1940s

John Horton Smith ’40

A former industrial engineer, was born on December 18, 1917, in Norwich, NY. The son of Harold H. ’13, a school principal, and Flo?Reta Chamberlain Smith, he grew up in Newburgh, NY, and was graduated from Newburgh Free Academy. “Jack” Smith came to Hamilton in 1936, joined the Emerson Literary Society, and devoted most of his extracurricular time to playing in the Band. Having concentrated in chemistry and German, he left the Hill with his B.S. degree in?1940.

Despite the difficulty of obtaining a job at that time, Jack Smith found employment with Bausch & Lomb Optical Co. in Rochester, NY. During World War?II he was assigned to a new department within the com­pany’s factory that produced thin coatings for military lenses. As a process engineer and shift supervisor working with millwrights, electricians, plumbers, and other mechanics, he helped set up new equipment designed in-house, established the production process, and trained the?operators. After the war he continued in the factory as a process development engineer for vacuum coatings, a new ­optical process in which innovations were being rapidly made and eventually utilized in electronics and other fields as well. While at Bausch & Lomb, he met Winifred C. Steinorth, and they were married in Webster, NY, on October 29, 1952.

In 1957, Jack Smith left Bausch & Lomb to join the Consolidated Vacuum Division of Bell & Howell, manufacturers and suppliers of high-vacuum equipment for optical, electronic, and other applications, in Rochester. There, as a project engineer, he supervised a lab that precision-tested new equipment and designs for thin-film processing, as well as scheduling customer-service personnel. He left the division when it was taken over by the Bendix Corp. in 1970. Wishing to stay in the Rochester area, he worked for Fairport Central Schools until his retirement in 1982.

While residing in the Rochester suburb of Pittsford, Jack and Winifred Smith spent most of each summer at Moon Lake in the Thousand Islands area north of Watertown, where he enjoyed sailing and boating. A longtime member and former director and secretary of the Rochester Curling Club, he, with his wife, also enjoyed curling, which he once described as “a strange game for the observer, but addictive when a person becomes involved.”

John H. Smith, an exceedingly devoted and generously supportive alumnus who established the Harold H. Smith Scholarship at the College in memory of his father, died at his home in Pittsford on June 13, 2011, at the age of 93. Predeceased two months earlier by his wife, he is survived by a son, Jordan F. Smith ’76, and three grandsons. A memorial service was held at the First Congregational Church of Fairport, of which he was a former deacon.

Stephen LeRoy Angell, Jr. ’41

Angell, who devoted his entire adult life to society’s welfare and the cause of nonviolence, was born on September 3, 1919, in Bronxville, NY. The youngest of three sons of Stephen L. Angell, a Realtor, and the former Mary Alice Angel, he came to the ­College in 1937, following his graduation from Bronxville High School. Steve Angell joined Delta Upsilon, sang in the Choir, and managed the ski team for two years. Known for his inquisitive turn of mind, always asking “why?”, and as a genial punster, he received his B.S. degree in 1941.

Steve Angell, whose family had joined the Society of Friends when he was a boy, became a conscientious objector during World War II. He performed alternative public service at a civilian forestry camp in New Hampshire as well as at the Cheltenham School for Boys, which housed black delinquent youth in Maryland, and the Norwich Mental Hospital in Connecticut. In 1947, after the war had ended, he returned to the classroom and earned a master’s degree in social work from the University of Chicago. While at the University, he met Barbara E. Allee, a Quaker woman who taught nursery school. They were married in Chicago on March 6, 1948.

Steve Angell began his career in social work with the Family Service Bureau of the United Charities of Chicago and soon thereafter the Greater Community Council in Connecticut. In subsequent years, he served as an executive of community welfare organizations, including district associate director of the Philadelphia (PA) Health and Welfare Council, executive director of the Lehigh County Community Council in Allentown, PA, and executive director of the Health and Welfare Council of Nassau County on Long Island. Over the years, most of his work had been in planning and coordinating with the United Way.

In 1968, having become increasingly troubled in conscience as a citizen and taxpayer by the war in Vietnam, Steve Angell resigned his position with Nassau County and established his own human services consulting business, which enabled him to receive recompense below the taxable level. He and Barbara also moved to a rural environment in Clinton Corners, Dutchess County, NY, where they grew much of their own food, raised their own cattle, and chopped their own firewood. In 1977, the war having ended, Steve Angell returned to full-time employment as executive director of Family Services for Dutchess County. He retired from that position in 1984.

Through the years, boundlessly energetic, Steve Angell busily engaged in volunteer work for Quaker organizations. From 1966 to 1975, he chaired the general committee of the Friends Committee on National Legislation, the Quaker “lobby” on behalf of peace, in Washington, DC. From 1975 to 1978, he was presiding clerk of the Friends General Conference. After his retirement, he volunteered almost all his time to the Alternatives to Violence Project, which he helped to found. It conducted workshops on nonviolence in prisons as well as in the community, and he traveled throughout the country and widely abroad on behalf of conflict resolution by nonviolent means. In 1997, he was hailed by Haverford College as an “activist, peace maker, proponent of social welfare and Friend” when it conferred upon him an honorary doctorate of humane letters.

Some years after the death of his wife in 1988, Steve Angell moved to a Quaker retirement community near Philadelphia. Known for his fondness for floppy hats, backpacking and mountain climbing, and St. Bernard dogs, he was above all devoted to the service of humanity, and he continued his active involvement in that cause until 2007, when sidelined by ill health.

Stephen L. Angell, Jr., a supportive alumnus and onetime regional chairman of the College’s Alumni Fund, died at his home in Kennett Square, PA, on May 6, 2011, at the age of 91. He is survived by a daughter, Marjorie Van Hoy; three sons, Stephen W., Thomas N., and Samuel J. Angell; and 13 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Robert Hays Auerbach ’42

A retired textiles industry executive, was born on June 17, 1920, in Pleasantville, north of New York City. His parents were Irvin H., a sales representative, and Helen Hays Auerbach. “Bob” Auerbach came to Hamilton in 1938 as a graduate of Pleasantville High School. He joined Delta Upsilon and played in the College Band as well as varsity tennis. He left the Hill after two years and briefly worked in advertising for The New York Times before entering the U.S. Army in 1941. He served through the end of World War II, including two years in the European theater of operations.

Discharged as a master sergeant at the end of 1945, Bob Auerbach began his career in textiles with Forge Mills, Inc., in?New York City. He was a vice president of the company in 1956 when he became part ­owner and general manager of Abbot Mills (later Abbot Fabrics), also in New York City. He remained an avid tennis player throughout his life.

Robert H. Auerbach, formerly of Hartsdale and Scarsdale, NY, was residing in Sarasota, FL, when he died on October 6, 2011, at the age of 91. In addition to his wife, Lois, he is survived by a daughter, Linda, and a son, Robert G. Auerbach, both born of his marriage, in 1947, to Patricia Pollitz. Also surviving are two stepdaughters and five grandchildren.
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Anthony George Bally ’42

A retired engineer and longtime manager with International Business Machines Corp., grew up in Utica, NY, where he was born into a family of Syrian extraction on January 9, 1920. The son of George Z., who owned and operated a grocery store, and Nedema Chanatry Bally, he was a cousin of Anthony G. ’39, Francis ’46, and Joseph G. Chanatry ’48. Anthony Bally entered the college in 1938 from Thomas R. Proctor High School but left the Hill after only a year. He served as a pilot with the U.S. Army Air Forces from 1942 through the end of the Second World War, and flew 178 missions over the Himalaya Mountains between India and China. The military honors he received included the Distinguished Flying Cross with oak leaf cluster and the Air ­Medal, also with oak leaf cluster. Released from active duty as a captain in 1946, he remained for many years in the Air Force Reserve and attained the rank of lieutenant colonel.

After his return to civilian life, Anthony Bally enrolled at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he earned a B.A.E. degree in aero-mechanical engineering in 1948. A few years later, he began his long career with IBM as a staff engineer. He subsequently served in its Real Estate Construction Division and as manager of environmental engineering. He was an executive manager in IBM’s Engineering and Research Division when he retired.

Anthony G. Bally, formerly of Hyde Park, NY, and Stamford, CT, was residing in Reno, NV, when he died at age 91 on November 4, 2011. Predeceased in 1989 by his wife, the former Marie K. Condee, whom he had wed in 1942, he is survived by a daughter, Ann D. St. Germain; a son, George M. Bally; and three grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and two sisters.

Donald James Elliott ’42

Who retired after 35 years in secondary education, grew up in far northern New York, where he was born near the Canadian border on October 12, 1919. The elder son of A. Roy Elliott, a shoe factory foreman, and the former Mabel LaBelle, Don Elliott came to College Hill in 1937 from ­Bombay, NY, where he was graduated from Bombay High School as class valedictorian. He joined Tau Kappa Epsilon and soon demonstrated his entrepreneurial flair by becoming the campus Coca Cola “distributor,” delivering and stocking the Coke machines in the dormitories and fraternity houses. He also worked his way through the College as a Chapel bell ringer for two years, and was credited by The Hamiltonian with saving “numerous students from cuts by judiciously pausing at the right moment” when ringing the bell.

On December 31, 1942, shortly before his graduation from Hamilton in January 1943, Don Elliott was married to Violet Jeanne Turk in Stamford, NY. By that time he had already secured a position as a mathematics and general science teacher at Hunter-Tannersville Central School. He subsequently taught briefly in other schools in upstate New York before moving to Illinois to become athletic coach at Glenwood School for Boys. Soon thereafter he settled permanently in Maryland, where he served for four years as public relations director for that state’s Blue Cross insurance plan.

In 1956, Don Elliott resumed teaching math, at Brooklyn Park High School in Baltimore. He would continue to teach in the Anne Arundel County school system, based in Annapolis, until his retirement in 1981. Along the way, in 1968, he acquired an M.Ed. degree from Towson State ­College, and on the side he also supervised driver education at Cardinal Gibbons High School in Baltimore. In addition, he served as business manager of Carriage Country Club in Millington, MD.

A longtime resident of Baltimore, Don Elliott thereafter moved to Massey, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. He remained active in retirement as a member, treasurer, and ambulance captain of the Galena Volunteer Fire Company. With his wife, he also served it as an emergency medical technician, and he was in charge of major disaster planning and services for the company as well as the county’s American Red Cross chapter. During his busy retirement years he also coached basketball at Chesapeake College when not spending time in his basement carpentry shop or fishing or goose hunting on the Eastern Shore. In addition, he and “Vi” enjoyed tooling around in their 300ZX Nissan sports car, part of his $54,000 winnings as a competitor on Wheel of Fortune in 1990.

Donald J. Elliott died on June 14, 2011, in Chestertown, MD, at the age of 91. Predeceased by his wife of 66 years in?2009, he is survived by a daughter, Faye Carpenter, and two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. His brother, Fay B. Elliott ’42, predeceased him in?2008.

Gilbert Jackson Grout ’43

A career U.S. Army officer who subsequently became an educational administrator and a business executive, was born on February 12, 1922, in Andover, MA. The son of John W. and Louise Gilbert Grout, he prepared for college at Phillips Academy in Andover and entered Hamilton in 1939. By that time, at age 17, he had already enlisted in the Army Reserves. On the Hill, “Gil” Grout joined Lamda Chi Alpha, sang in the Choir, played in the Band, and served as business manager of student publications. He also lettered in fencing and was elected captain of the varsity team before leaving the Hill in the summer of 1942 when called to active duty with the Army. Commissioned as an officer a year later, he saw combat in Europe during World War II and participated in the Battle of the Bulge. Beginning in the horse cavalry, he had been transferred to the newly established air cavalry in 1943 and assigned to a military intelligence unit of the Airborne. He was with the 101st Airborne Division in Germany when the war ended in 1945.

Married in Paris, France, on March 1 of the following year to Geraldine C. Monsma from ­Chicago, an Army nurse, Gil Grout went from the Counter­intelligence Corps in occupied Germany to a variety of assignments in various countries during the postwar era. They ranged from advisor to Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese forces in Southeast Asia to instructor at the Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, KS. He was commanding officer of the air cavalry squadron of the 82nd Airborne Division in the Dominican Republic when he returned to College Hill in 1965 to complete his course requirements. He received his diploma a year later. Already fluent in German and French, he majored in languages while on leave from the Army and living with his wife and young son on the Hill.

Gil Grout retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel in 1969, after 26 years on active duty. He again returned to the Hill when appointed assistant to Hamilton’s President, John W. Chandler. He left after five years in 1974 to become assistant to the president of Fulton-Montgomery Community College, Hadley S. “Stretch” DePuy, formerly associate dean at Hamilton. Gil Grout subsequently served as dean and president of Fulton-Montgomery before entering the business world in 1978 as vice president for personnel of Lee Dyeing of North Carolina, Inc., a textile dyeing and finishing company.

Gil Grout, who retired from business in 1982, took up residence in the Jacksonville, FL, area, where he and “Ginny” had long spent their winters. Summers generally found them at their camp on Great Sacandaga Lake in the Adirondacks. In addition to golf and cross-country skiing, Gil enjoyed sailboat ­racing. He was also active as a warden and lay reader in the Episcopal Church.

Gilbert J. Grout was still residing in Jacksonville when he died on June 4, 2011. Predeceased by his wife of 61 years in?2007, he is survived by a son, Jonathan T. Grout, and two grandchildren.

William Christian Schmidt ’43

For 38 years a pharmaceutical sales representative for Bristol Laboratories, grew up in Bayonne, NJ, where he was born on April 26, 1921. The younger son of John F., a bank vice president, and Elizabeth Roberts Smyth Schmidt, he prepared for college at the Pingry School in New Jersey, where one of his classmates was William M. “Mac” Bristol III ’43. Bill Schmidt came to Hamilton in 1939, joined Theta Delta Chi, and went out for a variety of sports, including football, basketball, and track. He also sang in the Choir and ventured on the stage with the Charlatans. A member of the Intramural Council as well as the staff of radio station WHC, he, in the words of The Hamiltonian, “combined a big heart, a big frame, and a big smile to plod through four years of enjoyable college life.”

Soon after his graduation in January 1943, Bill Schmidt went on active duty with the U.S. Navy. Commissioned as an ensign, he served through the end of World War II. Assigned to duty aboard small craft such as submarine chasers in the Pacific theater, he left the Navy as a lieutenant in 1946. On June 21, 1947, he and Dorothy E. “Dottie” Lovejoy were married in New York City, with Mac Bristol serving as best man. The newlyweds settled in Syracuse, NY, where Bill Schmidt went to work for Bristol Laboratories as a sales representative. He remained with Bristol until his retirement in 1985. Thereafter, for almost 10 years, he worked part-time in sales for Capital Oxygen Service, a provider of?home respiratory care, also in?Syracuse.

Long a resident of the Syracuse suburb of Fayetteville, Bill Schmidt was a highly active member of Trinity Episcopal Church, serving on its vestry and as a lector. He was also an ever constant and generous supporter of Hamilton and much involved in alumni affairs, helping to organize and chair class reunions, including 1943’s 55th and 60th. President of his class and a past president of the Syracuse Alumni Association, he kept in close contact with classmates and other friends from college days.  In retirement, he pursued his favorite activities, golf and woodworking.

William C. Schmidt, who will long be remembered for his vibrant energy and for the “twinkle in his eye and mischievous smile,” as well as his eagerness to help his friends, remained active until the end. On the last day of his life, after attending church, he was preparing to refinish a desk for a grandson when he fell and struck his head. Without regaining consciousness, he died on June 7, 2011, at the age of 90. Predeceased by his wife three years earlier, he is survived by three daughters, Patricia Walsh, Barbara Arno, and Janet Crangle, and seven grandchildren.

Edgar Sergeant, Jr. ’43

The?elder son of Edgar and Tacie Nairn Sergeant, was born into a family of independent means on January 15, 1920, in Nutley NJ. A graduate of Governor Dummer Academy in Massachusetts, he enrolled at Hamilton from Nutley in 1939 and joined Psi Upsilon. “The silent man of the senior class” who “took out his energy on a squash racket or a tennis ball,” in the words of The Hamiltonian, received his B.S. degree in 1943.

Ed Sergeant entered the U.S. Army following his graduation and served in the Pacific theater during World War II. He subsequently attended the Parsons School of Design, and, after training at the Pratt Institute, worked as an architectural draftsman. Long a resident of his hometown of Nutley, he traveled extensively and often wrote articles about his travels for the local newspaper. Known as “a sweet and gentle man,” who was?especially fond of dogs, he enjoyed playing tennis and ballroom dancing, as well as plein air painting.

In 1970, Edgar Sergeant moved from Nutley to Glen Ridge, NJ, where he remained until taking up residence in a retirement community in Newcastle, ME, in 2008. He died at his home there on September 1, 2011, at age 91. He is survived by five nieces and nephews.

Malin Burdette Shaw ’43

A?physician who practiced internal medicine in Covina, CA, for more than 30 years, grew up in Eden, NY, south of Buffalo, where he was born on September 3, 1921. The eldest son of Malin M., a farmer, and Ann Work Shaw, his boyhood home was the same one in which five generations of his family had resided. Malin Shaw, known as “Burt,” entered Hamilton from Eden High School in 1939. From a musically inclined family and having played in school bands since he was 10 years old, Burt Shaw immediately joined the College Band and also sang in the Choir. Described by The Hamiltonian as “The Squires’ man with the horn,” he also contributed to the “music” on campus as a Chapel bell ringer. Having pursued a premedical course of study, he received his B.S. degree in 1943, with honors in biology.

Soon thereafter, Burt Shaw enrolled in the School of Medicine at the University of Rochester, under the auspices of the U.S. Army during that World War II era. He earned his M.D. degree in 1946. On July 13 of that year, prior to an internship at Boston (MA) City Hospital, he was married to Ruth Gianniny in Rochester. From 1947 to 1949, Dr. Shaw was on active duty with the Army Medical Corps and served as chief of medicine at the 387th Station Hospital in Stuttgart, Germany. Released from the Army as a captain, he held a fellowship in internal medicine at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio for three years until 1952. He subsequently settled in the West and, in 1953, after briefly serving on the staff of the Veterans ­Hospital in Albuquerque, NM, took up permanent residence in Covina, near Los Angeles.

In Covina, Dr. Shaw helped organize and develop the Magan Medical Clinic, which grew from a six-physician partnership to a fully equipped medical center with 33 physicians. He remained as a partner in the clinic until his retirement from medical practice in 1984. A deacon and elder of the 1st Presbyterian Church of Covina, he also volunteered his time to the Boy Scouts when his children were growing up, and served as a scoutmaster. Greatly fond of the outdoors since his youth, he particularly enjoyed camping with his family at their mountain cabin on Big Bear Lake and exploring, by Jeep with his “Jeeping buddies,” the Southwestern deserts with their pioneer wagon trails, back country ghost towns, and abandoned mining sites.

After the death of his wife, Malin B. Shaw moved from Eden to Tehachapi, north of Los Angeles. He was still residing there when he died on September 26, 2011, of congestive heart failure, at the age of 90. He is survived by three daughters, Nancy Chandler, Barbara Rask, and Kathryn Gray; two sons, Stephen M. and David M. Shaw; and grandchildren as well as a brother and a sister.

Charles Herbert Young ’43 

A former research chemist long resident in the U.S. Virgin Islands, was born on May 19, 1923, in New York City. The only child of Charles O., also a chemist, and Marian Kelsey Young, he grew up in Toledo, OH, where he was graduated from Scott High School. Charles Young enrolled at Hamilton at age 16 in 1939 and joined Lambda Chi Alpha, but remained on the Hill for only a year. Wishing to “continue in my father’s footsteps” as a chemist, he transferred to Columbia University. There he acquired his A.B. degree, majoring in chemistry, in 1943, and went on to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1950.

Charles Young became a research chemist for Union Carbide & Carbon Co. in Charleston, WV, where his father was once employed. By the mid-1960s he had settled in St. Thomas, the Virgin Islands, and was there engaged in retail sales for a number of years.

Charles H. Young was still residing in St. Thomas when he died on January 5, 2010, as verified by Social Security records. The College has no knowledge of survivors except for a son, Andrew B. Young.

Atherton Bristol ’45

A retired athletic coach, was born on October 24, 1923, in Brooklyn, NY. A son of William M. Bristol, Jr., a vice president of Bristol-Myers Co., and the former Madeleine E. Wild, he was a grandson of William M. Bristol, Class of 1882 and co-founder of Bristol-Myers, and a younger brother of the late William M. (“Mac”) Bristol III, who chaired Hamilton’s Board from 1977 to 1990. Atherton Bristol, known as “Toni,” entered Hamilton in 1941 from the Pingry School in New Jersey. He joined the Bristol family’s fraternity, Sigma Phi, and became starting quarterback on the freshman football team. He later lettered in both football and hockey. In early 1943, after three semesters on the Hill, he left to be inducted into the U.S. Army.

Discharged from military service near World War II’s end in 1945, Toni Bristol transferred to Columbia University, where he acquired his A.B. degree in 1946. He subsequently coached football, lacrosse, and soccer at ­the Pingry School and Westfield High School, also in New Jersey. He is remembered as “an inspiring leader, teaching generations of students to play well in sports and in life.” Named to Pingry’s Athletics Hall of Fame, he was also inducted into the New Jersey Lacrosse Foundation’s Hall of Fame.

After retiring from coaching, Atherton Bristol moved to Minneapolis, MN, and married Joanne Purinton, who predeceased him. A resident of Lakeville, MN, he died on May 21, 2011, a victim of Alzheimer’s disease. He is survived by his wife, Patricia Ann, five stepchildren, and a brother, Michal W. Bristol.

William Veeder Bartlett ’46

A physician who practiced in Schenectady, NY, for many years, was born on March 18, 1924, to Clay and Rowena Veeder Bartlett, in Gloversville, NY. He entered Hamilton in 1942 from nearby Johnstown as a graduate of Johnstown High School, but discontinued his undergraduate studies after a semester to go on active duty with the U.S. Army Air Corps. However, he remained on the Hill for a time to complete the Air Corps’ pre-meteorological program. As a meteorologist, he served for three years through the end of World War II and earned three battle stars while stationed with the 10th Air Force in the China-Burma-India theater.

Bill Bartlett returned to the Hill in the spring of 1947 to pursue premedical studies. In his senior year he served as a member of the Interfraternity Council as president of the Chi Psi lodge. With The Hamiltonian observing that his “platonic approach to life plus a drive to save humanity add up to a successful career in medicine,” he departed for the New York Medical College after his graduation in 1949.

Four years later, Bill Bartlett was awarded his M.D. degree. Following postgraduate training in internal medicine in various places, including the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, he established his private practice in Schenectady. There he also became chief of emergency medicine at a local hospital and consulting cardiologist at another, as well as director of an intensive care unit and a community health commissioner. After his retirement from active practice, he was engaged for a time as primary physician for nursing home residents.

The College learned, quite belatedly, of William V. Bartlett’s death on March 16, 2002, as verified by Social Security records. He was residing in Ballston Spa, NY, at the time. The College has no information on survivors, except that he was known to have had seven children by his two marriages, to Marguerite Weaver in 1955 and Mary Jane LeGere in 1972.

Charles Benjamin Brooks, Jr. ’46

An innovative business executive who retired as president of Clairol, the hair care products company, was born on November 5, 1924, in Suffern, NY. The elder son of C. Benjamin Brooks, a bank clerk, and the former Ann Gommersall, “Ben” Brooks grew up in Haverstraw on the Hudson, where he was graduated in 1942 from Haverstraw High School. He entered Hamilton that fall, but remained on the Hill for only a semester, leaving in early 1943 to go on active duty with the U.S. Army Air Corps. After receiving pre-meteorological and communications training at Haverford College and Yale University, and receiving an officer’s commission, he served through the end of World War II.

Discharged as a lieutenant in 1946, Ben Brooks returned to College Hill in the fall to resume his studies. A member of Delta Upsilon and pass receiver on its intramural football team, he concentrated in economics and political science, and was awarded his A.B. degree in 1948. The following year he acquired his M.B.A. with distinction from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. On April 22, 1951, he and Joan Jolliffe were married in Haverstraw.

In 1961, after nine years with the Ford Motor Co., Ben Brooks was seeking a new job. He contacted Lee H. Bristol ’14 of Bristol-Myers Co., which had recently acquired Clairol. Offered a post with that division, he became assistant to its president. He was subsequently promoted to vice president of administration and vice president of operations of Clairol. He instituted new business approaches, reassessed marketing strategies, and embarked on an ambitious diversification plan for its appliances division. In 1977, when Clairol appliances became a separate division of Bristol-Myers, Ben Brooks was named its president. A reorganization in 1985 led to combining the appliances with the products division, and he assumed responsibility for both as president of Clairol, Inc. During his tenure he sought with success to integrate and unify the company’s organization and mission. He retired as its president, as well as vice president of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., in 1989.

Ben Brooks, a longtime resident of Cresskill, NJ, near Englewood, served as a trustee and treasurer of the Dwight Englewood School as well as the First Presbyterian Church of Englewood. He also chaired the board of directors of the Wharton Club of New York City and served two terms as president of the Knickerbocker Country Club in Tenafly. Among the awards he received for community and philanthropic service, the one he prized most was the Cardinal Cushing Humanitarian Award, presented to him in 1988.

C. Benjamin Brooks, Jr., afflicted for some years with Parkinson’s disease, died at his home in Cresskill on November 15, 2011. A faithfully supportive alumnus, he is survived by his wife of 60 years. Also surviving are three daughters, Mary Puckett K’77, Ann Martin, and Joan Emerson, as well as two grandchildren.

Robert Parker Cook ’46

An attorney for 38 years with Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., was born on April 7, 1925, to Ward H., a physician, and Martha Stough Cook, in Pittsburgh, PA. He entered Hamilton in 1942 from Yonkers, NY, following his graduation from that city’s Roosevelt High School, but left the Hill after only a year when drafted at age 18 into the U.S. Army. Bob Cook served in the European theater with the 100th Infantry Division during World War II and engaged in considerable combat. He fought with distinction in brutal wintry conditions and over heavily forested terrain as his division pursued retreating German forces through France. Wounded in battle by an exploding shell, he was awarded the Purple Heart.

Released from the Army after the war’s end in 1945, Bob Cook returned to Hamilton in the fall of 1946 to resume his studies. He went out for football and the swimming squad, and lettered in track, habitually training by running at full speed to breakfast at Commons each morning. He was graduated with honors in political science in 1949. Two weeks later, on June 25, he and Kristin Gustavsen were married in Yonkers.

Bob Cook, whose “passion for debate” The Hamiltonian noted, “should fit him well for a career in the law,” proceeded to Harvard Law School, where he obtained his LL.B. degree in 1952. He and Kristin had become fond of the Boston area, and they bought land and built a home in?suburban Weston, where Bob would reside for the rest of his life. Having gone to work for Liberty Mutual’s legal department soon after law school, he began as a liability trial lawyer and was promoted to a corporate counsel. Based at the company’s home office in Boston, he?engaged in litigation and providing legal advice and ­direction to its many field offices throughout the country. He retired in 1990.

Bob Cook was involved in community affairs as a member of Weston’s Zoning Board of Appeals for over 40 years and its chairman for most of that time. Professionally, he also volunteered his time as a senior lawyer-judge of the Ames Moot Court at Harvard Law School. In addition, he was a founding member and former president of the Wightman Tennis Center in Weston.

Bob Cook, who cited his track and field days at Hamilton as the beginning of his lifelong interest in fitness and health, swam almost daily until he was in his 80s and also skied, hiked, and played tennis for exercise. He enjoyed doing his own landscaping around his Weston home, which he had largely built?himself.

Robert P. Cook, who remained grateful throughout his life for the foundation that Hamilton provided him, died on June 12, 2011, at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Brockton, MA, after a long battle? with congestive heart failure and complications from pneumonia. Predeceased by his wife Kristin in 2000, he is survived by?his second wife, the former Jeanette Commons, whom he had married in 2009. Also sur­viving are his daughter, Cynthia Roeber, as well as nieces and nephews. They remember him as “open, friendly, and immensely kind,” and as one whose ­“gentle humor warmed any room he entered.”

Owen John Burns ’47

A retired advertising executive and one of four brothers who all attended the College, was born not far from College Hill in Clinton on October 9, 1925. His parents were O. Gregory ’14, an attorney, and Kathleen Kennedy Burns. Owen Burns, known as “Owney,” came up the Hill to Hamilton in the summer of 1943, shortly after his graduation from Clinton Central High School. He remained on the Hill only through the fall semester, when he joined the student exodus into military service during World War II. Having enlisted in the U.S. Navy, he was assigned to its V-12 program at Dartmouth College, followed by Midshipman’s School at Northwestern University. Commissioned as an ensign, he served aboard a destroyer escort plying the waters of the East Coast. By the time the war ended, he had become the vessel’s captain.

Released from the Navy in 1946, Owney Burns returned to Hamilton that fall, joining his brothers Nicholas K. ’46 and Richard C. ’49. (His fourth brother, O. Gregory, Jr. ’49, had been on the Hill earlier.) Also on the Hill were their cousins, Bernard O. ’48 and James L. Burns, Jr. ’49. Owney, Nick, and Dick, as well as their cousins Bernie and Jim, would all play varsity hockey and together make an enormous contribution to the success of the Continentals on the ice in the immediate post-war years.

Owney Burns not only lettered in hockey but also sang in the Choir and became a columnist for The Spectator. A member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, he earned compliments from The Hamiltonian for “his ready wit and casual manner.” Following his graduation in 1948, “much to the surprise of Dean Tolles,” as he recalled years later, he headed for New York City, “simply because my high school girlfriend, Barbara, was teaching at a grade school there.” Having called upon his father’s alumni friends to help him find a job, one of them, Lou Brockway ’17, offered him a place in his advertising agency, Young & Rubicam. It was the beginning of Owney’s highly successful career in the advertising field. With money now in his pocket, he and Barbara J. Westerman were able to proceed with their wedding plans. They were married in Clinton on December 26, 1949.

Owney Burns remained with Young & Rubicam for 10 years. As an account executive, he oversaw the promotion of such well-known food products as Jell-O, Sanka, and Lipton soup mixes. He moved on to Lever Brothers, where, from 1960 to 1964, he was product manager for Imperial margarine. Thereafter, he joined the Foote, Cone & Belding advertising agency and oversaw such corporate accounts as Merrill Lynch, Equitable Life, and Newsweek magazine, as well as brand accounts for P. Lorillard (Kent and True cigarettes) and Frito-Lay (snack food products). Having taken on increasing responsibilities at Foote, Cone & Belding, he was promoted to vice president and management supervisor. He left the agency in 1981 to become a partner in the Marketing Support Group, a consulting firm specializing in the food and drug industries. He retired in 1986.

Owney Burns was long a resident in Norwalk, CT, where he and Barbara, an elementary school teacher, bought an early 18th-century house and lovingly restored and cared for it. In 1987, soon after retirement, the Burnses moved back to Clinton, buying a home just three doors from where Owney grew up. He soon became engaged in community affairs, serving as a village trustee, and he could be seen in regular attendance at Hamilton sports events and particularly Continental hockey games. He also came up the Hill to practice his golf game on the College course, on which he had first played with his brothers when he was a boy. Other leisure times were devoted to tending his tomato plants, working crossword puzzles, and swapping stories with his old friends at Don’s Rock or the Village Tavern. “Like any true Irishman, he made and cherished friends wherever he went.”

In 2002, the Burnses moved back to Connecticut to be closer to their children. Owen J. Burns was residing in a health care facility in Stratford when he died on June 7, 2011. In addition to his wife of 61 years, he is survived by two sons, Owen J., Jr. ’73, known as O.J., and Timothy D. Burns; two daughters, Kathleen K. Loewen and Sarah L. Raggio; and six grandchildren and his brother Richard. He was predeceased by his brothers Nicholas, in 1983, and O. Gregory, Jr., in 2008. Also surviving, among some 20 members of the Burns family who have attended the College, are his nephews, Andrew C. ’78 and William O. Burns ’88, and Gregory L. Gilroy ’83, as well as his nieces, Kate M. ’84 and Kyle Judith Thomes ’90.

Edward David Boff ’48

A longtime research scientist for Hoffmann-La Roche, the pharmaceuticals firm, was born on August 12, 1927, in New York City. The son of a dry cleaner, he?grew up in Utica, NY, where he was graduated from Utica Free Academy. He came up the Hill to Hamilton in 1944, but remained for only a semester. In?1948, he acquired his B.A. degree from Syracuse University.

Employed as a psycho­pharmacologist by Hoffmann-La Roche in Nutley, NJ, he resided in that city for 50 years until his death. A prominent member of Temple B’nai Israel in Nutley, he was also a 32nd-degree Freemason and Shriner. Known for his curiosity about and interest in all?things scientific, he was an avid reader.

Edward D. Boff died on June 10, 2011, of leukemia. He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Patty Lue; two sons, Judson and Joel; a daughter, Rachel; and two granddaughters.

Leon Emanuel Trachtman ’48

Professor emeritus of communication and a former dean at Purdue University, grew up in Brooklyn, NY, where he was born on September 26, 1925. His parents were Max Trachtman, a jeweler, and the former Annette Guttman. After his graduation in 1942 from Boys High School in Brooklyn, “Lee” Trachtman took courses for a year at Brooklyn College before enlisting in the U.S. Army. He served for two years through the end of World War II and saw action with the 100th Infantry Division of the 7th Army in the Ardennes-Alsace and Rhineland campaigns. While engaged in intense combat in the French village of Rimling, he?was captured and held for three months as a prisoner of war in Germany.

In the spring of 1946, after his release and discharge from the Army as a corporal at the end of 1945, Lee Trachtman enrolled at Hamilton. He served on the staff of Hamiltonews and radio station WHC, and on the editorial board of the Continental. A member of the Interfraternity Council as president of the Squires Club in his senior year, he excelled academically, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and received his A.B. degree in 1948 with honors in English literature.

With the future goal of teaching in mind, Lee Trachtman went on to graduate study at the Johns Hopkins University, where he earned an M.A. in English in 1951. For five years until 1956, he taught English and speech as an assistant professor at Hood College in Maryland. For two years thereafter, he was a science writer and editor at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. When he was hired as a science writer by Purdue University in 1958, he and his wife, the former Marguerite L. Weber, whom he had met at Hood and married on September 5, 1952, moved to West Lafayette, IN. It was the beginning of a highly active 40-year career at Purdue for Lee.

Appointed executive secretary of the Purdue Research Foundation in 1960, Lee Trachtman retained that post until 1965 and subsequently became an associate professor in Purdue’s English department. For 20 years until 1987, he was associate and later acting dean of what became Purdue’s School of Liberal Arts. He served as professor of communication from 1971 until his retirement in 1997. Still maintaining an office at the University, he continued in retirement to direct the work of graduate students as well as pursue research. He was the coauthor of Science Under Siege? Interest Groups and the Science Wars, published in 2000.

Lee Trachtman, affectionately known to generations of Purdue students and faculty colleagues simply as “Lee,” was also active within the community as a longtime member and ­former president of the West Lafayette School Board. In 1983, he was chosen by the Indiana School Board Association as its outstanding member of the year. Long a member and former secretary of the West Lafayette Parks and Recreation Board, he in addition chaired the Wildcat Creek Study Commission and served with the town mayor’s Strategic Planning Group.

Having kept physically active by playing handball and racquetball, as well as running, Lee Trachtman found pleasure and relaxation in gardening as well as collecting, repairing, and refinishing antique furniture. A devoted and generously supportive alumnus, he remained close to the College through the ?years.

Leon E. Trachtman died in Lafayette, IN, coincidentally on his 59th wedding anniversary, September 5, 2011. In addition to his wife, he is survived by three sons, Daniel D. ’75, William A., and James A. Trachtman; a daughter, Susan E. Trachtman; and six grandchildren and a sister.

Robert Rollins Adams ’49

Who took over his family’s floor contracting business and operated it until his retirement, was born on July 10, 1924, in Boston, MA. He and his twin brother, John R. Adams ’49, were the sons of John R. ’17 and Amorette Rollins Adams, and nephews of Myron W. Adams ’15. Their great-uncle was the well-known novelist Samuel Hopkins Adams, Class of 1891. After his graduation in 1943 from Roxbury Latin School and two years of U.S. Army service during World War II. Bob Adams entered Hamilton along with his brother John in the spring of 1946. He joined Tau Kappa Epsilon and contributed to the College’s musical life by playing bass in dance bands. Concentrating in German and political science, he?was graduated in 1949. On September 25 of that year, he and Berta George were married in Dedham, MA.

Bob Adams returned to the Boston area where for the next dozen years he was variously employed but primarily as a purchasing agent. In 1962, he left his job as a buyer for Raytheon, the electronics company in Waltham, MA, to join R.T. Adams Co., the family’s floor contracting business in Needham. Succeeding his father, who died in 1965, as president, Bob Adams continued to own and operate the small company until his retirement some 25 years later. A onetime president of Hamilton’s Eastern New England Alumni Association, he pursued his interest in music as a member for a time of the Needham Philharmonic and the Wellesley Civic orchestras.

Long a resident of Needham, Robert R. Adams was residing in Walpole, MA, when he died on November 1, 2010, as the College has learned only recently. He is survived by two daughters, Stephanie Adams and Charlotte Forbes, and a son, George C. Adams. His twin brother predeceased him in 1979.

William Herman Brayton ’49

Long employed as a technical writer for the IBM Corp., was born on June 29, 1926, in Palmerton, PA. The son of Charles L., a lawyer, and Frances Struller Brayton, he grew up in Elmira, NY, and prepared for college at the Taft School in Connecticut. “Bill” Brayton entered the U.S. Navy after his graduation from Taft in 1944 and took courses at Williams College as well as Franklin & Marshall College as part of the Navy’s V-12 program. Released from military service at World War II’s end in 1945, he enrolled at Hamilton the following spring. He joined Theta Delta Chi and sang in the Choir. In a talk he gave in one of J. Franklin Hunt’s public speaking classes, he made a plea for varsity lacrosse on the Hill. It became the catalyst for the team’s formation in 1947. With Professor Hunt as coach, Bill was a member of that first team.

With credits earned in summer sessions at Cornell University, Bill Brayton completed his studies in 1948 and was graduated in 1949. Married on November 11, 1948, to Jean E. Macauley in Bronxville, NY, he was employed during the 1950s in the insurance field. In 1955, he obtained an M.A. degree in English literature from Columbia University, and by the end of the decade he had become a copywriter in sales promotion for the Equitable Life Assurance Society in New York City. He subsequently went to work for IBM in Kingston, NY, and remained with the company for more than 25 years as a technical writer and editor until his retirement.

A longtime resident of ­Saugerties, NY, and a former Boy Scout and Cub Scout leader, Bill Brayton included gardening among his favorite activities. Also a short-story writer, he had a particular fondness for literature, which he enjoyed discussing with family and friends.

William H. Brayton, a faithfully supportive alumnus through the years, died on July 16, 2011, at a health care center in Poughkeepsie, NY. In addition to his wife of 62 years, he is survived by a son, Charles W. Brayton; a daughter; Susan Dougherty; and four grandchildren and a sister.

James Robert Pigott ’49

Who, after 28 years in advertising, took up a “surprisingly satisfying” second career in civil service, was born on August 7, 1924, in New York City. His parents were James P., an advertising and sales executive, and Ethel Frances O’Keefe Pigott. He was graduated from Adelphi Academy in Brooklyn in 1941 and served in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1943 until the end of World War II in 1945. That fall, “Bob” Pigott enrolled at Hamilton. He joined Psi Upsilon and soon became involved in an impressive variety of campus activities. He served as sports editor for radio station WHC as well as on the staffs of The Spectator and Continental, and was active in student governance as a member of the Student Council, Honor Court, Intramural Council, and the Musical Arts Society. He also acted with the Charlatans and managed the baseball team in his senior year.

Elected to D.T. and the journalism honor society Pi Delta Epsilon, Bob Pigott left the Hill with his A.B. degree in 1949. Already intent on a career in advertising, he soon settled in New York City, where, during the ensuing years, he found employment with four leading advertising agencies, and served as a television producer as well as an account executive. Vice President of Rogers, Slade & Hill, he earlier served in management positions with Norman, Craig & Kummel, as a principal of Paul Miner Associates, and as research project director at Young & Rubicam. He was senior vice president of Claymore Associates before concluding his “mostly rewarding years” in the TV and advertising agency business to enter New York State government service.

By the 1980s and until his retirement, Bob Pigott was associate personnel administrator for the state’s Division of Housing and Community Renewal, engaged in staffing and labor relations. Long a resident of Jackson Heights in Queens, he contributed to his community as?president of the local school board and secretary of the ­Community Planning Board. He had also been a Little League manager and Boy Scout troop committeeman. For pleasure and relaxation, he turned to history, literature, theater, and film, and was a devoted follower of the New York Mets.

Bob Pigott, who had “exultingly” rung the Hamilton Chapel bell to celebrate President Harry S. Truman’s upset victory in the 1948 election, was described by The Hamiltonian as having a sense of humor and gregariousness that masked “a militant liberal spirit.” That spirit remained evident throughout his life. A passionate supporter of liberal causes, he was a former state chairman of Americans for Democratic Action as well as president in 1982 of the New York State Democratic Committee. Locally, he was a past president of the Jackson Heights Reform Democratic Club and a Democratic county committeeman. In 1970, he was cited as “Man of the Year” by the Long Island region of the National Conference of Christians and Jews.

J. Robert Pigott, an ardently dedicated and supportive alumnus, died on June 25, 2011. He is survived by his wife, the former Simone R. Zeitoun, whom he had married on October 22, 1954, in Manhasset, NY. Also surviving are a daughter, Patricia Strauss; a son, James Robert Pigott, Jr. ’81; and two grandchildren.