-off returns in 1969. Carey entered the Navy in July 1969 and rose to the rank of lieutenant over a seven-year career that included flying 100 missions over North Vietnam, completing more than 300 carrier landings and becoming one of the few elite fighter pilots to achieve Top Gun certification. In 1981, Carey founded Corporate Resource Development, a marketing and sales consulting firm. Carey wrote a book, The Superman Complex: Achieving the Balance That Leads to True Success (1998). In 2000, he was a recipient of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award. Carey is survived by his wife of 45 years, Susan (née Estes); daughters, Elise Kelso ’98 and her husband, Bryan, and Caroline Zuniga and her husband, Jacob; son, William R. “Billy” III ’03, BUS’11 and his wife, Laura; brothers, Christopher and Michael; and six grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be made to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

— Lisa Palladino