Class of 1963 Alumni Notes November-December 2024

            Your Class Council has elected as Co-chair of the Alumni Fund Class Agents Phil Stevens, who has long served as a member of our successful team of Agents.  Phil joins Troy Murray, the other Co-chair.

            Don Akenson was awarded the Albert B. Corey Prize for 2024 for his book The Americanization of the Apocalypse:  Creating America’s Own Bible.  The Albert B. Corey Prize is sponsored jointly by the American Historical Association and the Canadian Historical Association, and is awarded in even-numbered years for the best book on Canadian-American relations or on the history of both countries.  Don reports:  “Among the reactions to the book – which is about the origin in 19th century southern Ireland of the main ideological chord of today’s white Christian nationalism – that of my fellow students of Irish history is the most intriguing.  On the one hand they are quietly pleased that something so important arose in their countryside.  On the other, they are embarrassed and slightly frightened by what the social-political product actually is.”

            Bill Bell, Ralph Johanson, Tom Kukk, Bob Myers, Lea Pendleton, Quinn Rosefsky, Charley Sawyer, and George Steers enjoyed seeing each other again at their Phillips Andover 65th reunion.  However, Bill reports that the best storyteller at the reunion was their classmate Jerry Secundy, one of the 18 black members of the Harvard Class of 1963 profiled in the 2020 book The Last Negroes at Harvard.

              Ed Carlson received a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice from Bowling Green State University in Port Clinton, OH on August 3, 2024.  Ed explains the background of this achievement as follows:  “George Floyd’s death in 2020 reinvigorated my involvement in racial reconciliation.  I got involved with the Center for Restorative Justice in Monrovia, CA, taking several classes, getting involved with prison (mass incarceration) activists, and bringing together two men’s groups from a ‘black’ church and a ‘white’ church.  At the time Shirley and I were living six months in California and six months in Ohio.  We brought that ten-year experience to an end in the summer of 2022, and now are in Ohio full-time.  Shirley, my wife of 57 years, serves on the Bowling Green State University Foundation Board.  We attended the 100th Homecoming in the fall of 2022, and we ran into BGSU’s President, who asked if we were Falcon (school mascot) Flames – couples who both went to BGSU and got married.  When we told him we were not, he said, ‘Ed, you only have to take a course.’  I went home that night, searched for courses, and found that BGSU offered an on-line Master’s Program in Criminal Justice.  This was the perfect answer to my concern that when discussing mass incarceration and other related issues, people would throw around numbers that were inconsistent and often contradictory.  I decided to enroll in the program so that I would learn more about the whole field of criminal justice and learn where to find solid data, most pressing issues, etc.  Shirley refers to my going back to school as ‘his beyond-mid-life crisis.’  I began my studies in January 2023.  In May 2023, at our 60th Reunion, I led a table talk on the “school-to-prison pipeline,” but more importantly attended the session led by classmates Steve Jones and Tony Gaenslen and later read Tony’s book, A Hard Road to Justice, which further motivated me to learn more about criminal and juvenile justice.  Now that I have graduated, I have three prime areas of interest:  keeping juveniles out of the juvenile justice system through the use of diversion programs; Second Look legislation that involves a set time period for reviewing cases involving long-term sentences for consideration of early release (which significantly impacts racial minorities who make up the majority of these cases); and efforts to support successful reentry into the community following release from prison.”

              Lowell Dodge reports that he has completed an essay on his lifelong spiritual affair with trees, especially redwoods.  Lowell explores what he sees as the existential threats to the survival of redwoods and describes his efforts to save them.   Ian Robertson initially encouraged Lowell to write about his experiences and tracked down a number of photos for the piece.  He also contributed his signature centered-text format.  Ian intends to make the essay the first of many by classmates who wish to share their environmental stories, and to assemble them as a collection for our 65th Reunion.  Classmates may request a copy from Lowell, goodwoods@aol.com.

              Larry Gwin, Bob Hetherington, and Phil Stevens met at Deerfield Academy in June for their 65th reunion.  Highlights were conversations based on watershed moments in their lives and the traditional New England clambake, with lobster, steamed clams, corn, and potatoes.

            Harry Meacham Brants died peacefully in the early morning hours of July 17, 2024 in Fort Worth, TX.  Harry was a lifelong resident of Fort Worth.  He was reserved and always a serious student.  Harry graduated from Yale University and the University of Texas Law School in Austin, where he was Editor of the Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif.  Harry started his legal career working with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.  He then moved back to Fort Worth and was a partner in the firms of Hudson, Keltner, Smith and Cunningham and McLean & Sanders.  Harry was a member of the Brackett & Ellis Law Firm for a number of years, and he officed with his sister, Lucy Brants, for the last two years of his practice.  Harry practiced law for over 50 years.  He was board-certified in estate tax, and his practice focused primarily on estate planning, wills and trusts, probate matters, and tax matters.  Harry was a highly respected member of the legal community in Fort Worth.  Harry was a lifelong hunter and fisherman.  He loved the outdoors, and he was an expert bow hunter and fisherman.  Harry loved to hunt in Wyoming and Alaska with his friends.  He spent many happy hours hunting and fishing on his family’s land at Eagle Mountain Lake.  Harry challenged himself by becoming a marathon runner when he was in his 50’s, and ran the New York City Marathon with his daughter Emily.  Harry believed in Fort Worth and served on various boards and belonged to many local organizations.  In 2013 Harry was honored by Historic Fort Worth’s Preservation Is the Art of the City for his many contributions to the Fort Worth arts community and his support of preservation efforts in Fort Worth.  Harry is survived by his children, Dr. Allan Brants, Emily Brants Templin, and David Brants; his sister Lucy Brants; four grandchildren; and five nieces and nephews.

            Gerrit Osborne recalls:  “During a visit to Fort Worth with Harry during our Sophomore Year we were cruising in his Ford convertible out in the countryside, and for some reason we had a shotgun with us.  Spying vultures circling what we assumed was a dead animal, we pulled off the road to see what was going on.  Approaching from opposite sides of the vultures’ target, we came upon a dead something with a very interested vulture about to feast on it.  As we approached, the vulture took a greater interest in Harry then he did in the carrion, and Harry, protected by his 12 gauge, raised it and blew the vulture out of sky.  I was directly in his line of fire, and I’m sure he missed me by more than it seemed at the time, but it makes a good story.”

            Elton Hathaway Follett died on July 24, 2024 at home in Ozona, FL.  As a youth he was known as Tony and attended Evanston Township High School in Evanston, IL, where he became highly successful as a swimmer, setting numerous state and national records.  He continued his career at Yale University, where he was captain of the Freshman team and a member of the All-American team that swam in Japan and at the Pan-American Games.  Elton married Nancy Ennis during college and they moved to California for a few years after graduation.  They then moved to England, where he started The Dolphin School, a Montessori-style college preparatory institution.  The Dolphin School is located in Berkshire, England, where it remains a thriving day school.  After his divorce, Elton moved to nearby Reading, where he studied both Cordon Bleu culinary arts and psychotherapy.  He became renowned both for his excellent dinners and for his mentoring to his psychotherapy clients.  Elton was always interested in sailing and sailed across the Atlantic with two friends.  He married Dagmar Strasser in 2004.  In 2014 they retired to Florida, where Elton continued his love of the water by daily snorkeling and messing around with small boats.  Elton leaves his wife Dagmar; his children Daena Lambert (deceased), Saul Hathaway, Morgane Tredway, and Thea Maia; and five grandchildren.

            Elton’s widow Dagmar remembers:  “In spite of his failing health, he was determined to attend last year’s Reunion, which he did and greatly enjoyed.  He was so proud and grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of Yale.”  Bob Dickie recalls:  “Elton was fun to be around.  He had a real presence and curiosity.  He was open-minded and a natural-born learner.  He came up with an original way to approach secondary education, and to develop that further he founded and ran a school in England.”  Phil Stevens writes:  “I am saddened by the news of Elton’s passing.  Not only a great swimmer, a great guy, self-effacing, with a ready smile and sense of humor.”

Guy Miller Struve, Secretary

90 The Uplands

Berkeley, CA 94705

E-Mail:  guy.struve@davispolk.com

Class Website:  www.yale63.org