USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the class of 1915, Yale College. Volume 3, Thirty-fifth year record > Part 18
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"During this time my very engrossing hobby was music, my par- ticular interest being musical composition. I also played the cello, and for twelve years I met informally with friends once a week at my house to play string quartets, but the years were slipping by and I realized that somehow my greatest interest had become that of writing music. One day in 1941 I had lunch with Doug Moore, who knew of my feeling about music, and he thereupon went way out on a limb and recommended me for a position as professor of music and head of the Department of Music at the University of New Mexico. Since then I have been dividing my professional activities between admin- istrative work as department head and dean of the College of Fine
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Arts {since 1946; he had been appointed acting dean in 1942} and teaching composition and a considerable number of other subjects, including harmony, conducting, history of music, opera, and folk music of the Southwest.
"My principal hobbies during the years since 1941 have been big game hunting in New Mexico and Colorado and collecting folk music. My collection includes phonograph recordings of over 800 Spanish, American, Indian, and frontier or cowboy songs, with which I have established a depositary of folk music in the library of the University of New Mexico. These folk songs have given rise to a period of activity in my most important hobby, which is in fact the most engrossing interest of my life, a number of musical compositions in which I have employed a large number of folk themes. These com- positions include my opera, 'Little Jo,' which was produced at the Albuquerque Little Theatre in 1950 by the Albuquerque Civic Sym- phony Orchestra and the Albuquerque Little Theatre jointly; a number of settings for solo and chorus of folk songs of the Spanish-speaking people of New Mexico; a piano concerto which I completed in the summer of 1950 and which was performed on February 25, 1951, by Andor Foldes, the Hungarian pianist, by whom it was commis- sioned, with the Albuquerque Civic Symphony Orchestra; and a ballet, 'Delgadina,' composed during the summer of 1951.
"I have traveled a good deal and made trips to Europe in 1911, 1918, 1919 (this last as a member of the armed forces in France), 1923 when I attended the Academy of International Law at the Hague, 1926-27 when I spent a year and a half abroad on law busi- ness, working on bond issues in Berlin and in Rome, 1936-37 when I took the two summers off to study composition with Nadia Bou- langer at Fontainebleau, and again in 1947-48 when I had a sabbatical year from the University and Mrs. Robb and I took an apartment in Paris, where I composed my opera 'Little Jo.' With my wife and son I made one trip to Mexico, where we took a house at Taxco for a month and I found great pleasure in collecting Mexican folk tunes and doing some composing.
"Two of my children are living in Albuquerque, which is a great break for Mrs. Robb and myself. We have four grandchildren, and by the time this goes to press, we are confidently expecting that the total will have reached six. One of the great satisfactions of our life has been that all three of our children have married people of whom we thoroughly approve and our family life has been undivided and a
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very happy one. Both Mrs. Robb and myself, as well as the children and grandchildren, are in good health.
"All of us love the Southwest and its wonderful climate, and our life in town is varied by trips into the beautiful villages of the Spanish people and Indians looking for folk tunes. I think this is even more exciting than hunting big game, for in my opinion some of the tunes which we have collected are as beautiful as the finest Kentucky ballads and others are beautifully preserved survivals of the Spanish ballads of the sixteenth century and even earlier.
"My greatest professional satisfaction has been to see the steady growth and improvement of the College of Fine Arts at the Univer- sity, which comprises the departments of Art, Drama, and Music, and to have had a part in furthering collaborative work between the three departments; also the association with a group of young com- posers who have been my students and are now beginning to win recognition in the world of music."
Robb gave us the following list of his published music, articles, and book reviews: "Neutrality and International Sanctions" (Inter- national Law Section of American Bar Association Journal, 1936); "Opera in the Southwest" (Music Clubs Magazine, February, 1950); "Origins of a New Mexico Folksong" (New Mexico Folklore Record, 1951); "Intolerance in the Musical World" (Southwestern Musician, March, 1951); "Meaning and the Modern Opera" (New Mexico Quarterly Review, winter, 1951-52); "The New Mexico Alabado" (New Mexico Historical Review, July, 1951); "Cradle Song" (G. Schirmer, Inc., New York, 1944); "The Wind-Swept Sea" (Paul A. Schmitt Company, Minneapolis, 1934); "Little Dove" (Broadcast Music, Inc., New York, 1946); and "Pictures of New Mexico" (Associated Music Publishers, New York, 1947). Among other com- positions are: "Scenes from a New Mexico Mountain Village," for orchestra, and "Dances from Taxco," for two pianos.
In 1950 Robb received an M.A. degree at Mills College. He is a member of the National Association of Music Executives in State Universities (president, 1946), the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, and the New York Yale Club and, by heredity, is a Republican and Congregationalist. In 1941 he served as a trustee of the Village of Pelham, N.Y. The law firms with which he was associated in the period from 1930 to 1941 were Robb & Clark; Robb, Clark & Bennitt; and Robb & Teass.
Mrs. Robb was Harriet Friederike Block, daughter of Frederick Lawrence and Dina Snyder Block. They were married in Peoria, Ill.,
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on September 26, 1921. Their older daughter, Priscilla, who was born August 6, 1922, in Minneapolis, studied at the University of New Mexico and the Juilliard School in New York, as well as pri- vately. She has four times been a contralto soloist with the Albuquerque Civic Symphony Orchestra and for several years was an instructor at the University of Colorado. She married Sanford N. McDonnell and has a daughter, Robbin. The family lives in Olivette, Mo.
Their son, John Donald, Jr., was born January 11, 1924, in New York, and attended Yale, the University of New Mexico, and the Uni- versity of Minnesota (B.S. and LL.B.). A lieutenant (j.g.) in the Navy during the war, he saw service on the destroyer U.S.S. Hobby, which had sixteen engagements with the enemy, including participation in the rescue of the carrier Franklin. He is now practicing law in Albu- querque with the firm of Rodey, Dickason, Sloan, Mims & Akin. He married Margaret Celeste Hight, of Albuquerque, and has three chil- dren: John Donald, 3d, Linda Celeste, and Ellen Bea.
The younger girl, Nancy Gay, who was born in New Rochelle, N.Y., on July 15, 1925, studied at the University of New Mexico and at Smith, where she graduated in 1946 with a B.A. degree. Her marriage to William C. Briggs, of Albuquerque, took place Novem- ber 25, 1950.
WENDEL ARCHIBALD ROBERTSON. President, Robertson Sales Company, canvas fabricators, 1016 North Oklahoma Street, Okla-
homa City 4, Okla .; residence, 1425 Classen Street, Oklahoma City. Robertson has been president of the Robertson Sales Company since its organization in 1946. He is a member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Oklahoma City. In March, 1942, he went on active duty as a major in the Air Force. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel seven months later and to colonel in April, 1944. During the period from January, 1943, to July, 1944, he was commanding officer of the Cazes Army Air Base at Casablanca and for his services was awarded the Legion of Merit. Robertson was released to inactive duty in March, 1946.
He was married on February 2, 1922, at Fort Smith, Ark., to Dorothy Eads Read, daughter of Henry Clay and Stuart Eads Read. Their daughter, Dorothy Stuart, was born at Fort Smith on October 20, 1928, and was married there on September 1, 1949, to William Robert Pape, Jr. They have a son, William Robert, 3d, who was born June 25, 1950.
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ROBERT ROY RODIE. President, North River Coal Company (wholesale anthracite distribution), 11 Thomas Street, Kingston, N.Y .; residence, 83 Albany Avenue, Kingston.
Since 1939 Rodie has been president of the North River Coal Com- pany, of which his father was formerly president and of which he himself had previously been vice-president. At the same time he became president of the Rodie Coal Company, Inc. (wholesale bitumi- nous distribution), and the Kingston Coal Company (retail coal and oil distribution). He is a director of the Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation and a member of the Episcopal Church. During the war he served on the local Ration Board.
Rodie's marriage to Barbara Hinkley, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James W. Hinkley, took place in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., on October 14, 1916. They have two children: Barbara Hinkley, born September 28, 1919, and Robert Roy, Jr., on September 22, 1922, both in Kingston. Barbara spent some time at Vassar with the Class of 1942. On December 6, 1941, she married Herbert Lloyd Shultz, Princeton '40, and has three children: Barbara Redfield, born October 27, 1942, Herbert Lloyd, Jr., on October 22, 1944, and Ann Rodie on February 20, 1951. The family lives in Kingston. Robert, Jr., who graduated from Yale in 1945, is with the McGraw-Hill Book Com- pany. He served in the European theater during the war and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.
EDMUND BURRELL ROGERS. Superintendent, Yellowstone Na- tional Park, Wyo.
Rogers entered the National Park Service in February, 1929, when he was appointed superintendent of the Rocky Mountain National Park. He continued there until May, 1936, and has since been super- intendent of Yellowstone. He reports that one million visitors entered the Park in 1949.
Rogers is the editor of Rocky Mountain Letters-1869, by William H. Brewster, which was published in 1930. A charter member of the Colorado Mountain Club, he served as its president in 1925 and 1927, and he belongs also to the University Club, the Cactus Club, and the Mile High Club, all of Denver, the QK Club of Bozeman, Mont., and the American Planning and Civic Association. His mar- riage to Sarah Elder Vaille, daughter of Howard T. and Martha Elder Vaille, took place in Longmont, Colo., on June 5, 1926. They have no children.
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JOHN WILLIAM ROGERS. Address, 119 West 90th Street, New York, N.Y.
LEZLIE CURTIS ROSE. Buyer, Quality Bakers of America Co- operative, Inc., 120 West 42d Street, New York 18, N.Y .; resi- dence, 45 Whittingham Place, West Orange, N.J.
A buyer for Quality Bakers of America Cooperative, Inc. (a coöpera- tive of wholesale bakers-purveyors of Sunbeam bread), since April, 1928, Rose prays for the bread made during the week every Sunday at the North Orange Baptist Church. He is secretary of the board of trustees, teaches in the Sunday school, and in 1949 was president of the Men's Club. He is a member of Montclair Lodge, A.F. and A.M. (master, 1935), served as scoutmaster of Troop 5 in Upper Montclair, N.J., for twelve years before his marriage, and during the war wore the white helmet of district air raid warden-"that's how I lost my hair."
He adds, "Of course I vote Republican. Vacations are the weak spot in our armor-and keep us broke-Yellowstone (in 1936) and Florida (every third March) stand out. Scouting has returned as an avocation now that our own boy is 'Eagle bound.'"
Mrs. Rose was Etta E. Porth, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Porth. They were married in Orange, September 29, 1934-"with a buyer's instinct for quality, I scoured the available supply carefully for almost twenty years until I was sure I got the best. I did." Their son, Curtis Dean, was born February 2, 1937. "In between Scout meetings and bird hikes-which latter requires that both father and son arise at 4 A.M. (Oh! Shades of Morpheus! )," Rose says, "Curt squeezes in a little time at the Roosevelt Junior High School. Bless him, he insists on adding that it is the Theodore Roosevelt Junior High School. Projecting into the future the score looks like: Theodore Roose- velt Junior High 1952, West Orange High School 1955, Yale 1959."
WILLIAM MAXWELL ROSENFIELD. President judge, Bradford County (Pa.) Courts; business address, Court House, Towanda, Pa .; residence, 513 Third Street, Towanda.
Rosenfield practiced law in Towanda for a number of years. He served as district attorney of Bradford County from 1928 to 1935 and in 1948 was elected to a ten-year term as president judge of all courts of the county-the Court of Common Pleas, Court of Oyer and Ter- miner, Quarter Sessions, and Orphans Court.
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He is a director of the First National Bank and president of the Masonic Hall Association of Towanda and since 1932 has been treas- urer of the Towanda Firemen's Relief Association. He served as county commander of civil defense during World War II and is now county coördinator. Rosenfield was formerly president of the Men's Club of the Towanda Presbyterian Church, has been an officer in all the local Masonic organizations (he is a thirty-third degree Mason), and belongs also to the Elks and Odd Fellows. His political affilia- tions are Republican.
His marriage to Muriel Elizabeth Carner, daughter of Evans B. and Nellie Henry Carner, took place in Easton, Pa., on October 11, 1926. They have no children.
ALEXANDER BURGESS ROYCE. Partner, Chadbourne, Parke, Whiteside, Wolff & Brophy, lawyers, 25 Broadway, New York 4, N.Y .; residence, 330 Park Avenue, New York 22.
For the past twenty-three years Royce has been a partner in Chad- bourne, Parke, Whiteside, Wolff & Brophy and predecessor firms. His practice is a general one, with emphasis on corporate and financial matters, and he is a member of the corporation law committee of the New York State Bar Association.
He has been on the boards of two investment trusts, the Adams Express Company and the American International Corporation, since 1941 and for twenty years has been a director of the General Realty & Utilities Corporation and Gimbel Brothers, Inc., and for fifteen years a director of the Patino Mines & Enterprises Consolidated. Dur- ing 1941-42 he represented the U.S. Commercial Company (an R.F.C. subsidiary) in South America and London, and in 1943 he was chair- man (U.S. State Department representative) of the North African Economic Board, with his headquarters in Algiers. Royce is a trustee and chairman of the executive committee of the Brooks School, North Andover, Mass. He is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church and belongs to the Racquet and Tennis Club of New York, the Gulf Stream (Fla.) Golf Club, and the Dedham (Mass.) Country and Polo Club.
He was married in Dedham on March 12, 1921, to Barbara Burgess, daughter of John K. and Antoinette Converse Burgess. They have two children: Martha Royce Lacey, who was born on June 14, 1926, in New York City, and Robert S., born June 23, 1931, in Washing-
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ton, D.C., who is currently a corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve on active duty at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
JAMES COAD RUTLEDGE. President, Rutledge Equipment Com- pany, service station equipment suppliers, 334 Boulevard of the Allies, Pittsburgh 22, Pa .; residence, 1665 Kelton Street, Dormont, Pa.
Rutledge writes: "Since 1930 my main endeavor has been complete concentration on developing and enlarging the Rutledge Equipment Company in such a manner as to provide an independence of opera- tion after my retirement. In this manner our customers will be fully protected, the manufacturers whom we represent will continue to be represented, and the employees and families who have been our loyal supporters will have a means of livelihood. If this dream can be fully accomplished, I hope to lie on the beach in my latter days with a certain degree of happiness and contentment."
At the present time all of Rutledge's travels and hobbies are covered by a yearly trip to Fort Lauderdale, where he is getting in practice for the post-retirement years by reclining on the beach for two months. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church and a Republican in politics-and still a bachelor.
JOSEPH ISIDORE SACHS. Member, Sachs, Sachs & Sachs, lawyers, 185 Church Street, New Haven, Conn .; residence, 295 Central Ave- nue, New Haven.
Sachs has been a member of the above firm since his graduation from the Yale Law School in 1917, his practice being chiefly in connection with corporation and probate law, trial work, and conveyancing. In 1950 he became treasurer of the General Industrial Bank of New Haven, of which he has been assistant secretary and director for a number of years. Sachs served as president of the New Haven Bureau of Jewish Education from 1945 to 1949 and has since been a director. He is also a director of the New Haven Jewish Community Council, a member of the board of governors of the American Association for Jewish Education, and has been a director of the Congregation B'nai Jacob in New Haven since about 1938 and president since July, 1949. He belongs to B'nai B'rith and to the New Haven County, Connecticut State, and American Bar associations.
His marriage to Julia Edythe Silverman, daughter of Isidore and Rose Silverman, took place in Bridgeport, Conn., June 14, 1925.
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They have three children: Ruth Leah, born February 4, 1927, Kalman A. on May 29, 1929, and Miriam Joy on June 13, 1932. The latter is a Freshman at Smith. Ruth, who received the degree of B.A. at American International College in 1948, is the wife of Dr. Nelson Alpert, who graduated from Yale with the Class of 1945W and later took his Ph.D. in physics at Massachusetts Tech. Kalman attended the Junior College of Commerce in New Haven for a time and is now in the Class of 1952 at the University of Connecticut.
CHARLES BALDWIN SAWYER. President, Brush Laboratories Company, chairman, Brush Beryllium Company, and vice-president, Brush Development Company, 3714 Chester Avenue, Cleveland 14, Ohio; residence, 2745 Edgehill Road, Cleveland Heights 6.
Sawyer is a director of each of the companies in the Brush group listed above and also of the S. K. Wellman Company, manufacturers of bimetallic friction material made of powdered metal to be applied to automotive and airplane brakes and clutches. He gives us the following details: "The Brush Laboratories Company (engaged in research and development-electrical, chemical, and metallurgical) was founded in 1921 by Charles F. Brush, 3d, Harvard '15, and myself, fresh out of M.I.T. as a Ph.D. Charles F. Brush, 2d, was a boyhood friend and son of the inventor of the arc light, of the practical lead storage battery, and founder of the Linde Air Products Company. The younger Brush died in 1927, whereupon I became president. In 1929 my partner was followed in death by his father, of whom I had become a great admirer. The Brush Laboratories has now taken up titanium for study. Until 1946 it performed the research for the S. K. Wellman Company.
"The Brush Development Company (extraction and fabrication of the element beryllium and its compounds) was founded in 1930 by the Brush Laboratories Company as the controlling interest, and myself as vice-president, to exploit its acoustic piezoelectric developments and has been very successful.
"The Brush Beryllium Company (acoustical-microphones, phono- graph pick-ups, magnetic recorders, supersonic waves in liquids) was founded in 1931 by the Brush Laboratories Company, with myself as president, to exploit its beryllium developments and has been beset by many difficulties, from which it has only partly emerged.
"The Brush Laboratories Company and the Brush Beryllium Com- pany were both cited in 1946 by the Manhattan District of the War
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Department for essential work in the production of the atomic bomb, as was also your classmate. Throughout its existence the Brush Devel- opment Company has always been very active in underwater signalling and submarine detection, especially during war years, and this work continues. It is seeking commercially to produce, under the direction of your classmate, synthetic quartz crystals and, despite much publicity elsewhere, is the organization relied on by the government to free this country of the necessity for importing quartz crystals in war emergencies. Similar war activity surrounds its magnetic speech and sound recorders."
During August and September, 1945, Sawyer was overseas in con- nection with the work of the Technical Industrial Intelligence Com- mittee, which submitted reports on the Axis industry of beryllium and synthetic quartz crystals. A number of articles on beryllium and Rochelle salt crystals, of which he is the author (or in a few cases, the co-author), have been reprinted. Several of these had appeared originally in Metals and Alloys and others in the Yale Scientific Maga- zine, Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, and the Physical Review. His thesis, Nitrogen in Steel, was copyrighted in 1923 by the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers. He is a member of that organization and also of the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society, the American Association for the Advance- ment of Science, the American Society for Metals, the British Institute of Metals, the Western Reserve Historical Society, the University Club, the Kirtland Country Club, and the Mentor Harbor Yacht Club. Sawyer is an Episcopalian and a Republican.
He was first married in 1921 in New Haven to Caroline Fisher, daughter of Irving and Margaret Hazard Fisher. They were divorced in 1929. His second marriage, to Katherine Beaumont Hirsh, daughter of Willard and Martha Beaumont Hirsh, took place in Cleveland, August 19, 1933. Sawyer's oldest son, Baldwin, who was born in 1922 at Narragansett Pier, R.I., graduated from Yale in 1944. He is working on his thesis for the degree of Doctor of Science at Carnegie Tech. He married Dorothy Straker in 1947 and has a daughter, Doro- thy Carol, born in 1950. The other children were born in Cleveland: Margaret Hazard (Smith '47) in 1925, Samuel Prentiss on June 8, 1934, Charles Brush on January 26, 1937, and William Beaumont on November 20, 1940.
"The city is too small to hold my family in the summer, so we have a twenty-acre place on Lake Erie near the Mentor Harbor Yacht Club, this set-up providing sailing and other outdoor activities,"
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Sawyer says. "The three younger boys are members of an Episcopal Church choir and attend the University School. They are all much interested in natural philosophy, from gardening and deer raising to radio and chemistry. I hope they will attend Yale University with credit."
JAMES RALPH SCOTT. Residence, Patterson, N.Y.
"I retired from practice in 1947 because of coronary thrombosis, the 'doctor's disease,'" Scott reports. "I am now living very modestly in the country. Among other mild recreations, I am a bee-keeper- two hives! This provides enough honey for a year's supply for me, with extras to give away to my friends. I am unmarried."
He was a member of the staff of St. Luke's Hospital in New York from the time of his interneship there until his retirement, having an appointment as associate physician from 1930 to 1942, attending physician for the next six years, and subsequently as consulting physi- cian. During World War II he was a lieutenant colonel in the Army, attached to Evacuation Hospital No. 2. Scott, who is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine, served as president of the New York Diabetes Association from 1936 to 1942 and as secretary of the New York Academy of Medicine from 1940 to 1942. He was a founder of the American Diabetes Association and is now a fellow of that organization, as well as of the American College of Physicians and the New York Academy of Medicine. His book, Diabetes, was published by Funk & Wagnalls in 1936. He belongs to the Presby- terian Church, the Hospital Graduates Club of New York, and the New York Yale Club.
ROBERT BREWSTER SEABURY. Physician and surgeon; office and residence, 58 Trumbull Street, New Haven, Conn.
Seabury, who specializes in traumatic surgery, has been practicing in New Haven since 1919. For the past thirty years he has been asso- ciated with the Department of University Health at Yale as an assist- ing surgeon and since 1934 has also been surgeon for the University football team. He is a member of the Graduates Club of New Haven and of St. Thomas' Protestant Episcopal Church.
His marriage to Mabel Atwater Benton, daughter of Merritt Lott and Jane Nettleton Benton, took place in New Haven on September 17, 1919. They have three daughters, all of whom were born in New Haven. The oldest girl, Jane Elizabeth, who was born on April
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14, 1921, is a graduate of St. Catherine's School, Richmond, Va. She was married in 1945 to James Norman Hendel and has two sons: Robert Charles and Peter James. They live in Fairfield, Conn. The second daughter, Ann Benton, born March 16, 1923, graduated from Bradford Junior College in 1943 and completed a course at the Cam- bridge Hospital in 1946. Her marriage to Guy Berkley Stearns took place in 1948, and they have a daughter, Catherine Ann. Ann's hus- band is with the Linde Corporation and the family make their home in Indianapolis. The youngest girl, Ruth Isabel, was born on December 3, 1926, and graduated from the University of Colorado in 1950. In 1947 she married Harold S. Oakes, who is an instructor in electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They have a daughter, Ann Elizabeth, and are living in Boston.
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