1930s
John Oppie McCall, Jr. ’38
John Oppie McCall, Jr. ’38, a physician and surgeon who practiced obstetrics and gynecology in Portland, OR, for 40 years, was born in Buffalo, NY, on July 8, 1916. The son of John O., a dentist, and Irene Tingler McCall, he enrolled at Hamilton in 1934 from Larchmont, NY, as a graduate of Mamaroneck High School. “Oppie” McCall joined Delta Upsilon and, while concentrating on premedical studies, found time for fencing as well as interfraternity baseball. On October 9, 1937, despite the taboo then prevailing against undergraduate marriage, he was wed to Dorothy H. Maynicke in Chappaqua, NY. Lacking three hours to fulfill graduation requirements in 1938, he nevertheless entered the New York University College of Medicine without a degree that fall. Not until 1956 did he secure his A.B. diploma from Hamilton by petition, long after he had finished his medical training and begun practicing.
After acquiring his M.D. degree in 1942, Oppie McCall interned for a year at United Hospital in Port Chester, NY, followed by brief service as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Medical Corps during World War II. After his discharge, he began a four-year residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Margaret Hague Hospital in Jersey City, NJ. Upon its completion in 1948, he moved to Portland and established his private practice. Accompanying him to the West Coast were his wife “Dot” and the first three of their five children.
Besides his board-certified practice, during which he ushered over 10,000 babies into the world, Dr. McCall became active in numerous professional organizations. He served as president of the Portland OB/GYN Society, the Oregon Association of OB/GYN, the Pacific Northwest OB/GYN Association, and the Pacific Coast OB/GYN Society. In addition, he became the first director of Planned Parenthood of Oregon, which honored him for his contributions with its Margaret Sanger Award. He also chaired the Oregon Medical Association’s malpractice committee for more than 20 years, an undertaking he found “interesting but definitely requiring a keen sense of proportion and realism.” He gave up delivering babies in 1985, but continued with his practice on a curtailed basis until his retirement in 1989. By that time he had concluded that “the trend in which medical care is embroiled is a sobering disillusionment from my early years in practice.”
John Oppie McCall, Jr., a resident of Beaverton, OR, died there on November 11, 2011. Predeceased by his wife in 2004, he is survived by four daughters, Patricia Mack, Carol Ann Lutz, Laurie Duffield, and Susan Emmons; a son, John O. McCall III; and 11 grandchildren, four step-grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, and four step-great-grandchildren, as well a sister.
John Wetherall Boyd ’39
John Wetherall Boyd ’39, an attorney, civic leader, and former Connecticut state legislator, was born on December 10, 1916, in New York City. A son of Edward F., an artist, and Marguerite Van Voorhis Boyd, he grew up in Westport, CT, and prepared for college at Loomis School (now Loomis Chaffee) in Windsor, CT. “Johnny” Boyd came to Hamilton in 1935 and joined Theta Delta Chi, becoming its “tallest lad” at the time. He lettered in soccer, played in the Band, and was elected to the freshman honorary Quadrangle.
After receiving his B.S. degree in 1939, John Boyd enrolled in law school at Columbia University. He was awarded his LL.B. in 1942. By that time the country had entered World War II and military service loomed. Being extremely nearsighted, however, he was assured by a draft board physician that he would not be called up until “they started an army of moles.” John Boyd had just become associated with a large New York City law firm, Mitchell, Capron, et al, when, in November 1942, the Army resorted to “moles” and he was drafted. Commissioned as an officer in the Army Air Corps, he did legal and personnel work stateside for the Air Transport Command until after the war’s end.
Discharged as a captain in 1946, John Boyd returned to his law firm in Manhattan. On June 22, 1946, he was married to Jean P. Moomau in his hometown of Westport, where the couple took up residence. He remained with Mitchell, Capron until 1952, when he established his private practice in Westport. By that time he had already begun serving as a judge of its municipal court (1951-55). Active in Republican Party politics as a town and county chairman, he also served for eight years in the Connecticut House of Representatives (1961-69), during four of which he chaired its judiciary committee.
In Westport, John Boyd served on the Planning and Zoning Commission as well as the Beach Commission, and was also town attorney. He was a key figure in the town’s purchase in 1960 of the financially troubled Longshore Country Club before it could be sold to a housing developer. As Longshore Club Park, a municipally owned golf course with pools, tennis courts, and a marina, it turned out to be a recreational boon for the town. Later, in 1967, he was instrumental in preventing Cockenoe Island, off Compo Beach, from becoming the site for a nuclear power plant.
John Boyd and his wife Jean, a longtime faculty member of the Westport School of Music, enjoyed attending the Metropolitan Opera as well as concerts of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. They also shared a fondness for golf, tennis, and swimming. Their winter “hideaway” was on Pine Island, off Ft.?Myers, FL. John Boyd continued to practice law on a limited basis in Westport until he moved to Massachusetts following the death of his wife in 2009.
John W. Boyd, a loyally supportive alumnus, died in Amherst, MA, on August 15, 2011, at the age of 94. He is survived by four daughters, Barbara Sternau and Frances, Nancy, and?Jean Boyd, as well as seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Anthony Rocco D’Agostino, Jr. ’39
Anthony Rocco D’Agostino, Jr. ’39, a land developer and contractor who specialized in constructing golf courses, was born on December 5, 1916, in Utica, NY. One of four sons of Anthony R., a salesman, and Lucia Scala D’Agostino, he came up the Hill from New Hartford in 1935, following his graduation from Utica Free Academy. Anthony D’Agostino, known throughout his life by his childhood nickname “Nemo,” became a member of the Squires Club, went out for golf, and played soccer for four years, lettering in the sport.
Having acquired a teaching certificate, Nemo D’Agostino gave the educational field a try for a semester after earning his B.S. degree in 1939. However, he soon realized that “this was not my niche,” and turned to selling life insurance for Prudential instead. Called into military service during World War II in 1943, he received training as a navigator and radar engineer in the U.S. Army Air Corps and was commissioned as an officer. He flew a dozen B-24 bomber missions in the European theater until December 1944 when, navigating his Liberator over Germany, the plane was shot down and crash-landed in Poland, killing four crew members and leaving Nemo badly injured. Unofficially reported as missing in action, he spent a month with allied Russian forces before making it back to his base in Italy. He was awarded the Purple Heart as well as, earlier, the Air Medal.
Released as a lieutenant after the war’s end in 1945, Nemo D’Agostino decided to build a family home. When a prospective buyer offered a substantial sum of money for it while it was still under construction, Nemo concluded that he had found his niche, and he became a home builder, which led him to land development. With his own construction equipment and 500 acres of land, he built houses for several years until the opportunity came to develop a golf course: Skenandoa, not far from College Hill. Finding that golf course construction was “more interesting and exhilarating” than house building, or even shopping centers such as the one he built in Clinton, he proceeded to focus on golf courses for the next 20 years. He built courses throughout the Northeast, including Vesper Hills on 600 acres of land near Syracuse, NY.
“Quite naturally,” Nemo D’Agostino became an avid golfer, “never quite getting my handicap in single digits—but close.” With his wife, the former Muriel Knapp McKinlock, whom he had wed in 1966, he went each fall to Scotland, where they were both members of the Royal Dornoch Golf Club. They also often played golf in the spring in Spain and Morocco. In addition to their love of golf and travel, Nemo and Muriel, living on Reservoir Road near the College, remained close to Hamilton both physically and in affection.
Among the D’Agostino real estate holdings were 80 acres of undeveloped land bordering Kirkland Glen and Reservoir Road. In 2002, they contributed that land, the wooded portion of which is now known as the D’Agostino Forest, to the College. It assures the protection of Hamilton’s southern boundary, provides access to the campus from Reservoir Road, and allows for expansion of the campus in the?future.
Anthony R. D’Agostino was still residing in Clinton when he died on November 9, 2011, in his 95th year. He was predeceased by his wife in 2005. Also predeceasing him were his siblings, including his brother Louis J. D’Agostino ’41, in 1962. He is survived by nieces and nephews.
Daniel Stoughton Dickinson, Jr. ’39
Daniel Stoughton Dickinson, Jr. ’39, a retired Family Court judge and former member of the New York State Assembly, grew up in Binghamton, NY, where he was born on July 25, 1917. The son of Daniel S., a plumber, and Margaret Egbert Dickinson, he enrolled at Hamilton in 1935, following his graduation from Binghamton Central High School. A member of Tau Kappa Epsilon, he remained on the Hill for two years before transferring to Hartwick College, where he received a B.S. degree in 1939.
Dan Dickinson thereafter returned to his native city and found employment as a newspaper reporter and photographer for The Binghamton Press. In January 1942, after the U.S. had entered the Second World War, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps. Trained as a pilot and commissioned as an officer in the Air Transport Command, he served in all the war’s theaters, including China-Burma-India, where he flew men and vital military supplies over the “Hump,” the Himalaya Mountains, into China. For his success in carrying out that highly challenging and hazardous mission during hundreds of hours of flight time in unarmed transport aircraft, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross as well as the Air Medal.
Discharged from military service as a captain in January 1947, Dan Dickinson entered Albany Law School, where he received his LL.B. degree in 1949. He began his law practice in Whitney Point, north of Binghamton, and became a partner in the firm of Glezen & Dickinson. In 1954, he was elected as a Republican to the first of five terms in the New York State Assembly. Representing Broome County (Binghamton), he served in that body until 1965, when Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller appointed him as Broome County’s Family Court judge. He was elected to the first of two 10-year terms on the bench later that year. After his retirement in 1985, he pursued, in his own words, “idleness, travel and golf.” The proud achiever of four holes-in-one, he also enjoyed fishing and gardening as well as card-playing and bowling.
The Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson, Jr., a resident of Binghamton, where he was long active in the Ogden-Hillcrest United Methodist Church, died on September 2, 2011, at the age of 94. He is survived by his wife of almost 66 years, the former Melba L. Dunne, whom he had met while in military service and married in Georgiana, AL, on October 2, 1945. Also surviving are three sons, Daniel S. III, Thomas E., and John F. Dickinson; a daughter, Joan Taliaferro; and 12 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
