50 | LEHIGH ALUMNI BULLETIN | CLASS NOTES of its kind at Lehigh, reflects Lisa’s lifelong interest in medical services. In her college years, Lisa drove ambulances in Bethlehem and bustling Harlem, N.Y. The fund provides resources for EMS training and equipment at Lehigh. To keep this ’56 column coming, I need news. Please send your information to one of the addresses above. Thanks! ’57 James Watson, 774 Highview Drive, Wyckoff, NJ 07481. (C) 201 803-1307; (H) 201 891-1246; Jwatson@execsearchinc.net Having struggled for news, I sent out an email request to all ’57 classmates that we had on email (84 people). I received about 20 notes back; that’s enough for two columns. We have about 340 of us still reported living out of 750 who graduated in 1957. The average age of our class is 88, unless you worked a year like me, or graduated high school at 18. Walt Mannherz, our man from Bethlehem, reports that of his original pledge class at Chi Psi (11 people), only three are still around. Walt, who lives in town, has kept busy volunteering at the Mulvihill Golf Learning Center since its inception 15 years ago. He enjoys all the wrestling and football events on campus after returning from a career at Philadelphia Gear, SKF and Powerline Inc. He lost his wife of almost 60 years in 2017 and has now been living with his partner, Louise, for five years. “Been blessed with two wonderful women in my life. Great ride so far.” Walt’s other two fraternity brothers still active are Dave Walker, who retired last year from a lifelong golfing career that included a hole in one and breaking par for a round in shooting his age. His sideline was running his large insurance business. He and his wife, Sue, will celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary this year. Dave spends six months in Jupiter, Fla., and six months in his hometown of Plainfield, N.J. Dave has two daughters, Leigh ’82, and Jayne ’87, plus three grandchildren, Erick ’13, Corinne ’13 and Doug ’21. Walt’s other fraternity brother, Ike Templeton, has lived in Scottsdale, Ariz., for 45 years and spends his summers in Maine. He retired as director of engineering in Phoenix after a long career with Honeywell. Dan Mowday and wife Ceil live close by, in Churchville, Pa., and recently attended a major wrestling victory over Cornell in January. They love home wrestling matches and are hoping to march again at our 70th reunion parade in 2027. Doug Maxwell is down in Frisco, Texas, and is still active in metallurgical consulting (high-temp turbine stuff) and down to two clients (Sao Paulo and Kenai, Alaska). He hopes to stay in the Dallas area to play golf and sip Casamigos tequila. Why? Because his golf sucks, according to Doug. Rob Maida is retired after practicing law for 63 years. He and his wife, Elaine, spend nine months in Hobe Sound, Fla., playing golf and bocce, and enjoying all the great area restaurants, before returning to Lavallette, N.J., for the summer months. Charlie Strauch is enjoying his family and businesses, while living mostly in Hilton Head but traveling every month or so to his home in Manhattan. His son runs an IT services business in Orange County, Calif., that they founded back in 2002. Chuck is still active in commercial real estate construction and is still investing in early-stage tech companies. Sadly, he lost his wife of 61 years back in 2018. They met when he was at Lehigh and raised a family of four daughters and one son, plus 16 grandkids, all living in several different cities spread from East to West. Thanks to returns from Martin Lang, George Ritzinger, Don Burgess, Rick Heath, Allen Allweiss, Jim Waples and Leo Kwiatkowski. I look forward to including you in my next column in the fall. Regards, and thanks for the response to my desperate email. Sincerely, JW ’58 Bill Helfrich, 80 Southwick Drive, Orchard Park, NY 14127. (716) 662-7927 (H); bh7831@aol.com Eighty-eight is great! This is our year. On April 8, we went to the once-in-a-lifetime total solar eclipse right here in Orchard Park! Was it cloudy? It’s Buffalo! Guess what? Coach Pete Lembo is returning to the University of Buffalo as head football coach. He was Lehigh’s head coach from 2001 to 2005 and came to UB to beat them, 37-26, on Aug. 29, 2002. We remember it well. We attended the Lehigh tailgate with Sharon and Fred Smith and had a ball. Guess who UB opens the season against? Lafayette! On Aug. 29—coincidence? Did anyone see Rich Bradley ’61 on his bike sneaking into the Tour de France last year? Wow! Dave Hecht ’60 has Parkinsons and is not getting better. He was moved to a more critical-care nursing home around the corner. But the good news is he became great-grandfather to Joseph Crowley in February! Jean-Claude Rousseaux and Lukie filled us in on their monthlong cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Rotterdam, Great Britain, Ireland and Scotland. They kissed the Blarney Stone and missed our 65th reunion. Then, on Sept. 8, they greeted their first great-grandchild, Collier. There are now 13 at Thanksgiving dinner. Alice and Don Kohler really got busy after the reunion by downsizing into a patio home at 426 Homewood Circle, Frederick, MD 21702. Fortunately, they spent the winter in St. Petersburg, Fla., and have children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren visiting them. They were honored with the mother and father of the year awards at the club where they volunteer. Dave Setzer still has his season tickets to Lehigh football and wrestling, not missing an event. He is looking forward to a great Ryan Crookham ’26 career. I saw him wrestle on ESPN at nationals. Dave is also helping a young musician and songwriter from California. She is AJ Lee, and her band is Blue Summit. Dave has been writing her newsletter for 10 years. Her cousin is Hannah Dailey, an MEM professor at Lehigh. Now some sad news: Fred Townsend’s tribute to his wife, Corinne Pierpoint Townsend, was very moving. She grew up in Wolcott, Conn., was the founder, owner and principal of the Wolcott Dance Academy, paid attention to details and was the fiercest advocate for Wolcott business. Always well dressed! People remembered her everywhere, asking, “Are you Mrs. Pierpoint?” Not an easy life. She lost half her husbands, siblings, children, grandchildren in tragic car and plane accidents. She truly was first Lady of Walcott! I wish I had gotten to know her! Bob Libutti died Feb. 17, leaving Mary, three children, five grandchildren and all of his classmates who followed his successes. He spent 32 years with IBM, working with Mercury Space Program, introducing personal computers to the Japanese market and authoring the famous book “IBM’s Systems Application Architecture.” He later became CEO of Sapiens International and was co-founder of Hyperion Power Generation. Not to mention his amazing artwork. Our lives crossed
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