History of the class of nineteen hundred thirty-six, Yale College, fifteen-year record, Part 28

Author: Yale College (1887- ). Class of 1936
Publication date: 1952
Publisher: [Place of publication not identified] : Published with the assistance of the Class Secretaries Bureau
Number of Pages: 370


USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the class of nineteen hundred thirty-six, Yale College, fifteen-year record > Part 28


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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34


HENRY B. DEV. SCHWAB, JR .; 989 Balltown Road, Schenectady, N.Y.


Greetings from Schenectady and the G.E. Nineteen forty-five found me returning from Erie, Pa., for a stretch of staff work in the General office, and more recently in the field of Laboratory Ad- ministration.


I am married and have two children. Keep busy with tennis, curl- ing, skiing, and miscellaneous hobbies. See the sea, the backwoods and the big city about once a year.


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ZENOS E. SCOTT, JR .; 2353 Ridge Avenue, Evanston, Ill.


Working for Louisville and Nashville Railroad as a traveling coal peddler. Getting plenty of competition from the natural gas and oil industries. No particular hobbies at present. Our two small children are Marian and Mckinley.


SAMUEL A. SCRIBNER; 732 Scarsdale Avenue, Scarsdale, N.Y.


I have this day received an ominous post card forcing an untimely end to my procrastination about writing this deathless quivering story of My Life. Having long lost the questionaire-I believe a small son ate it-I've forgotten just what is called for, but the last five years went something like this:


At the end of 1949, I left my long time job with General Motors and joined a small advertising firm, which did well in all of its phases except making money. So, this past year I have been with Willard Pictures, Inc., producers of quality sales, training and T.V. films (advt.). Although I'm often forced to spend days at a time sur- rounded by chesty blonde models, the job is otherwise very interest- ing.


The hearthside is lous- er, alive with small male extroverts. Actually only two, aged one and three, but it seems like more. The theory that small boys are constructed of rats and snails and puppy dogs' tails is validated by empirical observation.


MORTIMER ASHMEAD SEABURY, JR .; Ship's Cabin, Marble- head, Mass.


This finds me about five feet from the water in Marblehead sitting in my little office. No, I'm not afloat, but my seaside inn hangs out over the harbor. The guests have gone to bed, but I am serenaded mildly by the sound of the water and the distant gaiety of younger things enjoying our annual Race Week. My wife, Virginia, who has been in that status for four years, is home with our small boy, whose namesake, Warren Bartlett Seabury, graduated from Yale in 1900 and was one of the founders of Yale-in-China. Writing this makes me nostalgic about our last reunion, my first. It meant a lot to me and I plan never to miss another. It was a joy to see old friends, and I hope they will drop in to see me here whenever they get anywhere near Boston. At the time of our 25th, my other son, little Ash, should be graduating. My two girls, Mayo and Diana, will probably be married to a pair of Elis; so, all in all, the next ten years will bring some changes. I hope they are for the better for 1936, Yale, and all the world.


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WILLIAM J. SECOR, JR .; 111 West Main Street, Waterbury, Conn.


Resigning from the F.B.I. in December, 1945, I returned to the practice of law in Waterbury, becoming a member of the law firm of Lewis, Hart, Upson & Secor in 1948. My daughter Betsey arrived in 1946, John Hoover in 1947, and Barbara in 1950, making a total of four, including Fielding.


Since my return, I have specialized in the field of taxation, and in 1946 I took a special course on this subject at Yale Law School.


We recently moved to Middlebury, Conn., where practically all my spare time is spent landscaping our new home.


Present memberships include Rotary Club, The Waterbury Club, and the Country Club of Waterbury.


ROBERT E. SELTZER; The American Baler Co., Bellevue, Ohio.


Current assets of the Seltzer family include four children: Bob, nine, Marion, six, Margaret, five, and Pat, one and a half; mother, the former Doris Scott of New York; a house to live in which seems too small when everyone is there but much too large when anyone is missing; and a business for Daddy which so far has provided a living.


The liabilities are mostly trivial things, currently including a case of the Mumps and Scarlet Fever. One major liability is that Daddy started his own business after the war and has had to work twice as hard as any apparent results would justify; however, prospects are considerably brighter, giving rise to the observation that if you can't find a quick gold mine in business, the alternative is to hang on with your teeth long enough and work twice as much as a human being ought to.


NELSON SHARPE, 3D; 1523 Clubside Rd., Lyndhurst 24, Ohio.


It only took a year after graduation for this Eli to tire of living alone, which resulted in his marriage to Janet M. Orton in Utica, N.Y., on November 6, 1937. My family expanded two years later with the birth of a boy, Lee Nelson, on November 30, 1939. During this period, until 1940, I was employed by the Permutit Co. in the field of industrial water conditioning equipment, with residence mainly in Philadelphia. My next and only other full time job, which I currently hold, was with the W.H.&L.D. Betz Co., which required a move to Cleveland in the capacity of District Engineer. In 1943, our family was completed with the birth of a daughter, Anne Orton, on January 11.


Aproximately four years ago I joined with others in the formation of the Hukill Chemical Corp., of which I am currently Secretary, and later the Wolf Processing Co., where I am a member of the


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Board of Directors. Though both nonpaying as yet, these jobs have been of considerable business interest, and have allowed me to con- tinue full time activity in my capacity as a consulting chemical engineer in the water-conditioning field.


I am a member of the University Club and the Mentor Harbor Yacht Club, though non-sailing at present. I have been a vestryman of St. Alban's Episcopal Church on two occasions, and my politics remain essentially Republican. Membership in a Boy Scout Troop Committee plus two or three technical organizations complete the roster as to activity other than social.


A large lot in Lyndhurst, a residential city of Greater Cleveland, takes most of my spare time when not vacationing in Michigan in the summer. A convivial social life with many friends completes an interesting and happy life, with no substantial regrets.


WARREN SHEAR; 1120 North 13th Street, Duncan, Okla.


The arrival of our second daughter in 1947 completed our family, I hope-except for the purchase of a malemute pup at Aspen, Colo., last winter while skiing.


Unable to find a job after my discharge from the army, I started selling oil and gas leases in Southern Oklahoma and have now progressed to the point where I am a small oil producer with bank loans larger than my assets. Have been married just once to a native of Oklahoma, born on the banks of Wild Horse Creek-luckiest thing I ever did. If I hadn't married her, I'd probably be working for a small stipend in the crowded East.


My wife has learned to fly our Beech Bonanza, and, in fact, is such a hot pilot that she threatens to get weathered in in Tulsa or Dallas and see why I always have to stay by the ship when the weather gets bad. I hope she won't be disappointed. We ski, swim, play golf and tennis for amusement, and occasionally get time for a vacation, usually in the winter. Find myself getting lazy and dull as middle age approaches; also find my political views considerably changed from college. Enjoyed our great Fifteenth Reunion, but was amazed to see how much younger I looked than most of my class- mates-possibly the clean life I live.


BLAKE SHEPARD; 500 Summit Avenue, St. Paul, Minn.


Settled in Bronxville, N.Y., after the war and sought my fortune with J. C. Griswold & Co., insurance brokers, in New York. In spite of pleasant surroundings and frequent contact with the likes of Bob Cooke, Pete Grace, Tom Stockhausen, Brendan Gill, etc., gracefully accepted job with a St. Paul insurance agency, W. A. Lang Co., and


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moved back to Minnesota in July, 1949, shortly after the arrival of our third child. My good wife is successfully adjusting herself to having three daughters and eight or ten months a year of arctic weather.


Life in Minnesota has proved pleasant, with plenty of extracur- ricular relaxation in the form of golfing, hunting, and shoveling snow. Also quite a few '36ers inhabit this country, and since J. Press sends a representative a couple of times a year, we're really not too badly off. Have been taking vacations each summer in Madison, Conn., and hope to continue to do so.


The fifteenth reunion was enjoyable, especially the good behavior of Train. Hope Looie can raise a million by 1956.


DAVID SHEPPARD; 2721 Terrace Road, S.E., Washington 20, D.C.


The summer of 1951 finds me on the backs of the often muddy Potomac, working as a statistician for the Air Force in the five-sided, air-conditioned concrete and granite establishment. This is the eighth year of my second stay (my first was for two years, 1940-1942, with a short stay in the Coast Guard in between), and during the eight years my family has expanded to include two lovely (aren't they all) daughters-Ellen, born in 1943, and Susan, born in 1946. So now we are four. For the record, marriage caught up with me in November, 1940, in the person of Miss Esther Tessler of New Haven.


In the fifteen years since leaving Yale it has been my good fortune to work in fields closely allied to my mathematics major. My statistical career has covered such interesting areas as anthropo- metrics, psychometrics, social statistics, applications to military problems, and lecturing in statistics for two years, 1948-1950, at the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.


My being a "bureaucrat" has made me somewhat sensitive to the present-day connotations of the word. The picture of a man who feeds at the public trough, producing nothing beneficial in return, is generally not true. This is the material that goes over big in the provinces. In reality, most "bureaucrats" produce an honest day's work and contribute, in their own small way, to the operation of government. So much for the soap-box.


It used to be that physical exercise was something one ought to take willy-nilly, but over the years my allegiance has shifted to the school that alleges the pursuit of happiness is best achieved by taking life easy. Thus, my feet no longer pound a softball base path or a tennis court. They are more often squarely on the floor with my rear comfortably enjoying a soft chair. And, of course, a bottle of beer. This is rather a good position for watching baseball, football,


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basketball, and best of all, Jimmy Durante on TV. My spare time is also quite often taken up with reading, woodworking, and painting (arty or otherwise).


Among the art forms that provide a great deal of pleasure is the theater. In retrospect, this is probably the most enjoyable to me, and the recent but not lamented hiatus in Washington for nearly two years was most distressing.


I hold membership in the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and a rather inactive membership in the Yale Club of Washington.


F. ALLEN SHERK; Milton Academy, Milton, Mass.


The past five years have seen little change in the Sherks except for the increasing bald spot that is appearing on Daddy's head. It can't be caused by family worries; so the strong Harvard tendencies of '47 boys in Wolcott House will have to bear the brunt of the blame.


For nine months of the year our life centers around the active and pleasant atmosphere of Milton Academy, where I am Wolcott house- master, head of the history department, and track coach. Then in the summer, our attention shifts to a quiet lake in Deering, New Hampshire, where we have a more normal family life in a house that has been built completely by ourselves.


The only significant outside responsibility has been serving as national chairman of the English-Speaking Union's Youth Exchange Plan. This involves the raising of funds and the administration of the exchange of top-notch American and British boys.


ROBERT E. SIMON; 1 Raycliff Terrace, San Francisco, Calif.


I am a general partner in the stock brokerage firm of J. Barth & Company, San Francisco. I married Joan Salz in 1940, and we have three children: Michael, ten, Barbara, five, Douglas, three. I play a social game of tennis to keep fit! ! Am active in local philanthropies, including Budget Committee of the Community Chest, Executive Committee of the Jewish Welfare Fund of San Francisco; also active on various committees of the San Francisco Stock Exchange.


CHARLES RIVES SKINKER, JR .; 18 Druid Hill Road, Summit, N.J.


My job with the New Jersey Zinc Company (160 Front Street, New York City) involves my making the rounds in Washington, D.C., weekly. I try to keep abreast of the plethora of rules, orders, regulations, tripe, etc., therefrom. Have a lovely wife, Thaisia de Transehe, a blonde daughter, Sandra Isabelle, born July 10, 1941- weight 100-plus, height five feet, a brunette daughter, Barbara Ann,


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born April 22, 1944, at 4:44 a.m. (food for numerologist's thought!) -and a four-legged son with curly tail: Doctor Pepper, the best d -- n Dalmatian you ever met.


Interests are golf (but rarely get to play), Florida, bourbon, people; sources of personal wonder: my children, politics, Washing- ton; sources of personal amazement: my children, other people's children; source of satisfaction: the Good Lord for His blessings.


HARRY EMERSON SLOAN, JR .; Sunset Farm, West Hartford, Conn.


Having had everything to do with the fall of Franklin Hall and nothing to do with the rise of Franklin D., this body plunged into the horrors of grease-ball life (after a summer of leisure), in the fall of 1936, in the occupation of 'machinist's apprentice.' This was in the way of learning a few of the rough spots of human nature, as well as finding out what makes things tick. My $17.86 per average weekly wage, earned at the Hartford Special Machinery Company in this capacity, I soon learned to spend 'in toto' in Northampton, or at Toto's, but that training will not be forgotten.


This all led up to the inevitable-one of Smith's lovelies, Jane Quantrell, threw in the sponge in 1939, and the chase was over. In the meantime, due to an industrial accident, I dropped one blinker by the wayside, and, spending a few months on the sidelines, resumed productive life with the Cushman Chuck Company. Being an old family concern, this was a pretty good move, as I was not long after elected Vice President and Secretary, which I still am.


Our one and only, Nancy Jane, was born in November, 1940, and it won't be long before we will cast the jaundiced eye at some of you lugs with bratty sons. A horsewoman she's turning out to be, as was her mother, and you'd better be sure you can afford horses. We can't.


The war period-'40-45-is a past nightmare of wondering whether you're in or out, and in the meantime working like the devil at a so-called essential job. My hat was, and still is, off to the guys in service. That is a real sacrifice.


Since about 1946 or thereabouts, up until about a year ago, every- thing has been quite serene. Nothing dramatic, unusual, or even commonplace. The squash courts of the Hartford Golf Club ring gaily to the sounds of crushed racquets (and spirits), wielded with finnesse by some and abandon by yours truly, during the winter months. Smiling summer skies never fail to find us cursing profanely on the golf course. A great game-develops the competitive spirit. And also some sailing (which I love, but am alone), plus not enough hunting and fishing, which we both adore.


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Now comes the debacle, or did about a year ago, in the way of rearmament, which disturbs the even tenor of ways. Being a part of the machine tool industry, my company is again operating on some- thing approaching a wartime footing. Our small best we will do again, and hope that this time we all will not relinquish the beautiful ad- vantage we once had to put peace in the bag.


My first chance to vote in a national election happened, as I guess it did to most of '36, in the same famous year. Being employed at that time as a factory hand, it shocked my Republican training to be jibed at with the vulgar phrase, "Vote for Landon and you'll land on your ass." Well, I did and have been doing so ever since. Must say I'm getting a bit thick-skinned down there. However, the worm will turn, provided all good Republicans and Democrats get together, and who then gives a hoot who is the Pres? I'll vote for Griswold. He may be out for dough, but he will spend it wisely.


Anybody tendering a dollar bill to the Community Chest, the Yale Alumni Fund, my prep school Kingswood, or other nefarious enter- prises will find me a willing taker. Might even dust off the Steinway, open a coke, and whale away for you.


JOHN DAVENPORT SLOAN; 171 Elm Street, East Longmeadow, Mass.


It has been hotly contested, but it is my firm belief that a certain Naval cousin-in-law's knowledge of merchant ships' locations during the last war led directly to our happy marriage. Somehow, Nickie (formerly Ruth Nichols of Worcester, Mass.) always seemed to be on leave whenever my ship docked. Ulcers interrupted this routine, but still we were married in February, 1945. Nickie went back to Glenview Naval Air Station and ex-Marine Engineer Sloan went back to Chain Belt Co .- his stomping ground ever since graduation in 1937. (Skipped a year in '36 to work for National Biscuit Co. and line an empty pocketbook.)


Mutually agreeable arrangements with Chain Belt have resulted in jobs in all three plants-on budgets in Milwaukee, Purchasing Agent at the Worcester Plant before the war, and now Asst. Supt. Baldwin-Duckworth Division of Chain Belt, Springfield Plant, where we make roller chain. (This is no ad-just want to differen- tiate between our product and toilet chain.)


Spare time is spent watching five-year-old son J.D. build toy boats and Nickie do metalcrafts, while a Sloan-built garage is left with its foundation showing. Beer-drinking, homebodies, Republicans can best describe our other activities-or lack of them. Entertain- ment is of the quiet variety, with a few plays and some concerts interspersed with elbow bending among congenial friends. It is a good life.


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A. EDWARD SMICK; 5811 Mastin Road, Merriam, Kan.


In order of importance to me personally, the principal changes in my life since 1946 were (a) my marriage in '49 to the former Bar- bara Amy Brown of New York City, (b) the birth of my first son, Peter Gilman, in '50, (c) my promotion to Manager of Engineering for Trans World Airlines in '49 and my relocation to Kansas City at that time. Although I do not yet, and perhaps never will, enjoy Kansas City, the combination of an annual pass on our airline plus the availability of my Cessna 140, which I purchased in '46, offers considerable relief from the confines of this land of floods and chiggers.


Incidentally, at the time of this writing we are actively engaged in digging our Overhaul Base out of the mess left by eighteen feet of water. The devastation wrought upon many thousands of homes and hundreds of industries by this flood was terrible to see, and all too reminiscent of the destructive sights in the industrial cities of Europe during the war. To the home owners the loss will, in most cases, be permanent, but it is hard to imagine that RFC rehabilitation loans will be difficult for any industrial firm from Missouri to obtain. This local disaster emphasized how lucky we are that modern wars have not actively crossed our shores and how completely incapable the typical American municipality is in coping with the sudden problems attendant upon a major disaster.


Outside of deploring (passively) the astonishingly low level to which so many high public officials have fallen in the conduct of public affairs, plus regretting the lack of firmness and aggressiveness in the foreign policy of this nation, my thoughts have been pretty well confined to the problems of family and personal life, with a little skiing, a lot of flying and traveling, and a hobby of woodworking and cabinet making as my principal diversions. I hope that the United Nations can work its way out of another world war, but doubt that the vacillating policy of both England and the United States will permit that. The similarity in our approach to many events of the last few years is so like the behavior of England and France during the '30's as to preclude any well founded hope of avoiding war. I have not kept in touch with many of my classmates and hope that any who pass through Kansas City will take a few moments to call me at work or arrange to stay over night if possible.


BRADLEY SMITH; Brambletye Farm, Setauket, L.I., N.Y.


I am married to the former Christine Brown, Bryn Mawr, '36. We have one son, aged three years, and we are expecting another child in June, 1952. My permanent employer is the United States Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D.C. I was recalled to active duty in the


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Air Force in July, 1950, and sent to Korea. There I flew 101 combat missions in F5's prior to rotation back to U. S. Then I was stationed as a gunnery instructor at Suffolk AFB until I was able to get out on September 10, 1951, and return to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. My hobby is golf, my handicap on the home course being seven.


CARLTON McADORY SMITH; 2631 Aberdeen Road, Birming- ham, Ala.


Engaged in the office furniture and blueprinting business in Birmingham, Ala., but for the past sixteen months was called back into the Army, having remained in the Reserves, being stationed all over the U.S. in the Transportation Corps. Have one child, a daugh- ter, eight years old. I should be out of the Army in February, 1952.


EDWARD RICE SMITH; 69 Colony Street, Meriden, Conn.


It's been an eventful five years. There are four children now. My surgical training was completed at Yale as we had hoped and I am in the private practice of surgery in the old home town, near enough to New Haven to be able to hold an appointment as Clinical In- structor in Surgery in the Yale Medical School. The American Board of Surgery has certified me as a specialist, but as an ex-pathologist and reformed G. P., I feel more pasteurized than certified. So much for business; the exciting developments have been extracurricular. The family homestead and farm went up for sale when the last of an older generation died. We could buy the homestead but not the farm, and had to watch it replaced with a pimply rash of tiny “ranch houses" on sixty-foot lots. So the house went up for sale again while we went crazily into debt for seventy-five acres of beautiful over- grown pasture and woodland in West Cheshire. Here we spent many happy hours rediscovering Nature, but we couldn't build because the old house wouldn't sell. We did get a well sunk (you never tasted such water!) and then put up a little shed for the tractor, but the tractor never got into it. Last July fourth the family slept there "for fun," and in no time had moved in permanently. Our furniture went into storage, the old house was sold for what we could get, and from our tiny new base of operations we began to build a new home in the middle of our tract, surrounded by peace and beauty. Of course it wasn't all peace and beauty, and I wonder how Alta ever faced it. We run a hundred yards to the pump for water, and it's frozen much of the winter; the toilet is a pit with a box over it and a square hole to discourage constipation; the kitchen is three by six, the sink a basin, and the stove a hot-plate, but we eat fine. And we've never been happier. The house is now well along and should be done before


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another winter. We did about half of the building ourselves and feel fine for it. The surroundings and the work make life seem a constant vacation, the kids are brown and healthy, we have vegetables in the garden, trout in the brook, the freshest of air, and the purest of water-and my office in the city is only five minutes away. The undeveloped land has limitless possibilities; enough for many years and year-books to come.


EVERETT WARE SMITH; 151 Dover Road, Wellesley 81, Mass.


Graduation found me leaving the comforts of New Haven for the U.S. Marine Corps and the mosquitoes in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, having accepted an appointment as a Second Lieutenant from the Yale Naval R.O.T.C. This interlude lasted until the summer of 1938, when marriage overtook me in the person of Ruth Howe Tyler (Smith '36), and I resigned to go to work for the Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. in Hartford, later being transferred to Boston. During most of this period we had lived in Cambridge and had just moved to Wellesley, Mass., where we still are, when our first child, Pamela, arrived on August 31, 1940, to complicate the scheme of things.


In the spring of 1941, it became clear that an application for active duty was in order-or else; so back into the Marine Corps I went. After nine months' duty in the States, they sent me to Guan- tanamo Bay, Cuba, as part of a cadre around which the 13th Anti- Aircraft Battalion was formed. During this sojourn in Cuba my second daughter, Karen, was born in Boston, on October 27, 1942. In March, 1944, the outfit was sent back to Camp Lejeune, N.C., for refitting of equipment and men. For three months we luxuriated in the town of Jacksonville, N.C., in a defense housing project of mag- nificent proportions.




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