4 4 | L E H I G H B U L L E T I N with the Alumni Ofce tomake this amemorable weekend. Please know that you will have choices. You can attend the entire weekend or just Saturday events, which include breakfast, the historic Parade of Classes, picnic lunch on the lawns, the State of the University fromPresident Helble ’82 and others and our class dinner that evening—or simply come for our class reception and dinner that evening. Choose what is best for you. For the parade Saturday morning, you can choose to walk the short distance alongMemorial Drive or hop in a golf cart. We had a good solid base of support for our 68thmini reunion in September 2021. Nick Gentile reports that he is fne and looking forward to walking and talking our way down Memorial Drive with our class members. He alsomentioned supporting “GO: The Campaign for Lehigh” and designating your gift for the Class of 1953 Scholarship Fund. That fund was started soon after we graduated and now has amarket value of $612,406 (the latest fgure at the time I prepared this in early summer). Ours is one of the largest class-endowed funds and provides fnancial aid to two students every year. Roger Inglese is recovering froma stroke. While he cannot drive, his daughter was kind enough to bring him to a lunch recently with Joe and Tony Latour and their wives. Roger’s wife died several years ago. Joe keeps in touch with Bob Gill, who has returned to his New Jersey home after wintering in Naples, Fla. He expects to be at our 70th. Joe also talked to JimCooke. Jim lost his dear wife, Betsy, a fewmonths ago. Pete Strategos emailed us with good suggestions for our parade performance. He and Jimare both planning to return for our 70th—Jim fromSouth Bend, Ind., and Pete fromThe Villages in Florida. Joe Moyer also plans to attend our 70th “if he is on the right side of the grass.” He tells me he has slowed down a lot since his football days at Lehigh—yes, largely due to football injuries. I also heard from Emmett Clary, who has moved into a senior living facility in Winter Park, Fla. He is active in the Uptown Toastmasters Club. I had a very nice telephone conversation with AnnHull, Charlie Hull’s wife. Charlie suffered a severe stroke and is now bedridden with 24-hour hospice care. It is sad to think of such a peppy and enthusiastic guy in a condition like that. Charlie was always an enthusiastic Lehigh supporter and, of course, a fne football player. We wish Ann the best. That’s all for now. Remember our 70th reunion on June 8-11, 2023. Formal registration will not open until March or April, but Joe and his teamwill keep us posted before that on the latest plans. If any of you head to the PalmBeach, Fla., area, giveme a call at 732-796-3013. And call or sendme what’s going on in your life so I can keep these columns going. My email isherbert roemmele@gmail.com. ’54Editor’s note: To share your news or if you would be interested in becoming your class’s correspondent, reaching out to classmates and writing a column three times a year, please contact the Alumni Ofce at 610-758-3069 or classnotes@ lehigh.edu. ’55Burt Sutker, 55 Lexington Drive, Pennington, NJ 08534. 609-730-0839; BJSutker@aol.com Missed seeing 1955 participants at the Reunion in June as spinal surgery prevented my attendance. I hope that the hero of this issue, Alan Brooks, and his wonderful life story encourages you to write your story. Editor’s note: Alan died on Aug. 3, 2022, after sending Burt this lovely write-up of his life. We wanted to publish it as he wrote it to honor his life and passing. “It was good talking to you after all these years. It is nice that you are our class correspondent. I am sure you will do a good job. Following is a little bit of information on my life after I graduated Lehigh. “Immediately after graduation, I started working at the Eckert Mauchly division of Remington Rand in North Philadelphia in a small software design group. In September, I was drafted into the Army and, after basic training, was sent to Fort Ord, Calif., where—believe it or not—the Army used my mathematics background. I did statistical calculations on a Monroe calculator. “After my two years, I returned to Philadelphia and Remington Rand. I worked there until 1987, mainly doing software design and testing, when I took an early retirement. During that time, the company changed its name—Remington Rand UNIVAC, then UNIVAC and then Sperry. Two weeks after I retired, I started at Burroughs in Great Valley, and after two years, Burroughs and Sperry merged to formUnisys. I was kinda back in my old company. Finally retired in 1992. “Married Ginny Stein in 1956, and we had two children and now have three grandchildren. The oldest is in his second year at the University of Maryland. Early in 1962, I became very involved with duplicate bridge and ran a very successful bridge club in Blue Bell, Pa., for 37 years. Because of my bridge experience, we took a number of cruises, where I was the bridge director. In the mid ’80s, I became a part-time tournament bridge director for the American Contract Bridge League and directed a number of tournaments in the Northeast. “Both of our children left home and found their way to NYC in the early ’90s, so in 1999, we left Philadelphia and moved to Aiken, S.C., to escape the winter weather. We became very involved with a number of organizations in Aiken, and Ginny found her true love: I bought her a pony, then a carriage, then a trailer and pickup truck, and she became practically a full-time member of the Aiken Carriage Driving Club. She took part in competitions and parades, with me along occasionally as her groom. “It was a great life for both of us, until 2017, when Ginny contracted a rare neurological disease and passed away in 2019. Prior to that, she accompanied me to the many bridge tournaments I was directing in the South. “Up until 2020, I played bridge at the Aiken club and directed there but, since COVID-19, spend at least three days aweek playing online bridge. “Have not gotten very involved with Lehigh but did attend a remote TV screening of the 2019 Lehigh-Lafayette game shown here in Aiken. Saw a few Lehigh alums but none in our class. Also attended two receptions here when a member of the Lehigh administration came to tell us about the major happenings on campus.” ’56Bill Burgin, 534 W. Beechtree Lane, Wayne,PA 19087. (610) 688-7374 (H); w.burgin@ att.net “Lehigh will shine ...” and so it did throughout the busy June Reunion weekend on campus as we marked our 65th (actually 66th) reunion. The familiar old (lower) campus was decorated with balloons and posters as cheerful, helpful and informative volunteers welcomed members of 42 classes for the pandemic-postponed milestone reunions, the largest reunion in
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTA0OTQ5OA==