1911 Class Annalist’s Letter
Clarence Burton Day
Delivered: June 3, 1961
The Historical Background
Our class entered Hamilton (1907) in the administration of “Teddy” Roosevelt, whose “Big Stick” got the Panama Canal built, and we graduated under the benign rule of William Howard Taft. Six of our class saw service in uniform during World War I (Fawcett, Johnson, Martin, Parry, Peters and Wilder). How the men of 1911 came through the “Great Depression” (1929-33) has not been divulged. Some gave active service in World War II. How many of their sons and daughters gave service (and perhaps their lives?) in the Second World War is also not known. Some wives may be “Blue Star” or even “Gold Star” Mothers. The Korean War (1950-52) left its mark on some of our families. The Days in China managed to survive the Nationalist Revolution (1926-28), the “Japanese War” (1937-45) the “Civil War between Hindus and Muslims” (Year of Partition – 1947) while on special assignment in North India, and the Communist Revolution back in China (1949-50). Some of us helped the Republicans to elect Eisenhower and Nixon in 1952 and 1956; others helped John F. Kennedy and his running alumni of 1911 (including one loaned to 1912) have high hopes of enjoying a well-earned retirement, despite the small war clouds arising in the Congo, in Laos, in Cuba and in Algeria. While our astronauts may go whirling into sky-high orbits, we shall continue plodding on our small, earth-bound orbits, happily exploring the vast world of “Inner Space” — that spaciousness of the mind which comes only to those who have leisure to think.
General Class Statistics
There were 43 of us trembling “frosh” who faced the horde of horrible “sophs” in Chapel Row after a sleepless Paint Night, and after 54 years, it is only Myron Wilder who can dispassionately recall how Sid Sherwin threw him into the fountain. Before very long we had picked up four more members. Out of 47, 30 were graduated in 1911 (of whom 17 are now deceased, leaving 13 living graduates); of the 17 non-graduates, two (George Riley and Albert Easingwood) graduated with the Centennial Class of 1912, four others are known to be living, and 11 are known to have “joined the immortals.”
Professions: six of us were trained for the ministry (one going into Y-work, three combining teaching with preaching); four became doctors of medicine; three became educators; one, a journalist; one, a lawyer; while the rest we know that 16 went into business of one kind or another. All have served their communities well, and some have helped the church of their choice as dedicated laymen.
Of the 13 living alumni and four non-graduates who have sent me information, I have learned that all are married men; into their 15 families there have come 19 sons (plus three adopted), 15 daughters and a total of 66 grandchildren. Four of the sons graduated from Hamilton; of the remaining sons and daughters a majority are known to be college graduates, which is a pretty good record.
Through the years our small class has responded nobly to the annual appeal to support the Alumni Fund. From 1949 to 1955 our 26 members never gave less than $580 and once reached a gift of $793. From 1956 (the year the Kirkland trophy was instituted) through 1960, our dwindling numbers (26 down to 18) have equaled or topped their quota (with gifts ranging from $700 to $982). Now listen! Three times (in 1957, 1959 and 1960) the Class of 1911 has won the trophy in its division! Up to 1956, Ned Burdick was our class-agent; since then Ted Martin has had the prodding to do — our caps off to them both.
Class of 1911’s Contribution to “A Better World”
Rollcall of Deceased Members — (G: Graduates; N: Non-Graduates)
Percy Melville Allen (G, business)
Claude E. Anibal (G, education)
Arthur W. Armistead (N,?)
Walter Allen Bell (N, ?)
Percy Charles Blunt (N, ?)
Harrison P. Carruth (N, ?)
Francis Joseph Casey (G, education)
Ralph Brownell Colson (G, grd. Oberlin School of Theol.; Y-Sec’y, Youngstown, O; Y.M.C.A.
Hankow, China (1917-20); died of spinal meningitis, 1920, and buried in foreign cemetery at Kuling, Ki)
Carl Herbert Coston (N, ?)
James Wallace Flagler (G, business, Westfield, N.Y.)
Clarence Warren Fuller (N, of Albany, N.Y.)
Murray MacGregor Gardner (N, became M.D., Syracuse, N.Y.)
Albert Alton Getman (G, became M.D., Syracuse, N.Y.)
George Frederick Gouge (G, went with B.B.D. & O. – Advertising Agency)
Seabury Smith Gould (G, Gould Pumps, Seneca Falls, N.Y.)
Francis Robert Harper (G, disappeared, taken as deceased)
Emery Howard Jones (G, business, Prattsburg, N.Y.)
Stanley Wright Jones (G, lawyer in New York)
William J. Manion (G,? education or business)
Robert Bryant Mitchell (G, business in Texas?)
George Redfield Nixon (N, ?)
Edward Richard O’Brien (G, education)
Brown Van Namee Ralsten (N, ?)
Edward Weeks Robinson (N, of Ithaca?)
Wesley Thare Sheffield (G, mfg. chemist, Manheim, Pa.) (About a year before his death, (Feb. 22, 1960), “Thare,” after hearing a certain preacher speak disparagingly of Harry Emerson Fosdick, wrote to this “Ted”: “Why does the world have so many narrow-minded bigots anyway? Bigotry on any subject is the bane of modern society in my humble opinion.”)
Henry Lee Sherwood (N, ?)
William Carlton Westcott (G, business in Utica, N.Y.)
Charles Burnell Willard (G, education or business?) (Total 26)
B. Roll Call of Living Non-Graduates
Active:
Clarence Joseph Daly (business in Denver, Colorado)
Raymond S. Richardson (business in Lowville, N.Y. — married 1916; son Henry Cornell ’43, son Stephen — Hamilton ’44, daughter Anne — Smith ’43 or ’53)
James Philander Soper, Jr. (business in Chicago, Ill.)
Myron Edward Wilder (minister in Newbury, Vt., — several years a businessman, saw service with National Guard of New York (1916) and trained (1917-18) with field artillery. Studied theology at Rochester Theological Seminary (1925-26). Married 1926; served pastorates in Perry Center and Jamestown, N.Y. From 1939-1945 served as a director of the New York Congregational Conference, followed by a 7-year pastorate in Rochester, Vt. Son Thomas (Amherst) now a minister in Chicago; sons Roger and Alfred (Univ. of Vermont) both teachers in Vermont)
Inactive:
Albert Huntington Easingwood (of Clinton, N.Y. — graduated with 1912; retired in Gainesville, Fla.)
Orson George Riley (of Rome, N.Y. — graduated with 1912; real estate business in Rome)
Roll-Call of Living Graduates:
Wearers of the “H” are indicated by F-football, B-baseball, b-basketball, T-track and t-tennis. Final numerals indicate age at Reunion Time.
John Leonard Bagg (listed with 1911 in the 1957 College Register but I can find no record of him in our undergraduate days and he has not responded to any of my communications.)
Edward Chapman Burdick (“Ned,” Fairmont, Minn., F, Phi Beta Kappa, Root Fellow in Science, Psi Epsilon, 71). Spent his fellowship year in Germany. Says of himself: “All but four years of my career was spent with the Dow Chemical Company, where I started as a chemist, but transferred to patent work after several years, and was head of the company’s patent department for 18 years, until my retirement in 1955. I married (1914) a girl whom I had met in Germany where she was studying music, and we passed our 46th anniversary last fall. We have two sons and a daughter, all of whom were married, and there are eight grandchildren. Now I am a man of leisure, free to pursue a hobby of gardening and spending the winters in a warm climate.” Winters at 4241 E. Patricia Jane Drive, Phoenix 18, Arizona, Summers at 1218 Holyrood Street, Midland, Michigan.
Harry Brown Curtis (“Curt,” Rockdale, N.Y., Delta Kappa Epsilon, 72). After graduation worked in his father’s milk and feed business, but from 1926 on has operated his own retail feed, coal and building supplies business in Mt. Upton, N.Y. Has served his Methodist church as teacher and superintendent of Sunday school and lay leader, even filling the pulpit occasionally. In the early 1930s was president of his district school board, which put up a new central high and grade school building, and for the past 17 years has served as clerk of the central school district. In addition to all these activities, he has written some insurance in his own agency; has squeezed in some time to prepare tax reports on a fee basis; furthermore, has 30 years been manager, secretary and treasurer of a large local cemetery. Curt is married; a daughter (Keuka College graduate) is married and has two children; son, Reeve, had a year at Hamilton (with Class of ’42) and a year at Springfield YMCA Training College, and is now married, has three children, and is father’s partner in the business. That gives Curt five grandchildren to dote on.
Clarence Burton Day (“Rip,” San Anselmo, Calif., T, t-4 years College tennis champion, ELS, Phi Beta Kappa, Ph.D., 71). After graduating at San Francisco Theological Seminary (1914) and after ordination to the Presbyterian ministry he had a fellowship year in Scotland and England before going out in 1915 to China. Married Ralph Colson’s sister in Shanghai in 1916, and spent the next three years in church work in Ningpo. Transferred in 1919 to Hangchow Christian College (later University), with the staff of which he was associated with 1951, teaching most of the time in the Department of Foreign Languages English Section. After internment by the Japanese (Feb. Sept. 1943) and repatriation on the Gripsholm around South Africa (Dec. 1943), he filled teaching assignments at the S.F.T.S. in San Anselmo, Calif., (1944-45), and at Centre College, Danville, Ky., (1945-46). His next assignment (1946-47) was to North India, where he taught English and Ethelwyn was library cataloguer at Presbyterian-sponsored Forman College in Lahore. That Year of Partition (1947) he witnessed the birth-pangs of Pakistan, where Hindus and Muslims in communal strife killed a million or more of their compatriots and they refugeed three months in Kashmir. After arriving back in China (by slow freighter from Bombay), he had a year and a half of rebuilding the college in Hangchow after the devastation of eight years of Japanese occupation, and had nearly 1,000 students, (in arts, engineering and commerce) when the Communist hordes swept down from the north. He sat out an hour’s battle on the campus (May 3, 1949), after which life went on as usual — under the Communist regime. Ethelwyn came home in September, but he stayed on (with two other American teachers) until March, 1951. Was processed by the police, sent by train to Canton and Hong Kong, where he took a freighter to Panama to visit son, Edward and his family, then at the Army Hospital in Balboa, Canal Zone. Flew from there to New York to rejoin Ethelwyn and in September he accepted an invitation to work at Lincoln University, Pa., teaching Bible and acting as college chaplain (1951-53). There were 30 boys direct from West Africa (mostly Nigerians), who are now back home helping their countries to be democratic. He still corresponds with Ngwobia Uka (Ph.D. from U.S.C.), now a research professor at University College in Ibadan, W. Nigeria, and has a stake in Africa, as well as in India and China! (as well as a stake in good old U.S.A)! Since retiring in 1955, he competed a manuscript which Philosophical Library of New York will bring out this spring under the title of “China’s Philosophers,” intended as a companion volume to my Chinese Peasant Cults published by Kelly and Walsh Ltd., Shanghai, in 1940. They retired in Arlington to be near Edward (M.D.) and Kitty and their brood of four (two boys and two girls) and daughter Betty with her Patent Office junior executive, Richard L. Franz, and their brood of three (one boy, two girls). Youngest son, Pierce, (optical engineer for Eastman Kodak Company) with wife, Sally, has a brood of four (two boys-one adopted, two girls). That gives them 11 grandchildren to buy gifts for all through the year, but who would have it otherwise! Address: 4421 Fourth Road, N. Arlington 3, Va.
Walton Baker Fawcett (“Squirt,” Washington, D.C., Delta Upsilon, 72). Of college days, he likes to remember how we “hooked onto a place with the Charlatans and against Bill Manion took second prize in Math.” After college he taught high school for nine years, during which time he sweated out three summers of Theoretical Electricity at Cornell, picked up an M.S. degree at Hamilton in 1914, guarded bridges and sold war bonds as a member of the Ridgewood (N.J.) Home Guard during World War I. In 1920 he joined the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, and after seven years of study and examinations who won his degree as “Associate in the Society of Actuaries in the United States and Canada,” working with Metropolitan Life for 35 years. Through the years “Squirt” has found pleasure in singing bass with the Metropolitan Life Men’s Glee Club, the Ridgewood Orpheus Club, and more recently with the choir of the First Presbyterian Church in Eustis, Florida, where he and his wife are now retired. He married Jessie Babcock of Boonville, N.Y., in 1915 and they have two children and five grandchildren. Son, Edwin, graduated with membership in Phi Beta Kappa at Hamilton in 1943 and now lives in Belleville, Illinois, with his wife and two children. Daughter Ann Louise is married and has three children. After three trips around the country, all around Florida in 1951, to the Pacific Coast and back in 1953, and to Texas in 1955, the Fawcetts settled in their new home in Eustis with that “now we know our America” feeling. But on Feb 23, 1960, their “peaceful co-existence” was rudely shaken by an auto crash, which gave Jessie a bad shock, and left “Squirt” with a smashed left shoulder and internal injuries causing diverticulitis. After more than 14 weeks of treatments, he has regained some of his lost weight. He wishes us to remember not only his two fraternity-mates — Stan Jones and “Bump” (Emery) Jones, but also “Sheff,” whom he saw fairly often in the past three years and came to like his humor and keen insights into human nature. Address: 507 Pinehill Street, Eustis, Florida.
Hurlburt Gerald Gaige (“Jerry,” Morrisville, N.Y., T. ELS, B.D. Union, NYC ’16, 72). Jerry started his ministry in the Presbyterian Church “way down in Arkansas” as he puts it, and after that served pastorates in Second Church of Rochester, N.Y., in Croswell and Ithaca, Michigan. In 1937, he was called to become assistant minister in the People’s Church (interdenominational) of East Lansing and stayed there 10 years. After serving the Westminster Church of Lansing, Jerry accepted a call to DeTour, Michigan, where they needed someone to help them build a new church. He remained there until his retirement in 1954. He had been moderator of three Michigan presbyteries. In 1916, Jerry married Bessie Hensey of Middletown, Ohio. Their union was blessed with a son Robert and a daughter Beryl, who are now married and presented the grandparents with three grandchildren (whom “Uncle Sam” has not yet made “deductions of the income tax.”) In 1946 his wife Bessie died, and in 1955, Jerry married Eileen Shannon Gibson of East Lansing, Michigan, and they now make their home at 510 Buena Vista Avenue, Spring Lake, Michigan.
Thomas Cook Jessup (“Jess” or “Tom,” Boonville, N.Y., Delta Upsilon, 73). A modest Tom says little about himself. He was born in Kendall, Illinois, in 1887. After college he spent 40 years with the R.J. Caldwell Company and R.J. Caldwell Limited, manufacturers of automobile tire fabrics in the U.S. and Canada, as assistant superintendent and selling agent. When the five mills were sold and the owners had gone to heaven, he went to work for the Stratemeyer Syndicate — an editorial office —publishers of children’s books such as The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew Mysteries and Tom Swift stories. He married Dorothea Blish, as concert pianist and piano teacher, and now lives at 22 East Cedar Lane, Maplewood, N.J. A heart attack and an operation for a stomach ulcer forced him to retire from active business.
Harold Foote Johnson (“Pretty,” Oxford, N.Y., Delta Kappa Epsilon, M.A. Hamilton ’15, M.D. Columbia, ’15, 73). Following in the footsteps of his grandfather and father, “Pretty” (or “Johnnie”) also entered the medical profession, interning at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City from 1915 to 1917. In July of that year he enlisted in the Army Medical Corps and September found him serving as first lieutenant with the British Army’s Royal Medical Corps. In August 1918, while on front-line duty, he was gassed and hospitalized, suffering for two weeks from blindness, infected burns of the hands and acute bronchitis. Finally, in the following February, he was returned on the United States and given his discharge in March (1919). After completing his internship at Sloane Hospital for Women in New York City from August to December of 1919, Harold hung out his shingle in Plainfield, N.J. (in January 1920), where he is still in active practice and has no thought of retiring. Having in 41 years delivered over 1,950 babies, perhaps, after the “count-up” has reached 2000, he may be content to forego the obstetrics and just give part-time to gynecology, etc. Having married a St. Luke’s graduate nurse (Helen Grabau of Saratoga Springs) in August of 1917, Harold and his wife raised a brood of four (two boys and two girls) and now have 11 grandchildren, which, as he says, “makes us feel rich indeed.” He also had the pleasure of seeing his oldest son Paul graduate Phi Beta Kappa from Hamilton (1949) and go on through “P and S” in 1953, also becoming a practicing physician in Plainfield, N.J. The Johnsons also know their America well, having made motor trips into the Great West: through the Canadian Rockies, Glacier National Park, the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Estes National Park, Grand Canyon, Zion and Bryce Canyons, and have also visited South Carolina, Florida and Bermuda as vacation spots. Wherever he goes now, Harold gets out canvas, easel, and brushes and paints of picture for relaxation. As he puts it: “Since 1949, I have taken up painting seriously as a hobby, and, like Churchill and Eisenhower and Grandma Moses, I find it most relaxing. Have painted the sea and rocky coast of Massachusetts, as well as snow scenes in Northern Vermont.” He now resides at 1150 Evergreen Ave., with office at 147 East 7th Street, Plainfield, N.J.
Theodore Day Martin (“Ted,” “Mormon,” Manti, Utah, F, E.L.S., Prize Debater, Phi Beta Kappa, Ph.D. Columbia ’31, 75). Ted thinks one of his most embarrassing experiences was to “flunk” Logic in junior year, but retrieved his self-respect somewhat by winning McKinney Debate Prize in his senior year. From 1911 to 1912, Ted remained in charge of the gymnasium classes; then took the theological course at Union Theological Seminary, New York City, graduating in 1915. From 1917 to 1919, he saw service in France with the U.S. Medical Unit from Presbyterian Hospital of New York City. In the fall of 1919, he entered upon his life work of educational administration by becoming principal of the high school in Richfield, Utah, and remained there until 1924, when he was called to be first executive secretary of the Utah Education Association. He must have “raised the roof” when he addressed those Utah teachers that October in the Mormon Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, for from that moment on became “a marked man.” In 1925, he was made director of the Membership Division of the National Education Association in Washington, D.C., and served in that position until 1950. One of the reasons why Ted calls himself one of the luckiest guys in the world was undoubtedly his marriage in 1919 to “the best girl in all the world” — Marian Edsall of Warwick, N.Y. Another reason is that now they have “four of the best children in the world” (one boy and three girls) — all college graduates and married — with five grandchildren to date (two boys and three girls). What more could a man want! Twice the wanderlust has struck the Martins and they’ve climbed into their car and piled up mileage on cross-country tours. In the summer of 1939, six of them in a new DeSoto did 10,000 miles without a puncture, covering 27 states, seven national parks, two World’s Fairs, and meeting 1,000 friends and relatives. Again, in the fall of 1960, Ted and Marian, in their old faithful 1950 Plymouth, made another tour of the Great West, covering 8,000 miles this time, through 22 states, visiting four children, three sons-in-law, one daughter-in-law, five grandchildren, and friends and cousins galore. Of this trip Ted writes, “One of the most humorous incidents occurred when we were driving toward Flagstaff, Arizona. A respectable-looking young man signaled for a ride and, as he came to the front door of the car, Mrs. Martin lowered the window six inches and inquired, “Are you all right?” and when he asked her what she meant, she said “Are you safe?” We are left to surmise that they took him in; that he was “safe,” for they both lived to tell the tale. Although officially retired in 1950, Ted has by no means been twiddling his thumbs in a rocking chair. Both in Washington, D.C., and in Warwick, N.Y., he has made himself available for substitute teaching and pulpit supply as occasion offered. In 1950 and again in 1960, he had the pleasure of addressing the teachers of Utah in the vast Mormon Tabernacle. In 1958, he participated in the dedication of the magnificent new $9,000,000 headquarters building of the N.E.A. in Washington, D.C., for which occasion he had published (1957) his definitive history of the N.E.A., titled Building a Teaching Profession: A Century of Progress, 1857-1957. He resides with Marian in the Edsall ancestral mansion at 40 Oakland Avenue, Warwick, N.Y.
Clarence Earle Marhaver (“Pete,” Ilion, N.Y. ELS, Warfield German Prize Scholar, 71)/ “In June 1911,” writes Pete, “I was recruited at Hamilton for the Western Electric Company, a pioneer in seeking college graduates for training programs. Upon completion of a two-year period of on-the-job training in all departments, I was assigned to the Mdse-branch and worked there four years. I then transferred to the Purchasing Division, starting as purchase-clerk. I then became in succession assistant buyer, buyer, assistant works purchasing agent and finally works purchasing agent for the Kearney (N.J.) Works and then at the Hawthorne (Ill.) Works, the plant where I was first employed and where I retired. On July 24, 1915, the ship Eastland overturned in the Chicago River, resulting in 812 deaths. This ship had been hired for a picnic of Western Electric employees and was overloaded. I went on duty in the National Guard Armory, used as a temporary morgue, and the scenes were heartbreaking. Working for a large manufacturing corporation was a thrilling experience. My experiences in purchasing alone would fill a book. They covered the First and Second World Wars, the boom period of the late 1920s, the depression of the 1930s and the post-war period following World War II. The range of items purchased was great. I have bought carloads of horse manure and even human skeletons, etc. If I were starting all over anew, I would choose to do the same thing again. The contacts were interesting and stimulating. Keeping a factory supplied with the necessary tools, raw materials, and food for anywhere from 25,000 to 42,000 employees kept you on your toes at all times.” So Pete brings to a close his 50-year sketch, and concludes by saying: “I guess that I should mention that my wife and I have been married 45 years and still go together! We have three adopted sons (one deceased) and a beautiful granddaughter who was five-years-old this past December. See you in June! Sincerely, Pete.” Resides at 928 North Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park, Ill.
John Henry Parry (“Harry,” Utica, N.Y., Psi Epsilon, Editor — 1911 Hamiltonian, on the editorial boards of Hamilton Life and Hamilton Literary Magazine, Phi Beta Kappa, 71). Harry is the only member of the class with the distinction of having been born abroad. A “son of the manse,” he arrived to rejoice the hearts of the Rev. John Hughes and Margaret (Hill) Parry in Holyhead, Wales, on Sept. 13, 1889. At an early age he must have persuaded his parents to move to the States so that he could prepare for college at the Utica Free Academy. He recalls an episode of college days which has stuck in his memory ever since and should, therefore, be recorded here. In his own words, “It occurred at Chapel orations with Cal Lewis. It seems that Karl Wisehart was due to speak that day. As he advanced to the platform, several members of the audience began to cluck (you undoubtedly recall the habit of those days). Before he mounted the platform, Wise turned and thumbed his nose at the crowd. Cal immediately recalled him to his seat, whereupon all our class (or at least those who could spare the ‘cut’) got up and walked out.” In his first year out in the cold, cold world, Harry worked as a reporter for the Utica Daily Press and then began his teaching career as instructor in English at the University of Maine (1912-15). Received the A.M. degree at Hamilton in 1914. In the next two years he acted as principal of two high schools — a year at Nunda (N.Y.) and a year at Medina (N.Y.) Then World War I claimed his attention and he served as a private in the army (1918-19) at Camp Dix, N.J. Surviving the flu epidemic, he returned to English teaching — this time to East High School in Rochester, N.Y. (1919-21). In 1921, Harry assumed the headship of the department of English at the State Normal School (Now the State University College of Education) at Geneseo, N.Y. In 1929, he earned a master’s degree at Columbia University and did graduate work there toward his doctorate in 1931-32. Retirement from teaching came in 1955. Following special studies for the ministry, Harry was ordained (1955) a deacon in the Protestant Episcopal Church while still in Geneseo, and placed in charge of St. John’s Church of Honeoye Falls, N.Y., in 1956. Ordination as priest soon followed, and finally he was instituted as rector of that church by the Rt. Rev. Dudley Scott, Stark, Bishop of the Diocese of Rochester on February 7, 1958. Harry married Mary Hamill of Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. in 1924. They have three married daughters, a son Stephen, who will enter college this fall, and nine grandchildren, of whom he has had the joy of baptizing five. The Parrys now make their home at 65 West Main Street, Honeoye Falls, N.Y.
Theodore Peters (“Ted,” Walden, N.Y. F, T, Sigma Phi, M.D. — Penna., ’15, 71).
After interning at Germantown Hospital in Philadelphia, Ted started general practice in Chambersburg, Pa., in 1917, but soon enlisted in the Army Medical Corps. Attached to Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., he served until January 1919, being then discharge with the rank of captain. Since then he has continued in private practice in Chambersburg and claims to have delivered over 2,500 babies around the county in these 40-odd years — a record that Harold will have to hump some to match. His many interests include charter membership in the local Lion’s Club and American Legion Post; he was examiner for public schools for over 35 years, and is an elder in the Presbyterian Church of the Falling Spring in Chambersburg. When he is reminiscing, Ted recalls “riding on the back of a farm horse over a field through a snowstorm holding fast to his obstetrical bag going to bring into the world another corn planter. I slept on a couch and came home next morning, mission accomplished, but so full of barn perfume that I was almost hung out on the line to air.” In 1917, Ted married Miriam Lenhardt of Norristown, Pa., and they have two children. Daughter Elizabeth is married and has two boys and three girls. His son Theodore, Jr. (Ph.D., head, Biochemistry Department in Bassett Hospital, Cooperstown, N.Y.) is married and has three sons and one daughter. The nine grandchildren Ted calls “my biggest blessing.” Address: 164 E. Queen Street, Chambersburg, Pa.
Don Rex Sidle (“Don” Paulding, Ohio, Sigma Phi, F — Varsity Captain, Senior year, “Pentagon,” 71). Immediately after graduation, Don set out on his career as an efficiency expert and statistician, making an exhaustive tax survey of Oneida County and an industrial survey of Utica, N.Y. He helped organize and became first secretary of the Utica Rotary Club. Then he took on the reorganization of Chambers of Commerce: first for Springfield, Ohio, then for Vincennes, Ind. While acting for four years as secretary of the Vincennes Chamber of Commerce, Don also became secretary of a countywide committee, which directed Liberty Loan drives and all charitable drives. From there he went into the insurance business. Becoming affiliated with the Traveler’s Insurance Company of Hartford, Conn., and getting preliminary training at the home office, Don was then sent as a field representative to Indiana, where he became assistant manager inside of three years. He was then sent as manager for the state of Florida, opening a new field office. His last big job was as senior assistant manager in Philadelphia, in charge of all life and accident insurance besides the training of new agents. During World War II, he streamlined procedures for a shipbuilding and dry-dock company. A son Winant (Hamilton ’38) is now an Army colonel and an aide to “top brass” at the Pentagon in Washington. Don and wife Helen make their home at 266 Cambridge Rd., Clifton Heights, Pa.
Marion Karl Wisehart (“Wise,” Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Chi Psi, F, Clark Prize Orator, Debating Team, Ph.M., ’13, 71). Karl’s career has been that of a journalist, beginning as a Washington correspondent for The New York Evening Sun (1911-18). He became European correspondent for Leslie’s Weekly (1919), made social and industrial surveys in New York and Cleveland. In 1920 he went on the staff of American Magazine, acted as their European correspondent 1929-30, and in 1932 lectured at the Evening College (CCNY) “Writer’s Workshop.” He did freelance writing from 1932-46, then became editor for national affairs of Pathfinder-Town Journal (1946-55). He authored The Kiss (novel); Marvels of Science (1928); Reading The Price Tags of Life (1929). Karl lives with his wife Rosa at 716 Parkway Terrace, Alexandria, Va.
Clarence B. Day, Class of 1911
During his Hamilton days, Clarence Burton Day was a member of ELS and YMCA. He acquired the nickname “Rip,” short for Rip Van Winkle, by oversleeping one of “Prexy” Stryker’s early-morning Bible classes. The name remains with him today. After graduation, he enrolled in the San Francisco Theological Seminary and following ordination became a research fellow at New College, Edinburgh and Mansfield College, Oxford, before moving to China. He and his wife settled down in Ningpo, teaching English at Hangchow Christian College while pursuing graduate studies. He earned an M.A. in Chinese Buddhism at the University of Chicago in 1923 a Ph.D. from Hartford Seminary in 1930, and an S.T.M. from San Francisco Theological Seminary in 1931, while continuing as head of the English department at Hangchow.
Following the Japanese invasion, Dr. Day returned to the States and taught at the San Francisco Theological Seminary and Centre College in Kentucky. In 1946, he and his wife returned to the Far East where he taught at Forman Christian College in Lahore, India, but the couple were soon caught up in India’s partition struggles. Dr. Days returned to Shanghai in 1947 to rebuild Hangchow College, becoming acting dean of arts. He returned to the States in 1951 and taught at the predominantly black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. In 1955, after a year as interim pastor of the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Hornell, N.Y. he retired. The years to come were spent in scholarly research, which lead to several published works, including the 1962 book The Philosophers of China.
