1930s
Robert Tyler Morrison '31
Robert Tyler Morrison '31, a retired psychiatric social work administrator, believed to be the last surviving member of the Class of 1931, was born on April 16, 1909, in Brooklyn, NY. His parents were Robert L., a personnel manager who later took up farming, and Gertrude Tyler Morrison. Bob Morrison came to Hamilton in 1927 from Montgomery, NY, as a graduate of Montgomery High School. He joined Tau Kappa Epsilon and participated in interclass athletics. Known on the Hill for "his pipe, cornet, and wisecracks," he left with his A.B. degree in 1931.
That year, Bob Morrison began his long career in social work with the Depression-era public welfare department of Newburgh, NY. He stayed on there until 1942, when he entered the U.S. Army during World War II. Commissioned as an officer, Lt. Morrison was married to Ruth Ann Voorhees in Newburgh on December 23, 1942. After his discharge from the Army as a captain in 1946, he decided to continue his career in social work and obtained an M.S. degree from the School of Social Work at Columbia University in 1949.
Bob Morrison joined the Veterans Administration that same year and became a psychiatric social worker at its Lyons, NJ, hospital. He moved on as chief social worker to the V.A. Hospital in Knoxville, IA, before leaving the V.A. in 1954 to settle in Connecticut as a member of the staff of Norwich Hospital, a state mental health institution. He remained at Norwich for two decades until his retirement in 1974 as its director of social work. During those years he served on several health and welfare boards and committees, including those of the National Association of Social Workers, and was appointed by Governor Ella Grasso to the State of Connecticut's blue ribbon committee charged with proposing legislation to deal with the rapidly expanding nursing home industry.
Bob Morrison, with his wife Ruth, retired to Port St. Lucie, FL, where he became a member of the Indian River Mental Health Center's advisory board as well as president of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Indian River. In 1994, the Morrisons relocated to a life care community, Indian River Estates, in Vero Beach, where Bob soon became quite an active member of its residents' board.
Robert T. Morrison, a faithful alumnus, was residing in Vero Beach when he died on January 3, 2008, in his 99th year. In addition to his wife of 65 years, he is survived by a daughter and son, Barbara and Richard T. Morrison.
Richard Jones Brandt '35
Richard Jones Brandt '35, a retired business executive who spent most of his working life in ventures abroad, was born on February 8, 1914, in Yakima, WA. His parents were George M., a physician and surgeon, and Anna Kalb Brandt, a nurse. He came to Hamilton from Seneca Falls, NY, where he prepared for college at Mynderse Academy. While on the Hill he joined Psi Upsilon and also sang in the Choir. He took courses in Romance languages, little realizing at the time how useful they would prove to be in his future career.
Dick Brandt went on to Harvard University's School of Business Administration following his graduation in 1935. After obtaining his M.B.A. degree "with distinction" in 1937, he found employment as a field representative with Talon, Inc. He remained with that company for five years, in various locations including Chicago, New York, and the Southwest. In 1942, he joined the international division of Sterling Products Chemical Co., drug manufacturers. It led to 12 years of assignments in field, branch, and subsidiary management in Latin America, including Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, and Guatemala. He was Sterling's export division manager in São Paulo when, on November 24, 1946, he and Winifred E. Cullen were married in that Brazilian city. Two years later, their daughter, Susan, was born.
In 1953, Dick Brandt left Sterling to return to the States and a new job with Sylvania Electric Products, Inc. In the newly created post of sales director of its International Division, he commuted to Sylvania's headquarters in Manhattan from his suburban home in Connecticut. He was president of Sylvania Electric, S.A., when, in 1957, he again undertook activities in Latin America. Assigned the task of setting up a Latin American holding company for Sylvania in Havana, Cuba, he moved there with his family. However, the business venture was abruptly terminated in 1959 when Fidel Castro took over the country.
Dick Brandt next landed in London, where he became associated with Burroughs Wellcome and its pharmaceutical operations. Once again back in Latin America, this time to develop the company's new Brazilian subsidiary, he oversaw establishment of its pharmaceutical and vaccine laboratories in São Paulo. But once more, after 1961, political problems intervened with the leftist policies of President João Goulart, and Burroughs Wellcome's business expansion program in Brazil was put on indefinite hold.
By 1966, Dick Brandt had become affiliated with the International Executive Service Corps, a non-profit organization headquartered in New York City. The Brandts were soon back in São Paulo, where Dick had the task of getting the Corps' Brazilian operations underway. Within three years the program, which supplied American business executives to work on a volunteer basis with Brazilian enterprises to help strengthen the private sector of the economy, was smoothly operating, and he next found himself in Tunisia, setting up the IESC's program in North Africa.
Dick Brandt retired in 1972, and he and "Win" took up residence in Barcelona, Spain. There he became a founding member and director of the American Society of Barcelona and vice president of the Barcelona Council of the U.S. Navy League. In 1979, the Brandts finally came back to the States and settled in Florida, but they continued to travel extensively, visiting their daughter Susan in her various postings as a Foreign Service officer.
Richard J. Brandt was residing in Delray Beach, FL, when he died on October 30, 2007, at the age of 93, as verified by Social Security records. The College has no information on survivors.
James Brainerd Eames '35
James Brainerd Eames '35, who practiced dentistry for 30 years, was born on February 24, 1913, to Lewis N., a physician, and Sadie Stedman Eames, in Taberg, NY. He prepared for college at St. Aloysius Academy in Rome, NY, and came to Hamilton from that city in 1931. He left the Hill after two years and transferred to Mount St. Mary's College (now University) in Maryland, where he earned a B.S. degree in 1935. Four years later, he acquired his D.D.S. from the University of Buffalo Dental School.
Dr. Eames established his private practice in his hometown of Rome, where, on September 4, 1939, he was married to Mae G. Grems. Except for service as an officer with the U.S. Air Force from 1953 to 1956, he continued to practice dentistry in Rome until his retirement in 1968. A past president of the Rome Dental Society, he also served on the executive board of the local council of the Boy Scouts of America.
Obituary information on James B. Earmes, who died on December 5, 2001, in Rome was only recently obtained by the College. In addition to his wife, he was survived by two daughters, Sandra Stropp and Pamela Rudick; a son, William J. Eames; and nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
Arthur Griffith Jones '35
Arthur Griffith Jones '35, a retired Foreign Service officer and one-time director of personnel planning for the U.S. Department of State, was born on September 25, 1913, in Utica, NY. A son of Welsh immigrants John G., a business manager, and Edith Howard Edwards Jones, he was graduated from Utica Free Academy in 1931. That year, he followed his brother, John Haydn Jones '31, to College Hill and joined his fraternity, Alpha Delta Phi. Nicknamed "Nurmi," after Paavo Nurmi, the great Finnish long-distance runner of that era, Art Jones lettered in cross-country and track. He also excelled academically, gaining election to Phi Beta Kappa and graduate honors in history and political science in 1935.
Following his graduation, Art Jones enrolled in Syracuse University's School of Citizenship and Public Affairs to pursue his interest in the then relatively new professional field of public administration. After obtaining his M.P.A. degree in 1937, he began his long career in federal government service with the Tennessee Valley Authority, in personnel administration. After a decade with the TVA in Knoxville, Washington beckoned him, and he transferred to the State Department in 1947. Named chief of its Foreign Service classification branch, he broadened his personnel experience there and earned the national Civil Service League's Merit Citation in 1955. The following year, when director of the State Department's personnel projects staff, he was given its Meritorious Service Award.
In 1956, Art Jones joined the Foreign Service and was selected to attend the prestigious National War College (1957-58). He was then assigned as counselor for administration to New Delhi, where he worked under Ambassadors Ellsworth Bunker and John Kenneth Galbraith. In 1961, he was called back to Washington to serve as associate staff director for a newly appointed blue-ribbon committee on foreign affairs personnel headed by former Secretary of State Christian Herter. As chief of the State Department's Personnel Policy Council, he remained in Washington to help implement the committee's recommendations, beginning in 1963. In that position, he was in charge of overall personnel planning and policies for Foreign Service and Civil Service personnel.
Art Jones, after briefly serving as deputy director general of the Foreign Service, "finally escaped" from Washington to join the Foreign Service Inspection Corps, which sent him to evaluate the administrative and consular operations in U.S. Embassies ranging from the Caribbean and Africa to the capitals of Europe. He retired from the Foreign Service in 1968 to join the Ford Foundation as an advisor to the government of Ghana on administrative and personnel reforms. During three years in Accra, he found ample time for such favored pursuits as tennis, bridge, and swimming.
Art Jones, who on the side had acquired an M.A. degree in history from American University in 1969, returned to Washington in 1971 and took up residence in Alexandria, VA. Besides serving as a consultant on personnel matters to the State Department and the Organization of American States, he became involved in advocacy for senior citizens and the mentally disabled. A member of the Alexandria Community Service Board and secretary of the Alexandria Commission on Aging, his other volunteer activities included tutoring elementary school children and recording books on tape for local libraries.
Art Jones also rekindled his longtime interest in music, taking college courses in theory and composition, and composing a considerable body of work for the piano. He often regaled family and friends by playing on the piano his own lively renditions of popular tunes. In addition, he continued to work on "a weak backhand" in tennis and to sharpen his "diminished skills" in bridge. With his wife, the former Gisela M. Brown, whom he had wed in 1974, he also engaged in extensive travel. At home, as chairman of the board of trustees and a ruling elder of the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, he was active in church affairs, and even occasionally played the pipe organ at church services.
Arthur G. Jones, a faithful alumnus, was residing in Bethesda, MD, when he died on October 14, 2007, of congestive heart failure while hospitalized in Rockville, at the age of 94. Predeceased by his wife Gisela in 2002, he is survived by a son and daughter, Jonathan D. Jones and Constance Wesley, from his first marriage, in 1941, to Margaret A. Childs, who died in 1966. Also surviving are a stepdaughter, Barbara Wolfe, and six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He was an uncle of Jeremy Jones '63, whose father, John Haydn Jones, died in 2006.
Walter Gillette Robinson '35
Walter Gillette Robinson '35, a retired physician and psychiatrist, was born on June 15, 1914, to Leland L. and Ethel Gillette Robinson, in Theresa, NY, north of Watertown. Walt Robinson, also known as "Rob," grew up in Syracuse, NY, where he was graduated from Nottingham High School. He entered the College in 1931, joined Psi Upsilon, and participated in the College Band and the Glen Lane Orchestra. He also took part in dramatics with the Charlatans, wrote for Hamilton Life, and lettered in track.
After obtaining his B.S. degree in 1935, Walt Robinson went on to Syracuse University's College of Medicine. On June 27, 1936, at the end of his first year as a medical student, he and Sallie Taylor were married in Watertown. Four children were born of the union, Sallie T., Catharine C., Walter G., Jr., and Taylor Robinson.
Awarded his M.D. degree in 1939, Walt Robinson, following his internship, established his medical practice in Alexandria Bay, NY, in 1941. The Thousand Islands area was not only where he was born but also one that he knew well as a summer vacationer. In 1941, he founded River Hospital, the first hospital in Alexandria Bay. Interrupted only by a year's military service as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Medical Corps (1941-42), he continued to practice medicine in Alexandria Bay until 1951.
During those years, Dr. Robinson was active in community affairs, serving as president of the Alexandria Bay Chamber of Commerce and as a member of the school board. He became noted as "the racing doctor" who established several speed records as a motorboat racer. A five-time winner of the St. Lawrence River inboard championship, he also took home the trophy from the Biscayne Bay regatta in Florida in 1947.
After a few years of medical practice in Palm Beach, FL, Dr. Robinson settled in New Orleans, LA. The College has little information about his activities there, except that he was for many years a staff psychiatrist at the Veterans Administration Hospital and an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Tulane University's School of Medicine.
Walter G. Robinson retired to Fort Myers, FL, in 1993, and was residing there when he died, according to Social Security records, on September 25, 2007, at the age of 93. The College has no information on survivors.
Francis Folsom Baker, Jr. '36
Francis Folsom Baker, Jr. '36, an orthopaedic surgeon, Olympic-medal winner, and third-generation Hamiltonian, grew up in Buffalo, NY, where he was born on March 25, 1914. The son of Francis F. Baker, Class of 1900, a lawyer who died when "Fran" was only 5 years old, and the former Geraldine Howard, he was a grandson of the Rev. Edward Folsom Baker, Class of 1852. Fran Baker prepared for college at Nichols School in Buffalo and came to the Hill in 1932. He joined Sigma Phi, sang in the Choir, and served as business manager of Hamilton Life. However, it was his hockey playing that led, at a young age, to the most memorable event of his long life.
Hamilton's hockey coach, Albert I. Prettyman, had charge of the ice hockey team that represented the United States in the 1936 Winter Olympics held in Germany. When the regular goalie for the team fell ill, Fran Baker, the Continentals' first-string goalie, was invited at the last minute to join the squad as a reserve player. He accompanied Coach Prettyman (who had become a kind of father-figure to him) to Garmisch-Partenkirchen and, as luck would have it, the United States drew the host country as its first-round opponent. Before the game was played, however, Germany's leader, Adolf Hitler, asked to speak with a member of the U.S. team, and Fran, who had studied German at Hamilton, was asked to do the translating. When the Nazi dictator boastfully assured the two Americans that their team would lose to Germany, Fran summoned up his courage and best German to forcefully assert that there would be no such outcome. On the contrary, "The United States will always defeat Germany."
The game, played in a blinding snowstorm, was close, but the result was a 1-0 victory for the U.S.A. The American team went on to reach the medal round, in which Great Britain captured the gold, Canada the silver, and the United States the bronze. Ironically, Fran Baker never took to the ice because the regular goalie had recovered from his illness and was able to play after all. However as a member of the squad, Fran was awarded the bronze medal along with his teammates, becoming the only Hamiltonian ever to have taken home an Olympic medal.
His graduation delayed by the Olympics, Fran Baker was awarded his B.S. degree in 1937. That year, he was also a pall bearer at the funeral of Elihu Root. Prepared as a premedical student at Hamilton, he entered the University of Rochester School of Medicine in the fall. He obtained his M.D. degree in 1941, followed by a year as an intern in pathology at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester. While there, he was married on May 6, 1942, to Ann M. Wallace. Commissioned that year as an officer in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, he landed on the beaches of Normandy three days after D-Day and, while living in a foxhole, set up a dispensary in a tent. He later established a less makeshift dispensary in Belgium. As a captain and flight surgeon with a P47 fighter squadron of the 9th Air Force, he served through the end of World War II.
Discharged from military service as a major in 1946, Fran Baker returned to Strong Memorial Hospital for an internship in general surgery, followed by a residency in orthopaedic surgery, ending in 1950. That year, he established his solo practice in New York's North Country, in Plattsburgh, where for 20 years he was not only the first but also the only orthopaedic surgeon to practice there. He made house calls, adjusting his fees to what his patients could afford, and at times accepted such things as homemade bread, knitted sweaters, and once even a Christmas tree in lieu of payment.
Board-certified and a fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, and one-time president of the New York State division of the International College of Surgeons, Dr. Baker became a founding member of the American Trauma Society. He was also senior attending orthorpaedic surgeon at the hospitals in Plattsburgh and Saranac Lake as well as a consultant to several hospitals and rehabilitation centers in the Adirondacks. In addition, he chaired the Clinton County Medical Society and the Franklin County chapter of the American Cancer Society.
In 1975, with the rise of managed care and the burgeoning epidemic of malpractice suits, Fran Baker decided to close his practice and become a medical evaluation specialist and consultant in legal cases, working out of Detroit, MI. A year after the death of his wife Ann in 1967, he and Ruth Vallee were married, and the couple later took up residence in Sarasota, FL. Fran commuted regularly to Detroit until his retirement in 1995, at the age of 81.
Over the years, Fran Baker found relaxation in photography, bird watching, and boating. He had once even sailed his trimaran from North Carolina up the Atlantic Ocean and through the Hudson River and Champlain Canal back to Plattsburgh and Lake Champlain. He and Ruth also enjoyed winter vacations and sailing in the Virgin Islands, as well as travel through Europe.
Francis F. Baker, a resident of Port Charlotte, FL, in recent years, died there on September 28, 2007, at the age of 93. In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter from his first marriage, Geraldine Hood, as well as granddaughters and a sister, Geraldine Masters, widow of William H. Masters '38.
