Summer Bulletin 26

CLASS NOTES | SUMMER 2026 | 39 of oldies. Can’t believe how many of us have beat the odds. “Took a cruise last August through Canada, but Margaret came down with COVID, so our traveling days are probably over. We are in touch with Dina and Brent Pendleton. Brent still does some real estate consulting, and we are hoping to get together soon.” Seems the snow in New England made John Ford happy. “Here in N.H. it was a great winter for alpine skiing at Gunstock, our local ski resort. Also, we are fortunate to have some trails in the wooded area of our CCRC, so with over a foot of snow on the ground most of the winter, the cross-country skiing and snowshoeing has been the best since we moved here about 10 years ago. “My volunteer activities include taking care of a nearby conservation area for the Society for the Preservation of New Hampshire Forests as well as the trails here at our CCRC. I have been able to continue singing in choral groups, including at our church, CCRC and the Concord Chorale. Overall, we are so grateful for being relatively healthy for our age, living in a wonderful CCRC and state, and being able to enjoy our retirement to the fullest.” John was a brother in Alpha Sigma Phi. I got an update from another Alpha Sig, Norm Rumpf: “I’m in good health, widowed and primarily focused on local activities and volunteering. I’ve stayed casually active with Lehigh, getting involved in their entrepreneurship and Mountaintop projects. That has gotten me back to campus, on and off, primarily to help support student summertime projects. “Locally, my engineering numbers background has kept me on a few boards, focused on maintaining financial viability. Both our church school (K-8) and the community chorale I sing with, after retirement, survived the pandemic without needing to borrow money to continue functioning normally.” And, finally, in the words of George Burns: “Nice to be here? At my age it’s nice to be anywhere.” ’60 Williams E. Millsom, 67 Mystic Road, North Stonington, CT 06359, (860) 235-3618 (C); bill.millsom@gmail.com Hello classmates, I am writing this column in the spring, having just survived the trek from Jupiter, Fla., to Connecticut. Luckily for me, my wife, Gill, is a good long-distance driver. While in Florida we had dinner with John Cunningham and his wife, Karen. They were spending their usual February and March in Palm Beach. They get together there with Nat Day ’62 on a regular basis. After the spring in their home in Villanova, they headed to the Jersey Shore for the summer. John mentioned that Wighty Martindale’s daughter went to London for the fall semester and Wighty joined her there. Peter Bayer’s widow, Sally, sent me his obit. Peter died in December after a courageous battle with Parkinson’s disease. After graduation Peter worked for several Fortune 500 companies before becoming president of Berwick Forge and Fabrication. He took up racewalking at age 60 and won many races in Florida. He lived in Jupiter, Fla., before he married Sally and moved to the west coast of Florida. Peter was a great supporter of Lehigh with football season tickets. George Theiss’ widow, Barbara, wrote a nice note informing me that George passed away on October 21, their 64th wedding anniversary. George was quarterback for Lehigh during our years there and was a member of Chi Psi. After graduation he served in the Naval Air Force with his friend, Al Kovac. He then worked for Merck, Sharp and Dohme for 30 years. He enjoyed playing many sports and coaching his grandchildren. After he retired, he and Barbara traveled extensively and enjoyed life at their summer home in Cape May, N.J., while living in Doylestown, Pa. ’61 Ken Weaver, 13 Coachman Drive, Egg Harbor Township, N.J. 08234, kenweaver78@ gmail.com, (609) 788-4897 (H) Harvey Skolnick thanked me for taking over the column from Bob Paternoster, and remembered watching me play basketball in 1957 for Tony Packer, when he wrote for The Brown and White. I replied that he was no doubt more successful writing than we were playing! He celebrated his 85th birthday in their home in Palm Beach County, Fla., joined by his two children, Amy and Andrew, and grandchildren Alli, Gavin, Avery and Gillian. He gave up tennis because of a hip replacement and his glaucoma condition but still plays “at golf” three or four times a week. Harvey also walks in their community's three golf courses and frequently plays sanctioned duplicate bridge. He and his “better half,” Enith Berg, travel frequently, having recently visited Japan, Korea and Vietnam. He worked at KPMG for 46 years, starting as a junior accountant and holding many positions over the years including treasurer and managing partner. He is now fully retired. Don Ritter wrote that he hopes we are doing well in these fascinating and challenging times. He said it was back in the “Age of Paternoster” when he last communicated with the Bulletin. He recalled that we were classmates in a freshman history class almost 70 years ago, with a young Catholic priest/teacher, whose visage but not name he remembers. He thought it could be Mr. Clay …. That instructor was also a gym rat who taught Don how to hit a punching bag! Don wanted to share with classmates his endeavors over the last several years. Based on life experience as a post doc in the USSR, his years in Congress (Don represented the Lehigh Valley in Congress for seven consecutive terms) and his work ever since, he serves as founding chairman of The Remembrance Society, which presents history to inform present and future generations’ understanding, so as to not relive the mistakes of the past (Santayana paraphrased). They have focused their curriculum thus far on the history of communism, its terrible legacy and its continued impact. They have held events in Europe and Washington, D.C., pertaining to current challenges facing Western civilization, focusing on Russia’s war on Ukraine and Putin’s criminality and his regime’s KGB Communist legacy. More recently, they held an event on “Venezuela Below the Surface: The Role of Russia, Iran, China and Cuba.” You can review it all on Remembrance Society.org. After years split between Ohio and Key Largo, Rich Miller and wife Margo are living in a senior community in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. They are adjacent to the famous golf course, The Players’ Club Sawgrass. They enjoy the community and are both quite active. They have 10 great-grandchildren! Rich and Margo visited Pebble Beach in June and will take a September cruise to Portugal, Morocco and Spain (reversing the trip Jessica and I took last November). Their daughters and spouses will join them on the cruise. Paul Smith, Ed Watters and Bob Colonna went to Lehigh for the 2026 Hagerman lecture featuring investigative journalist Carl Bernstein and historian Robert Kagan in a discussion called, “Freedom of Expression in Polarized Times.” The Peter S. Hagerman ’61 Lecture in Ethics is an annual event hosted by the Center for Ethics to explore timely ethical issues across various disciplines. The lecture was established by our classmate Pete Hagerman, to promote ethical inquiry and global engagement. Please write an email and let us know what’s going on with you! ’62 Philip J. Kinzel, 808 South Drive, Brick, NJ 08724. (732) 295-2106 (H); (973) 2261430 (W); (973) 464-8282 (cell); pkinzel@kinzelco.com ’63 Dr. Robert C. Elser, navman9@ comcast.net Thanks to all our classmates who responded to my plea for information. Eric Levenson writes, “After Lehigh graduation, I went into the U.S. Air Force for six years

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