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EQV Fraternity 1954 - 1968

Biographies
1957-1958

Since AXP or EQV
or
Bios by them that are living it

Table of Contents

 

Jeffrey Williamson (’57)

Raised as a faculty brat in Middletown on the Wesleyan campus, and listening to my dad talk academic economics at the dinner table every night, I guess it was inevitable that I would follow in his footsteps. I was a math major and art minor at Wesleyan (graphics studio), an ambiguity that has pursued me ever since (I report with much joy). This New Englander then did the smart thing: migrated to the sunshine and palm trees at Stanford where I earned my PhD in economics (‘61).

Over the many years since then, I have had three permanent academic appointments: Vanderbilt 1961-1963, Wisconsin-Madison 1963-1983 and Harvard since 1983. I am the Laird Bell Professor of Economics at Harvard and have served as Chair of the Economics Department (1997-2000) and as Master of Mather House (1986-1993). Along the way, I have had visiting appointments at the University of the Philippines 1967-1968, Stanford University 1976-1977, Cambridge University 1978, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Austria) 1978-1980, World Bank 1976-present, Australian National University 1988-present, Osaka Gakuin University 1994, European University Institute 1994-1995, Kiel Institute of World Economics 1995-present, University of Groningen 1995, University of Copenhagen 2000, Stockholm School of Economics 2000, and the Inter-American Development Bank 2001-present. So, you got to say that I get around. And I love it.

I am still married to and in love with the same woman. Nancy Ann Penfield (Portland, Connecticut) took a chance on me in 1958. Lucky me. We have four super adult children (Amy, Kirk, Hilary, Megan), with whom Nancy and I are very close. Every year we all gather at our Maine cottage in August, we manage to do it again at Thanksgiving in Madison, a subset does it one more time around Christmas at our St. John villa, and we even find ways to see one another at other times. We now have five grand children, ages two to eleven (Maya, Nell, Erin, AJ, Sarah). Sad to say, it looks like we have hit the wall with five. They are, of course, a total gas and they force me to struggle (constantly but deliciously) over how to spend more time with them and less with my work.

Nancy and I seem to have the right DNA, since we are both healthy and energetic, in spite of our efforts to abuse our bodies with good food and wine.

I love research and teaching, but any sensible guy my age sees retirement on the near horizon. The plan is to teach full time at Harvard 2005-2006, and then half time until 2010, using the other half for a joint appointment at the University of Wisconsin (where most of the kids and grandkids live) starting 2006-2007.

After we sell our big Belmont Victorian house soon, we will make our “permanent” residence in Madison down on the isthmus at the edge of Lake Monona. During the transition, we will live in a faculty apartment at Harvard’s Mather House when I am teaching there in the fall. UW in the spring.

I think I’ve got two more economics books in me (I do economic history and economic development), but after that I plan to learn Italian, read about Palladio in the original, and return to architecture (my first love) and the arts more generally.

Gardiner Davis (’58)

I’m sneaking up on my 70th birthday.  I never really expected to live so long.  Who wouldn’t have thought that McClain would be a mollusk prof and Thieismier an English professor!

I married Gwenyth Piper from Smith (Same deal: blind date.) in August of ‘58.  I used to lie in that bed up in the dormer/garret of the Crow house and look up at the ceiling and ask, “What is the worst thing that could happen to me?” The answer came back immediately: To die before I had gotten laid. 

So, I married and drove a snazzy new Volvo wagon (This was 1958!) out west to Seattle grad school and to baby-sit the dorm of the prep best prep school in Seattle.  When I think back to all that we knew absolutely nothing about – conducting relationships, knowing ourselves, raising children --- and had not been trained for, my jaw slackens.

Contraceptive was primitive and gross.  Gwen and I were camping our way across the country and I swear she just pulled the baby trampoline out, said a few magic words, and tossed it over her shoulder.  She was a prolific baby-making machine, and contraceptive was still in the dark ages.  She was pregnant in a few weeks.  We soon had four children.  I never really felt that I had the situation under control.  I was teaching school full time and Gwenyth was getting impatient. I loved school-teaching.

The marriage fell apart after 14 years but we produced four great kids, two of whom have children of their own.  So, I’ve accomplished my biological imperative by getting my genes two generations deep.

My second wife (also from Smith) and I produced one amazing kid: Laura.  Laura just graduated cum laude from Whitman College and won a Fulbright to teach ESL in Chile. Very satisfying to raise one kid.   But probably the first five years when I was married to Joan without child were the happiest years of my life. I was in my mid-thirties.

The model presented to Gwenyth for how to be a late fifties helpmeet was to be like Doris Day. She would have nothing to do with it. Gwenyth had (and has), lungs like an organ, arms of iron, and a fist of steel.  And the women’s revolution was getting up a head of stream. 

I taught prep-school English for years and then I invented (and delivered) a writing program for businesses, people and professionals whose employees who needed to write Standard English, purposefully and concisely. I supported myself doing this for 16 years, teaching business-writing seminars.  For a while there I felt like the Fred Astaire of writing consultants!  I had MRI vision into a company’s writing.  Then I got a brain tumor (relax, it’s non – malignant) and retired. I was the Wordmeister at McCaw Cellular for several years.

So, all my kids have grown and all my wives have flown.  It’s me and the aging golden retriever in a big old house in a cool section of Seattle. I garden some, write some, and keep an 80 year-old house from falling into the ground.  My goal is to visit all the cool art museums in the country. I travel around with the dog in a ten-year old VW camper.  It suits us fine.

Sorry to have missed seeing you all.

Arthur Geltzer (58)

EDUCATION

Undergraduate:          
Wesleyan University, B.A. 1958
Middletown, Connecticut

Medical School:         
University of Rochester, M.D. 1962
Rochester, New York

Internship:                  
Yale-New Haven Medical Center
Medicine-Pediatrics 1962-1963

POSTGRADUATE TRAINING

Residency:                 
Assistant Resident, Pediatrics, 1963-1964
Yale-New Haven Medical Center
Assistant Resident, Ophthalmology, 1964-1966
Yale-New Haven Medical Center
Resident, Ophthalmology, 1966
West Haven Veterans Administration Hospital
Chief Resident, Ophthalmology, 1968-1969
Yale-New Haven Medical Center

Fellowships:               
N.I.N.D.B., Clinical Fellow Retina and Uveitis,
Ludwig Von Sallmon, M.D. & Vernon Wong,
|M.D., Bethesda, M.D., 1966-1968
Retinal-Vitreous Fellowship, 1982
Wilmer Institute, Ronald G. Michaels, M.D.

POSTGRADUATE HONORS AND AWARDS
Resident Teaching Award: Ophthalmology Residency
Program, Brown Medical School
Rhode Island Hospital, 2001
Honors Distinction in Biology, 1958
Wesleyan University
|Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, 1958
Prevention of Blindness Research Grant, 1985

MILITARY SERVICE
|
U.S.P.H.S., Surgeon, (Active) 1966-1968
National Institutes of Health, N.I.N.D.B.
U.S.P.H.S., Assistant Surgeon (Reserve)

PROFESSIONAL LICENSES AND BOARD CERTIFICATION
Rhode Island, 1969-present
Massachusetts, 1985-present
Diplomate, National Board of Medical Examiners,1963
Fellow, American Academy of Ophthalmology, 1970

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
Rhode Island Hospital, Surgeon
Director of Vitreous and Retinal Research
Miriam Hospital, Surgeon
Women & Infants Hospital, Chief of Ophthalmology (emeritus)

OTHER APPOINTMENTS
Brown University Program in Medicine,
Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery
(Ophthalmology), 1987-present
Postgraduate Referral (Dean’s Letter) Committee, 1976-1990
Tuft’s University School of Medicine,
Assistant Clinical Professor, Ophthalmology, 1994-present

SOCIETY MEMBERSHIPS
Providence Medical Society-
House of Delegates, 1973-1976
Specialties Representative, 1974
American Academy of Ophthalmology
Councilor, 1982-1987
Risk Management Committee OMIC 1987
American Medical Association
Rhode Island Ophthalmological Society
President, 1971-1973
Rhode Island Medical Society

PUBLICATIONS
“Comparative Effect of Growth and Synthesis of Citrovorum Factor by Streptococcus Falcalis.”
Journal of Bacteriology 79:306-307, February1960
(with R.C. Wood and G.H. Hitchings).
Nobel Prize 1988.
“Familial Dysautonomia.” New England Journal ofMedicine 271:436-440, August 1964 (with L. Gluck, N.D. Tainer and H. Polensky).
“Ocular Manifestations of 1964-65 Rubella Epidemic.” American Journal of Ophthalmology 3:221-229, February 1967 (with D. Guber and M.L. Sears).
“Mucocele of the Sphenoid Sinus: A Benign Imitator.” British Journal of Ophthalmology 51:674-678, October 1967 (with A.L. Waldman, R. Merrell and R.B. Daroff).
“Retitinitis Punctata Albescens in a Negro Child Studied with Fluorescein Angiography.” Archives of Ophthalmology 81:170-176, February 1969 (with D. Albert).
“Autonomic Innervation of the Cat Iris. An Electron Microscope Study.” Archives of Ophthalmology 81: 70-83, January 1969.
“Fluorescein Angiography of Hereditary Retinal Degenerations.” Archives of Ophthalmology 81:776-782, June, 1969 (with E.L Berson).
“Laser Photocoagulation and Diabetic Retinopathy.”
Rhode Island Medical Journal 55:275-281, September 1972.
“Laser Photocoagulation Effect on Adenine.”
Ophthalmology 94:1004, June 1976 (with D. Snyder Miech and H. Tamura).
“The Use of Electroretinograms (ERG) in Diagnosing Retinitis Pigmentosa and Related Visual Disorders.” 1984 (with Somers).
“Presence of Retinal Autoantigen in Normal Mice: Absence in Strains with Retinal Degeneration.”
Annals of Ophthalmology 19:334-337, September 1987.
“Diagnosis and Management in Vision Care. A Review.” Archives of Ophthalmology 108:492, 1990.
“CPT” Compliance can reduce risk of medical malpractice. Argus, January 1993.
Review for the Cochrane Collaborative. “Clinical
Trials in Vitreal Implants of Steroids and
Antiangiogenic Characteristics.” 2003.

INVITED PRESENTATIONS
Visiting Retinal -Vitreous Surgeon and Lecturer
Project ORBIS - Lahore, Pakistan and Colombo,
Sri-Lanka - December 1982
Visiting Retinal -Vitreous Surgeon and Lecturer
Project ORBIS - Bamako, Mali - December 1983
Visiting Retinal -Vitreous Surgeon and Lecturer
Project ORBIS - Nairobi, Kenya and Dakar, Senegal -
October 1984
Visiting Retinal -Vitreous Surgeon and Lecturer
Project ORBIS - Cali, Columbia - 1985
Visiting Retinal -Vitreous Surgeon and Lecturer
Project ORBIS - Varna, Bulgaria - November 1990
Visiting Retinal -Vitreous Surgeon and Lecturer
Project ORBIS - Antwerp, Netherlands –
October 1991.
Laser Symposium, Brown University Forums “Dye
Laser Use in Ophthalmology.” May 25, 1985
New England Ophthalmological Society Presentation
“Argon Endolaser Photocoagulation.”
New England Ophthalmological Society Presentation
“Periocular Steroids for Pseudophakic Cystic
Macular Edema.” November 1988
New England Ophthalmological Society Presentation
“Review of Fluorescein Angiography Survey.”
June, 1990
New England Ophthalmological Society Risk
Management Seminar. June 6, 1990
American Academy of Ophthalmology Atlanta
Risk Management Seminar. October 27, 1991
105th Congress of the French Ophthalmology Society
Paris, France. May 12, 1999

UNIVERSITY TEACHING ROLES
321B Clinical Clerkship Elective in Ophthalmology.
Two week elective in clinical ophthalmology filled
by fourth year medical students and medical interns.
Ophthalmology Residency Training in retinal disease
throughout the year and surgical teaching every
Monday a.m. and p.m. at Rhode Island Hospital.
Fluorescein Angiography Lecture to eye residents,
Tuesday 7 a.m. – 8 a.m. biweekly.
Attending Physician Ophthalmology Residency Eye
Clinic, Monday and Thursday AM.
H. Frederick Stephens Award for resident training, 1999.
Oculux Clinical Trial of Vitreous Implant of
Antiangiogenic Drugs, 2002- present.
Brown Medical School 25th Years of Teaching
Recognition Award, 2002.

David Hild (’58)

I met Alyce at Wesleyan on blind date. We have been married 47 years. After Wes. I went to Penn med school and then 4 years at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital for internal medicine and hematology. Alyce transferred to Penn undergrad and we married in 1959. 

Two years in the Air Force in California during Viet Nam. Since then we have lived in Conn. I was director of Hematology Department at Hartford Hospital for 25 years and in private practice. After working with CBIA, Alyce has directed a soup kitchen and related programs for past 15 years.

I retired in 2003.

We have 3 children and 5 grandchildren. Our main home is now on the Connecticut shore, but we keep an apartment in Hartford.

James McLean (‘58)

Back in my days at Wesleyan I knew only that my intent was to be some kind of a marine biologist. I was one of a very few biology majors not in a pre-med program. Then, at Stanford, my shell-collecting instincts led me into taxonomic research on west coast mollusks for my PhD in biology. By a most incredible stroke of happenstance, I was ready when the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History needed a curator of mollusks in 1964 (vacancies in such jobs being very few). Thus began the only full-time job I have ever had.

Among the many things that have kept me busy: having grad students interested in mollusks in the marine biology program at the nearby University of Southern California, the publication of a guide book on the marine shells of southern California, and other books; hundreds of new species of marine gastropods (snails) recognized and named, including the new limpet families from the hydrothermal vents that were first discovered in 1977; diving and collecting expeditions around the world, which helped to make the LACM mollusk collection one of the largest research collections in the world; presentations at international meetings; keeping in touch with dozens of colleagues with similar interests around the world. At one point there were four assistants, but that was in better days.

When I retired in 2000 after 36 years, nothing changed except that I was now to be free of museum-related tasks and to have more time to finish a book on which I had worked for years. I was able to keep my old office and am in every day. Still to finish is a revision of the marine gastropods of the northeastern Pacific, which will include the descriptions of about 400 new species that have come my way over the years. There is still much to finish, but it is less daunting now than in the early days before computers and imaging databases. I have had a satisfying career, pursuing my own research directions and being able to do it in a vibrant city with a nearly ideal climate, given my aversion to winter weather.

Neil Springborn (’58)

About a year after graduating I was drafted and sent to Ft Benning, GA. From there I was sent to Ft. Sill, Lawton, OK for artillery training. While there, I decided that life as an officer would be better than as a private so I entered Officer Candidate School (OCS) graduating in Sep 1960. Met a girl and got married about 6 months later. Adopted her son and we had a girl. The marriage lasted 8 years (about 7 too long)! While in the Army, I served tours in Germany as a Pershing Missile Battery Commander (64-67); Viet Nam as an advisor to the RF/PF troops in the Mekong Delta (68-69) -- I had a team of 5 guys and we lived with the Vietnamese 24/7 while we taught them infantry tactics, built wells and improved their medical treatment. It was a wonderful tour as I became thoroughly immersed in their culture and I developed a great fondness and respect for the Vietnamese. One story from that period ... I took 2 years of French at Wes and never imagined it would be of any use. One day a chopper landed with a 105mm howitzer and Vietnamese crew. The Sergeant spoke limited English, my Vietnamese was also limited but in a conversation I learned he fought with the French. From that point on, when an air observer radioed in a fire mission, I took it in English, translated it into French which the Sgt re-translated into Vietnamese.

Came back to Ft Sill and worked on General Staff as a writer until 1971 when I was sent to Korea. In March of '72 was notified the Army had too many Captains and I was "RIF'd" (released from active duty). Got a job on a local FM station as a DJ and eventually became the GM. Got interested in law enforcement at the county level and started working as a reserve deputy sheriff. In 1974, I gave up radio and became a full time deputy. I did that for the next 17 years running for Sheriff twice -- lost both times but was rehired by the guys who beat me. In 1989 was offered the job as Director of Public Safety at Cameron University in Lawton. CU is part of the Univ of OK system and has about 6,000 students. Again, a job I loved. Wound up president of the Oklahoma Campus Law Enforcement Administrators Assoc for 2 years, got interested in political issues relating to campus law enforcement and actually got 2 bills written and passed -- one on trespassing on campuses and the other requiring convicted sex offenders to register with campus police. I also worked a compromise to keep concealed weapons off campuses throughout the state. I also was an adjunct instructor in the Criminal Justice Department and a 15 year guest lecturer on the 4th Amendment in the Political Science Dept. I retired in 2000 and discovered I had a minor heart problem which was fixed with 6 bypasses (I guess you could call it a 6-pack). Four months later I was back at full speed and haven't stopped.

In 1972 I got married to a great woman with 2 children from a previous marriage and we had one of our own. We've been married 33 years and have 5 kids (2 from my marriage, 2 from hers and one between us -- hers, mine and ours. We also have 10 grandchildren.

I am now fully retired and spend my time involved serving the city as a member of the Planning Commission, as past president of the Military Order of the World Wars and currently VP of the State organization. I am also on the board for Teen Court. I play lots of golf (every Wed and Friday with one group and then another group on Sat and Sun. I have also spent some time traveling around the country playing golf and visiting family.

Robert Terkhorn (’58)

Mr. Terkhorn retired from Citibank in 1997 having completed a highly successful career of 32 years. After joining Citibank's international banking group in 1964, he served in various management positions in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. In 1971, he was named Asst. General Manager of the Banque International pour l'Afrique Occidental (a Citibank subsidiary )in Paris France. Between 1974 and 1979, he was Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa Division and directed Citibank's public sector business in New York. In 1979, Mr Terkhorn was named President of Citicorp Homeowners, a nationwide mortgage company headquartered in St Louis and , in 1981, was promoted to Senior Vice President of Citibank, N.A.

In 1986, he was appointed Division Executive for Citicorp Payment Products and two years later appointed a Senior Credit Officer of the bank. In early 1992, he was named Managing Director of Citibank's Global Cash Management Services business, and Chairman/ CEO of Citibank Delaware

While at Citibank, he served on several boards of directors. Since his retirement, he has served on the board of directors of CoBank ACB, headquartered in Denver, where he chairs the audit committee.

Other significant activities include: Member of the New York Clearing House Steering Committee, Member of the NYCH Global Payments Committee, Director of the Electronic Check Clearing House, Chairman Corporate Fund, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chairman, Citicorp United Way Campaign, and Director/Secretary Executives Club of Chicago.

A native of Indiana, Mr. Terkhorn received a B.A. in economics from Wesleyan University, a MA from Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies and a JD from the University of Michigan Law School.

Mr Terkhorn is married with two children and currently resides in Denver, Colorado and Phoenix, Arizona.

Ted Thiesmeyer ('58)

Worked in Montreal for a year after Commencement, waiting for Elaine Anderson, Conn. College '59, to graduate so we could get married and go off to graduate school at Cornell. Some members of EQV '60 may recall setting me up with Elaine on a blind date as a joke. Our marriage has passed its 46th anniversary, so I owe those jokers something.

Finished an MA in English Literature, did the course work for a PhD, and began teaching. Came back to Wesleyan as a member of the English Dept. for five years, a colleague of Alex Cowie, Fred Millett, George Creeger, Bill Coley, and others. Elaine taught at Conn. College. In 1968, we moved to upstate NY, where I became Assistant Dean of Students and Instructor in English at Hobart and William Smith (small, liberal-arts, coordinate) Colleges. Finally finished the PhD, gave up deaning, and joined the English Department full time. Elaine kept teaching, as well.

My graduate training was in British Victorian lit, but in a small-college English department over the years, I developed and taught courses in Chaucer and in Linguistics, in epic poetry and lyric poetry and Plato, among other subjects. It's a long story, but in 1982, Elaine and I became interested in using computers to help teach writing (those were the days of the TRS-80, before the IBM and Mac PCs came out). Elaine took courses in computer science while teaching English at Rochester Institute of Technology, I learned some Basic, she taught me C, and we started to write, and eventually publish, copyediting and proofreading software. Our website, www.serenity-software.com, displays the long-term fruits of that collaboration, which keeps us amused and busy even now in retirement.

I loved teaching but came to hate grading student papers. Retired in 2000 as Professor Emeritus; Elaine retired a year later. We travel a good deal using cheap airfares and discount packages found on the Web. Our children, David (born in Ithaca) and Rachel (born in Middletown), each with three children now of their own, are fountains of love and delight.

Ted Wieseman (’58)

Graduated 1958.

Married two times with five children. (A harrowing experience for an only child). Divorced from first wife, Joan Deuel (a friend at Smith of Gardiner Davis’s first wife). Second wife Mary Folliard Wieseman deceased in 1993. Oldest child Lissa lives in San Francisco, Teddy is an economist with Morgan Stanley. Moira is finishing a radiation oncology residency at Columbia Presbyterian. Joe just took the Maryland bar examination and awaiting the results. Jamie is a freshman at Skidmore.

Spent the year after graduation in Copenhagen. Returned home and entered the graduate school at Princeton studying political science. Was not inspired and left after a year to enter the Columbia Law School, which was even less inspiring, but it was either stay the course or go to work.

In 1963 after graduating from law school, I worked for two years in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice in Washington. In 1965, I became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia. Left in October 1968 to become executive director of a state commission on crime control and prevention the governor’s office in Vermont. (That was somewhat like running a haberdashery inside a nudist colony, but there was ample federal money available). Left after a new governor was inaugurated in January 1969 and informed me that my job was not a protected civil service position.

I returned to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington and remained until 1970 when I left to head a task force in the Justice Department on rewriting the federal criminal code. After being in the U.S. Attorney’s Office with one hectic day after another, working in the Department of Justice was like spending all day watching turtle races. (The last I heard, three years ago, Justice was still working on it). Left there. Spent a year in private practice with Arthur Levine, a classmate at Wesleyan. Returned once again to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Left in 1973 to become Deputy Director of the National Wiretap Commission, but did not last long after I took the position that the Commission was obligated to report on the use of electronics eavesdropping in “national security” as well as in ordinary criminal cases. Found a job with a federally funded white collar crime project run by the National District Attorneys Association. After a year, started a law firm with my wife Mary in Rockville, Maryland. Stayed in private practice until 1982. Became Public Defender for Montgomery County that year. In 1995 went to the State Public Defender’s Office in Baltimore as a full-time bureaucrat. Retired in 2003.