1940s
Robert Estill LaForce, Jr. '40
Robert Estill LaForce, Jr. '40, a retired airline executive, was born on June 29, 1918, to Robert E. '14, a farmer, and Dorothy Georgen LaForce, in Independence, MO. He was a nephew of Felix LaForce '15. Bob LaForce grew up in Kansas City, MO, where he attended Pembroke Country Day School. In 1936, he came East to Hamilton, joined his father's and uncle's fraternity, Sigma Phi, and became active in the Musical Art Society. He also lettered in fencing as a foilsman and managed the track team when not washing dishes and waiting on tables to help cover his expenses. Described as "a disciple of ethical rigorism" and credited with "studious concentration" by The Hamiltonian, he left the Hill with his B.S. degree in 1940.
Bob LaForce went back to Kansas City and sought employment when the area was still suffering the effects of the Great Depression. He had to settle for work as a driver's assistant, delivering heavy cases of Coca-Cola to "dank and dirty drug store basements." Before the end of 1940, lured by Uncle Sam's "interesting proposal involving travel and more pay," he joined the Navy. Commissioned as an officer, he remained in uniform throughout World War II. Among the various posts both in the Pacific and European theaters to which he was assigned was command of an anti-aircraft battery aboard the venerable battleship U.S.S. Texas, and he participated in the Mediterranean campaign and the Normandy landings. On October 23, 1943, he was wed to Elizabeth Ann "Betty" Hennigar in Alexandria, VA. In future years, the couple became the adoptive parents of four children, Renée, Peter, Ann, and John LaForce.
After his discharge as a lieutenant commander in 1945, Bob LaForce returned to Kansas City, where he found a job with Trans-World Airlines. Soon assigned overseas, he spent more than 30 years abroad as an executive, including labor relations manager with TWA in numerous locales in Europe and the Middle East from Lisbon, Paris, and Brussels to Cairo. Except for four years with Sinclair Oil Co. (1960-64), he remained with TWA until his retirement in 1981. That year, he and Betty returned to the States from Europe and acquired a colonial home, dating from 1749, in Frederick, MD. They busied themselves restoring the stone farmhouse while cultivating 250 rose bushes and mowing 12 acres of lawn. Besides obtaining exercise around the extensive property, Bob visited the local YMCA to swim several times a week. His primary sedentary pastime was reading, mainly history, a lifelong pleasure he attributed to the influence in his undergraduate days of Professor Edgar B. "Digger" Graves.
Robert E. LaForce, Jr., who was gifted with a lively and ever-present sense of humor, had recently taken up residence in Annapolis, MD. He was still residing there when he died, according to Social Security records, on June 18, 2007. The College has no information concerning survivors.
Robert Carleton Weller, Jr. '40
Robert Carleton Weller, Jr. '40, president emeritus of Mitchell College in New London, CT, and a community leader, was born on April 10, 1920, in Cleveland, OH. A son of Robert C. and Bessie Rees Weller, most of his youth was spent in the Buffalo, NY, area, where he was graduated from Kenmore High School. Bob Weller came to Hamilton in 1936 and joined Tau Kappa Epsilon. However, after a year, he left the College and returned home to work in the family business. After a few years of various employment, including assembly line work and truck driving, he was persuaded by the minister of his family's church to enroll at Ohio Wesleyan, where he obtained his A.B. degree in 1943.
That year, Bob Weller entered the U.S. Navy. He was commissioned as an officer, and his World War II service included skippering landing craft. He participated in Allied Mediterranean landings, including Elba and Anzio, and also served in the Pacific theater. Released from the Navy as a lieutenant in 1946, he entered the field of academic administration, becoming registrar of the Springfield, MA, division of Northeastern University (1946-49), followed by field director for the Harvard University Center for Field Studies (1950-51). In 1951, he earned a master's degree in education from Harvard, and that year, at the age of 31, he began his long and fruitful service as president of Mitchell College.
The junior college was virtually bankrupt and on the verge of closing at that time, and young, idealistic, and resourceful Bob Weller rose to the challenge of reviving it. During 36 years at its helm, he not only steered it successfully through turbulent times but also presided over its considerable expansion while elevating its academic standing. Recognized for his achievements with an honorary LL.D. degree from Lehigh University in 1964, he retired from the presidency of Mitchell in 1987.
Through the years, Bob Weller also devoted much of his time and abundant energy to good community and regional causes, and as a kind of senior statesman, helped guide New London's municipal affairs. Among the many offices he held were harbormaster of the Port of New London, president of the New London Community Council and the Rotary Club, member of the New London School Board (he led the successful efforts to integrate its school system), and a trustee of the local Lawrence and Memorial Hospitals. He was also a former member of the Connecticut State Welfare Board. After retiring, he continued to reside in New London and chaired the city's personnel board.
In poor health for many years, Robert C. Weller, Jr., died on September 29, 2007. He is survived by his wife, the former Mary M. Scheiderer, whom he had wed in 1943. Also surviving are three daughters, Janet E. Weller, Mary Ann Lydecker, and Barbara J. Cawley; two sons, David R. and Donald B. Weller; and four grandchildren.
Benjamin Curtis Arnold '43
Benjamin Curtis Arnold '43, a native of Exeter, NH, was born to Herbert P. and Elizabeth Fowler Arnold on June 12, 1919. He prepared for college at the Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall), where his father was on the faculty, and came to Hamilton from Wallingford, CT, in 1938. Reassigned to the Class of 1943, he continued his studies on the Hill until 1941, when he went on active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps. As a corporal he served with the 1st Marine Division during World War II and was severely wounded in the battle for Peleliu in the Pacific campaign. Awarded the Purple Heart, he underwent prolonged convalescence in naval hospitals and remained in the Marines until 1948. When the College heard from him in 1953, he was a receptionist at the Marine's Memorial Club in San Francisco, CA.
Benjamin Arnold subsequently resided in Connecticut and Massachusetts, but the College has no information on his employment or activities. According to a newspaper obituary, he was an avid Red Sox fan and "the epitome of a patriot and true altruist, always helping others before himself."
Benjamin C. Arnold, who last resided in Sagamore Beach, MA, died on December 17, 2007, at a hospice on Cape Cod. He is survived by his wife of 45 years, Susanne J. Arnold; a son, Roger C. Arnold; a daughter, Elizabeth Rubio; and four grandchildren.
Otis Munro Bigelow III '43
Otis Munro Bigelow III '43, a playwright and retired theatrical agent whose varied career in the performing arts included acting and dancing, was born on June 2, 1920, in Exeter, NH. The only child of Otis M., who taught Romance languages at Phillips Exeter Academy, and Ruth Spalding Bigelow, he prepared for college at Phillips Exeter, where he took the lead in theatrical productions. As a teenager, "Ote" Bigelow had already performed in summer stock and looked forward to a stage career.
Orphaned in his youth and with an uncle, Robert W. Keyes of Utica, NY, as his guardian, he applied for entry to Hamilton in 1939 and was accepted. He soon became highly involved in lead roles in Charlatans productions and also as managing editor of the Continental and co-editor of Hamiltonews, for which he both wrote and drew illustrations. A member of the Publications Board and elected to the journalism honorary Pi Delta Epsilon, he also sang in the Choir and fenced for Coach Gélas. Hailed by The Hamiltonian as "the seniors' most diversified artist," he was graduated in 1943. On the Hill, he had received acceptance and esteem, especially from his Theta Delta Chi fraternity brothers, "which fostered in me an everlasting gratitude and a self-esteem I had never known before."
Otis Bigelow gravitated to New York City, where he gradually came to terms with his homosexual orientation. He quickly became a prominent part of Manhattan's closeted and rarified gay society in the 1940s (for his reminiscences of that era, see Charles Kaiser's The Gay Metropolis, 1940-1996 (1997)). During that period, he was among those interviewed by Alfred Kinsey for his pathbreaking research on Sexual Behavior in the American Male (1948). However, as a Reservist, he was soon called to active duty in the U.S. Navy and served as an officer aboard minesweepers in both the Atlantic and the Pacific theaters during World War II.
Released from the Navy as a lieutenant (j.g.) after two years in 1945, Otis Bigelow returned to New York City and resumed his acting career, making his Broadway debut as the sailor in Dear Ruth. Years of extensive touring in summer and winter stock followed, interrupted in 1941 by a year-long stint at Warner Brothers in Hollywood as an actor and screenwriter, an experience he did not particularly enjoy. In 1948, he took a year off and went to Paris "to get my mind straightened after Hollywood," and there took on odd jobs in French films, from acting to translating and devising English subtitles.
After returning to Manhattan, Otis Bigelow concentrated on writing, and almost starved doing so. But after a half-dozen ballet lessons, he was hired as a dancer for the Broadway production of The King and I and spent the next 2½ years in its cast as a "Siamese slave." In 1953, he quit the hit show to go on a barnstorming tour with a dance group, Musical Americana, which covered 33 states and 25,000 miles in four months. After a summer dancing with the José Limon Co., he went back to "Oriental" makeup as a cast member touring with The Teahouse of the August Moon. He also subsequently toured in a production of Auntie Mame.
Thereafter, Otis Bigelow switched from performance to stage management, off-Broadway and in summer theater. Among the productions he stage managed were Mart Crowley's The Boys in the Band (1968) and those of the Williamstown Summer Theater and the Bucks County Playhouse. He also wrote plays, three of which, The Giant's Dance, The Peacock Season, and The Prevalence of Mrs. Seal, were produced off-Broadway and have since been published. He was in the theatrical agency business for 15 years until his retirement in 1984. "Enjoying life on Social Security" while residing quietly and happily with his longtime companion in a rent-stabilized midtown-Manhattan apartment, he still dabbled at writing when not traveling. For many years he maintained a summer house on Fire Island and also enjoyed trips almost every year to France, where he liked to wander through Paris and the countryside on his moped. Along the way he would scour the shops and flea markets for Art Nouveau glass and fin-de-siècle posters to add to his collection.
Otis M. Bigelow died on October 6, 2007, as reported in the classified obituary section of The New York Times. He is survived by Thierry Mahe, his life partner of more than 50 years.
Donald Morgan Watkin '43
Donald Morgan Watkin '43, a physician and medical researcher and administrator who managed the employee health division of the Federal Aviation Administration, was born on June 17, 1922, in Waterford, NY. The only child of Earl P. Watkin '12 and the former Mary Ellen Morgan, both educators, he grew up in Ilion, NY, where his father was superintendent of schools. While a junior at Ilion High School, he won a League of Nations Association essay contest, which resulted in an extensive trip to Europe and the opportunity, rare for a teenager in those days and even now, to meet political leaders and other high officials abroad. He came back to Ilion with a future in the international relations field very much in mind, and with no thought at all to a career in medicine.
Following his graduation from Ilion in 1939 as valedictorian of his class, Don Watkin came to College Hill. He joined his father's fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha, and enthusiastically participated in the Debate Club and public speaking contests, as well as campus publications and Hamilton's newly launched radio station, WHC. He served as managing editor of Hamilton Life and newscaster on WHC in addition to membership on the Interfraternity Council. Elected to both the forensic and journalism honoraries Delta Sigma Rho and Pi Delta Epsilon, he also graced the Dean's List for four years and was graduated with honors in biology in 1943. By that time, "the chief globe-trotter" of the class, influenced in part by his introduction on the Hill to the biological sciences, had embraced medicine as his future career.
In the midst of World War II, Don Watkin entered Harvard Medical School under the auspices of the U.S. Navy's V-12 program. He earned his M.D. degree in 1946, and on June 22 of that year he was married to Virginia Guild in Brooklyn. Specializing in nutrition and gerontology, he engaged in postgraduate training in clinical and research medicine until 1951. That year, he began his long career with the federal government in the U.S. Public Health Service as a senior investigator in the gerontology section of the National Heart Institute in Baltimore, MD. He was subsequently employed for six years as an investigator in the metabolism section of the National Cancer Institute in Washington, DC, and as attending physician at the National Institutes of Health's clinical center in Bethesda, MD.
Beginning in 1960, Dr. Watkin was able to resume his "globe-trotting" as a nutrition advisor to the Pan American Health Organization in Mexico City and consultant to the Interdepartmental Committee on Nutrition for National Defense in countries ranging from Brazil and Peru to Egypt, Iran, and Pakistan. He assisted in numerous international health and nutrition surveys and directed those carried out in Libya, the eastern Caribbean, and Paraguay. Don Watkin also served as an associate professor of nutrition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and acquired a master's degree in public health from Harvard University in 1965. He chaired the panel on aging of the White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health (1969-70) as well as the technical committee on nutrition of the White House Conference on Aging (1970-77).
Dr. Watkin, who, by 1966, was with the Veterans Administration in Washington as chief of research in nutrition, gerontology, and gastroenterology, served for a year (1968-69) as field director of the New York State nutrition program and health survey. From 1973 to 1978, he directed the national nutrition program for the elderly in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. In 1979, he became a research professor of health sciences for George Washington University School of Medicine, and in 1981, he began the final phase of his 42 years in federal service when appointed chief of the occupational health division for the Federal Aviation Administration.
Until his retirement as manager of the employee health branch in 1995, Dr. Watkin was responsible for the health and health-awareness programs for all of the FAA's 50,000-person workforce. In the early 1980s, after President Ronald Reagan had fired all the air traffic controllers who had gone on strike, he was involved in the huge task of medically evaluating some 8,000 newly recruited replacement trainees. Through the years, he continued to lecture and consult abroad, including China under sponsorship of the World Health Organization. A past chairman of the Explorers Club's Washington Group, he also trod the path of adventure by making several trips to Antarctica and other remote parts of the world. Often joining him in his overseas jaunts was his wife Virginia, who continued to pursue a distinguished career of her own as a partner in the prestigious Washington, DC, law firm of Covington & Burling.
All of Don Watkin's remarkably varied activities and achievements reflected his highly methodical mind, devoted to precision. They included authorship or co-authorship of more than 125 articles on nutrition, gerontology, and public health in medical and scientific journals, as well as the Handbook of Nutrition, Health, and Aging (1983). Amidst his myriad activities he always remained close to Hamilton, which he credited with providing him with "the blueprint for an optimum life." A devoted supporter of the College in many volunteer capacities, including fund-raising activities and membership on the Alumni Council, he also served his Class as a dedicated and ever-faithful correspondent for this magazine for more than 25 years. In 2005, he defied ill health and physical infirmities to attend the dedication of Hamilton's new Science Center. Fittingly in recognition of his pioneering research on vitamin B-12, nutrition, and aging, an area in the Center has been named in his honor.
Donald M.Watkin, despite years of illness and physical debilitation, maintained a sunny disposition, a sharp mind, and a lively interest in the world's happenings until the very end. He died in Washington of complications of diabetes on October 29, 2007. In addition to his wife of 61 years, he is survived by two sons, Henry M. and Edward G. Watkin '79; two daughters, Mary Ellen Watkin and Ann K. Watkin-Statham; and four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Kenneth Paul Whiting, Jr. '43
Kenneth Paul Whiting, Jr. '43, an attorney and for 20 years a family court judge, was born into a family of modest means on February 20, 1922, in Olean, NY, near the Pennsylvania border. The elder son of Kenneth P., a salesman, and Helen Tracy Whiting, he enrolled at Hamilton in 1939 from Binghamton as a graduate of Binghamton North High School. Ken Whiting joined Lambda Chi Alpha and played varsity basketball for four years, devoting the rest of his spare time to student publications as business manager. Elected to the journalism honorary Pi Delta Epsilon as well as Quadrangle, he served on the Interfraternity Council in addition to the Publications Board, and as president of the Newman Club.
Ken Whiting entered the U.S. Navy after acquiring his B.S. degree in 1943. Commissioned as an officer, he served aboard the destroyer U.S.S. Laws in the Pacific theater during World War II. In May 1946, Lt. Whiting and Irene Sullivan were married in Johnson City, NY. Discharged from the Navy that year, he began preparation in his future career by entering Albany Law School. Awarded his LL.B. degree in 1948, he returned to Binghamton to establish his practice. He was a partner in the law firm of Travis & Whiting in 1965 when he ran for Broome County Family Court judge. A Republican, he was elected for a 10-year term and reelected in 1975. He left the bench in 1985, having established a reputation for admirable judicial temperament and integrity, and as a judge who was diligent, open-minded, and hard-working, and one who did not shrink from tough decisions.
After leaving the bench, Judge Whiting continued to serve the Family Court as a judicial hearing officer. He also continued to devote his time to the community. Long active in Catholic and other youth organizations such as the Boy Scouts of America, he was an especially active member of the YMCA and its athletic club. Also involved for many years in Hamilton's alumni affairs, he served on the Alumni Council and as regional chairman of the Alumni Fund. Ken Whiting, who customarily walked to his work at the courthouse from his home on the west side of Binghamton, also exercised his legs on the golf course in pursuing his favorite leisure activity. And as a participant in blood drives, he contributed generously and copiously over the years.
Briefly ill, the Hon. Kenneth P. Whiting, Jr. died on Christmas morning, December 25, 2007, in Binghamton, with his family at his side. In addition to his wife of 61 years, he is survived by three sons, Kenneth P. III, David, and John Whiting; a daughter, Margaret Glynn; and six grandchildren and his brother, Frederick D. Whiting '47.
Edwin Vincent Paul Quagliana '44
Edwin Vincent Paul Quagliana '44, a public relations executive long prominent in numismatic circles, was born on April 19, 1921, in Farnham, NY, south of Buffalo. A son of Italian-born Charles Quagliana, a canning factory foreman, and the former Bertha Robinson, he grew up in Albion, NY, west of Rochester, and was graduated in 1939 from Albion High School. Ed Quagliana was admitted to Hamilton that year, but financial difficulties delayed his matriculation until 1940. In addition to academic and financial challenges during his freshman year, he was left unhappy by exclusion from campus social life because of ethnic discrimination by the fraternities in those days. Fortunately, in his sophomore year he was hired as a permanent waiter by Theta Delta Chi and his financial and social prospects brightened considerably. However, in the summer of 1942, after two years on the Hill, he was drafted into the U.S. Army.
Following his brief Army service in the Coast Artillery during World War II, Ed Quagliana was medically discharged and found employment with Bell Aircraft Corp. in Buffalo. By 1946, he was working in quality control for the Birdseye frozen foods division of General Foods in Maine. On October 15 of that year, he and his high school sweetheart, Anne M. Brunetti, were married in their hometown of Albion. Soon thereafter, Ed left General Foods to become a bacteriologist for Genesee Brewing Co. in Rochester and took up part-time studies at the University of Rochester, which awarded him a B.S. degree in 1959.
Some years after receiving his long delayed degree, Ed Qualiana joined Eastman Kodak Co. as an analytical chemist and was employed in its industrial laboratory. By that time, as a coin collector, he was actively involved with numismatic organizations and had been president and curator of the Rochester Numismatic Association as well as president of the Empire State Numismatic Association. In 1972, he was hired as a public relations and sales representative by the Franklin Mint, a for-profit company marketing coins and other collectibles. He and his family moved to Malvern, PA, near the company's headquarters, and he worked out of its collector relations department. In 1980, he was named director of collector relations for the Franklin Mint.
Ed Quagliana, who wrote regularly for numismatic and other publications, and spoke widely on numismatic topics to a variety of groups, also served on the boards of numerous coin collecting organizations. Among the offices he held in Pennsylvania were president of the Chester Valley Coin Club and the Philadelphia Coin Club. Specializing in tokens and medals, he received the National Token and Medal Society's Bronze Literary Award and was elected to the Numismatic Literary Guild.
Ed Quagliana, who retired from the Franklin Mint in 1982, greatly enjoyed travel, and he and Anne took trips and went on cruises in virtually all parts of the world. At home he found pleasure in gardening, bowling, and reading "lots of non-fiction."
Edwin V.P. Quagliana was residing in West Chester, PA, when he died on May 21, 2007. Predeceased by his wife in 2004, he is survived by a son and two daughters, Peter, Joan, and Mary Quagliana, and four grandchildren and a brother.
Harold Clemens Heintz '46
Harold Clemens Heintz '46, an innovative radiologist whose humanitarian efforts brought benefits to many people near and far, was a lifelong resident of Utica, NY, where he was born on May 18, 1924. The youngest of five children of William J., a dentist, and Kathryn Clemens Heintz, he came up the Hill from Utica Free Academy in 1942. At the end of his freshman year, however, he withdrew from the College to enter the U.S. Navy. After completing its V-12 program at St. Lawrence University and midshipmen's school at Northwestern University, he served through the end of World War II. At the war's end, he was a night-fighter director aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Randolph with the Seventh Fleet off the coast of Japan.
Released from the Navy in 1946 as an ensign, Harold Heintz came back to College Hill that summer. A member of Delta Upsilon and characterized by The Hamiltonian as "always the suave gentleman," he served on the Intramural Council in his senior year. Thanks to a heavy course load and credit for courses taken in the Navy, he completed his premedical studies in 1947 and was graduated that year.
Harold Heintz went on to the Syracuse University College of Medicine (now the SUNY Health and Science Center), where he earned his M.D. degree in 1951. On August 21, 1948, while a medical student, he was married in Utica to (Margaret) Suzanne Owens, a Wells College graduate. In 1955, following an internship and residency in radiology at Philadelphia General Hospital, where he received a fellowship from the National Cancer Institute and was chosen chief resident, he returned to Utica and established his practice. Both as a board-certified radiologist and radiation oncologist, he greatly enjoyed his specialty practice at a time when remarkable technical advances were being made, many of which he first introduced to the Mohawk Valley area.
Primarily focusing on early cancer diagnosis and improving oncological radiation therapy, and utilizing the latest sophisticated techniques and equipment, Dr. Heintz developed the area's first facility dedicated exclusively to the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, the Community Mammography Center. He also brought state-of-the-art diagnostic radiology to the region through his Four-County Radiation Medicine, a cancer treatment center in Utica, and conceived of and created the first local Cooperative Magnetic Imaging group. During his years of practice, he traveled extensively, offering his professional services to many of the small hospitals and treatment centers of western New York. In providing his patients with the most advanced and accurate diagnosis and treatment possible, he offered them both comfort and hope.
Dr. Heintz, who also generously donated diagnostic radiology equipment to treat cancer patients in third-world countries, was honored for his humanitarian contributions with an award from the World Mercy Fund. And his outstanding contributions to his field were recognized in 1986 when he was named a fellow of the American College of Radiology. Active in numerous professional organizations and a staff member of several area hospitals, Dr. Heintz retired after 45 years of practice in 1999.
In 1955, Harold and Suzanne Heintz bought a rambling old farmhouse on Norton Avenue in Clinton, and there they reared their eight children. In later years Dr. Heintz became a beloved mentor to his grandchildren through his "uncanny ability to teach the young, whether it was the correct meaning of a word, the proper swing of a golf club, how to spot a bird hidden in a tree, or how to put the other guy first." His leisure time was devoted to such pursuits as cross-country and downhill skiing, tennis, golf, and sailing, and he enjoyed travel. He particularly cherished the time he spent in Florida and his summers at Lake Champlain.
Family and friends remember Harold Heintz as "a deeply principled man of unwavering personal strength," who was optimistic, compassionate, and with a sense of fairness, utterly devoted to his family and community. He was also devoted to Hamilton and to the Class of 1946. A steadfast and generous supporter of the College, he was in addition a past president, reunion organizer, and host for his Class.
Harold C. Heintz, who died on September 1, 2007, is survived by his wife of 59 years. Also surviving are six daughters, Deborah, Kristin, Martha, Judith, Elizabeth, and Suzanne; two sons, Harold, Jr., and Andrew; and 12 grandchildren.
George John Waters '47
George John Waters '47, a former business manager and art gallery owner, was born on June 4, 1923, to George H., a machinist, and Marguerite DuMond Waters, in Oneonta, NY, where he was graduated in 1940 from Oneonta High School. That year, he enrolled at Hartwick College and attended it for three semesters before withdrawing to enter the U.S. Army in 1942. He served in the Pacific theater during World War II and was discharged after the war's end in late 1945.
George Waters came to College Hill in the spring of 1946, joined Theta Delta Chi, and became a member of the Newman Club. He earned his diploma in 1947, and on December 27 of that year, he was married to Margaret J. "Peg" Ryan in Scotia, NY. The couple settled in New Jersey, where George was employed by the Prudential Insurance Co. in Newark.
In 1951, George Waters left Prudential to take charge of the employee communications program of Westinghouse Electric's Lamp Division in Bloomfield, NJ. Promoted to assistant advertising and sales promotion manager of the Division, he remained with Westinghouse until 1962. That year, he joined the Sperry and Hutchinson Co. in New York City as a regional promotion manager of the firm famous for its Green Stamps. He subsequently became the owner, with his wife, of the Artery, an art gallery in Caldwell, NJ, and was most recently the owner and president of the L.A. Frame Co. in Green Brook, specializing in art framing.
George J. Waters, a resident of Essex Falls, NJ, and former acting president of the West Essex Association of Retarded Citizens (ARC), died on October 24, 2007. In addition to his wife of 60 years, he is survived by three daughters, Mary Bate, Susan Tanner, and Patricia Eden; three sons, Michael J. '72, George J., Jr. '83, and Stephen P. Waters; and nine grandchildren.
Arthur Jay Schreier '48
Arthur Jay Schreier '48, a retired physician, grew up in New York City, where he was born on May 23, 1928. The son of Austrian-born parents Herbert and Charlotte Griffel Schreier, his father was also a physician. Arthur Schreier came to Hamilton from the prestigious Stuyvesant High School in the spring of 1945 and, with the benefit of summer sessions, fulfilled his graduation requirements in just three years, earning his A.B. degree in 1948. Academically outstanding, he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received honors in history and German upon graduation.
Awarded his M.D. degree from New York University Medical College in 1951, Arthur Schreier interned at the Bellevue Medical Center and was for two years a resident and instructor at New York's Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse. In 1954, he entered the U.S. Navy and served for two years as a lieutenant in the Medical Corps.
In subsequent years, Dr. Schreier practiced medicine in Hartford, CT, where he was associated with the Institute of Living, in Mt. Vernon, NY, and at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Montrose, NY. By 1985, he had retired and was customarily spending his summers in the Berkshires and winters in Portugal. In recent years he had taken up residence in Holmes Beach, FL.
Arthur J. Schreier was still residing in Florida when he died on September 18, 2007. He is survived by his wife, Judith Rosenblum Schreier, whom he had married in 1953, a daughter, Ellen Alexander, and two granddaughters.
Robert DeForest Gens '49
Robert DeForest Gens '49, a retired public health administrator and former pediatrician, was born on January 3, 1927, to Frederick C., an accountant, and Hildegarde (Hilda) Germann Gens, in Brooklyn, NY. He grew up in Floral Park on Long Island, where he was graduated from Sewanhaka High School in 1944. That summer, he came to College Hill but remained only through the fall semester, when he withdrew from the College to enlist in the U.S. Maritime Service and receive hospital corps training.
In 1946, after World War II had ended, Bob Gens returned to the Hill to pursue premedical studies. Always handy with a first aid kit in case any of his Lambda Chi Alpha brothers required medical attention, he was also cited in The Hamiltonian for "his ferocious intramural hockey and varsity lacrosse." A member of Hamilton's first varsity lacrosse team, organized in 1947, as well as the Choir, Glee Club, and Band, he left the Hill with his diploma in 1949.
Bob Gens went on to acquire his M.D. degree in 1953 from Cornell University's School of Medicine. In 1955, after an internship and residency in pediatrics at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY, he went on active duty as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps. Released as a captain after two years, he received further training in pediatrics at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, PA.
Married on December 5, 1959, to Elaine Goodyear in Harrisburg, PA, Dr. Gens returned the following year to New York and established his pediatric practice with the Mid Hudson Medical Group in Fishkill. In 1970, however, he joined the Pennsylvania Department of Health in Harrisburg as director of its division of handicapped children's services. Subsequently appointed director of its adult health services, he engaged in devising and coordinating communicable disease programs, such as efforts to combat swine flu. Named director of the division of infectious disease control in 1978, he retired in 1991.
Dr. Gens, a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Preventive Medicine, devoted his leisure time to horticulture. Two years after the death of his wife Elaine in 1975, he and Violet Heim were married in Harrisburg. They enjoyed travel, both in and out of the country, and especially to Europe and the Caribbean. In retirement, Bob Gens did volunteer work for the Dauphin County Area Agency on Aging as a member of its various committees, including its advisory committee, which he chaired for a year. He also contributed his volunteer efforts to the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, the American Lung Association, and the Hospice of Central Pennsylvania. He was a member of local choral groups and active in Bethany Village, the retirement community in Mechanicsburg, PA, where he resided. Robert D. Gens died on October 28, 2007. In addition to his wife of 30 years, he is survived by a daughter and two sons by his first marriage, Ann, Stephen, and David Gens, and four grandchildren, five stepchildren, and 12 step-grandchildren.
