CLASS NOTES | SUMMER 2026 | 37 Upon continuing our search of Professor Brown, we learned that he had a son Douglas Brown ’41. Helping us immensely, we found two articles about Douglas Brown in the Allentown Morning Call, one by Frank Warner, June 17, 2018, and the other by an unknown reporter, October 4, 2021. We encourage you to read these articles. Douglas Brown was a rugby captain and a member of an honorary classic fraternity. He had a passion for flying and took lessons at the Allentown/ Bethlehem Airport. Shortly after graduation, he and a Moravian College graduate, Gilbert Wright, volunteered for the RAF’s Eagle Squadron made up of foreign nationals. After training for four months in California, the pair went to Canada to be commissioned. Traveling by boat to England, they arrived on Christmas Day 1941. After more training in Spitfire fighters, they were assigned to different RAF squadrons. Douglas was sent to Wales for further training. In early April 1942 Douglas was practicing formation flying when his Spitfire malfunctioned and he crashed and was killed in the Wales mountains. Douglas was 21 years old and was buried in a graveyard at St. Lawrence Church in Tubney, England, where his grave has been carefully tended by members of the community. While Douglas never saw combat, he is a hero in the eyes of the Lehigh family. He was one of the numerous Lehigh graduates who volunteered to fight in World War II and never came back alive. Thank you, Douglas, for your service and courage. ’52 Bill Erdman, (407) 644-0391; 1171 Willa Vista Trail, Maitland, Fla., 32751 wce96@ seeoursite.org; seeoursite.org/ lehigh Did you ever have one of those six-month periods when nothing seemed to go right? I just emerged from one of those nightmares! Our four kids wanted to help me update my old computer software, dating back to Windows 7. Our computer-wise kids (retirement age now) decided to update me to Windows 10 where updated software is supported by Microsoft. Big mistake! Unbeknown to them, I was already struggling with a Windows 11 laptop Kay and I use to Zoom with them weekly. You are ahead of me—you already know disaster loomed just around the corner! You visualized a semi-computer- literate 95-year-old grappling with Windows 7, 10 and 11 software. (I think Microsoft deliberately makes them all incompatible and insists that they know best where to put your files so you can’t find them.) Add to these woes a change from good-old sluggish, intermittent landline access to instant Internet fiber-optics access both separated by a week without email. Then I had a printer failure and another birthday! Did I mention that these problems peaked just when the Spring Class of ’52 correspondence was due? Also, did I mention that seven kids and grandchildren tried to help by making visits, making changes and leaving without showing me what they changed or how to use the changes? Did anything else go wrong? Yes. I haven’t heard any news from you guys. Please write to me, it is lonesome here. I sometimes wonder if it might help if I pay my electric bill or learn how to turn on my computers. Stay safe and write me a note—I can still read cursive. ’53 Herb Roemmele, 622 North Flagler Drive, Apartment 801, West Palm Beach, FL 33401; (732) 796-3013; herbertroemmele@gmail.com Lehigh and our class lost a great friend and supporter with the death of Art Tauck. He was truly one of the greats in the travel industry—taking a small company to one of the world’s premier travel organizations, Tauck Tours. The company offers over 150 guided tours to over 70 countries. Art was very generous to Lehigh with scholarship money and building financial support. Just go to the business school and you’ll see what I mean. To me, Art was a close friend from our high school days. He often drove me back and forth to Bethlehem from our hometown of Maplewood, N.J. We had dinner together nearly every night of freshman year with Nick Gentile and Jim Lebo. His wife, Ronni, and former wife, Lee, were good friends, and my wife, Joann, and I saw Art in Vero Beach about four months before his death. Our thoughts go to Ronni, Lee and Art’s five children. Nick Gentile reports that he and Bob Guilda talked during the basketball games of both Lehigh’s men’s and women’s teams. What a great year for Lehigh athletics! Nick still makes yearly contributions to the 1953 Class Scholarship Fund. Received a nice note from Nancy and David Conrad. They live in Springfield, Pa. I remember Dave from our days in the Richards dorm. Had a long chat with the widow of William Horn. He died several years ago and was married for nearly 70 years. His newspaper career took him to Detroit, Indianapolis, Virginia and Texas. His wife still lives in Texas but comes to Bethlehem regularly to visit relatives. Jack Platt says he is doing fine and his wife Dr. Julie is providing the leadership for changing the medical world in Central Pennsylvania. All fields of the business world are changing, and it provides a challenge for higher education. Jack reports that Lehigh’s wrestling team did very well. Like many of us, he does not like this modern “pay the athlete” system. No sense of college loyalty. Warren Stevens reports that he is still active in South Jersey real estate. He saw Roger Penske ’59 talking on TV about creating an IndyCar street circuit around the Dallas Cowboys stadium. He keeps busy with real estate and seeing his longtime lady friend. I read a super book recently that I suggest you get. The title is “Making the Best of What’s Left” by Judy Viorst. Judy was my neighbor in Maplewood, N.J. The book is funny and tells the story of those of us in our “final fifth” of life (80-100 years old). Read recently that at 95 only 2% of males are alive. Fellow ’53ers—write or call or this column disappears. ’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 Office at 610-758-3686 or alumni@lehigh.edu. ’55 Burt Sutker, (732) 718-0617; 21204 Shannondell Drive, Audubon, PA 19403 It had to happen. It is seven years since I took over column responsibilities, and since then you, my classmates, have always sent me information to put into the column. So, this column will be about me, Burt Sutker, except for a brief snippet at the end about Ed Hatfield and a change of contact information. I just returned from a trip to Israel and the West Bank, where a foundation I support plants olive trees to support Palestinian farmers. I also went on an archeological dig in a 300 BCE abandoned Hellenistic olive oil processing plant, as well as saying Kaddish at the site where my wife of nearly 70 years’ ashes were distributed. This trip followed closely after a trip to Egypt to see the new Grand Egyptian Museum and all the former grandeur of Egypt. It was hard to feel anything but small and insignificant standing next to and inside Pyramids and burial sites from 4,000 years ago. Roberta and I moved from Pennington, N.J., (near Princeton) in September 2022 to a senior residence in Valley Forge, Pa. She died in March 2024, and I became a poet to help deal with the grief of loss. Son, Stuart, a Lehigh graduate in metallurgical engineering in 1978, lives locally and has just retired. Son, Brad, a meteorologist, has a few more years to go as senior scientist with a weather forecasting service and
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