OBITUARIES
Edgar Wachenheim Jr. '28 passed
away on November 25, 2003 at the age of 96. He loved his family,
friends, and community - and he was a constant source of joy
to all whose lives he touched. He devoted a good part of his
life to helping those in need - and, as a result, he left
the world a better place. His unselfish generosity, passion
for life and wise counsel will be greatly missed by all.
Ernest C. Dybdal '32 passed
away this year.
Catherine Senf Manno '33 passed
away.
Robert C. Beach '34 passed away
in 1996. His wife Elizabeth Brown Beach '36 passed away in
1995.
Nick Sabadosh '34 passed away
October 20, 2003 at the age of 95. Sabadosh was a retired
teacher, coach and activist, who was dedicated to helping
those less fortunate and protecting the environment. He was
the head of the physical education department at Lincoln High
School, Cleveland, Ohio and coached football. His humanitarian
efforts included buying clothes for students in need and distributing
60 turkey dinners to those without on Thanksgiving. He was
a supporter of St. Herman's Center for homeless men. He also
worked for the creation of Cyahoga Valley National Park, which
was dedicated in 2000. A pacifist, Sabadosh participated in
anti-war marches.
In the 1920s, Sabadosh was a professional boxer fighting
under the ring name 'Bulldog Drummond.' He dropped out of
Antioch College during the Depression because he could not
afford the tuition. He rode freight trains across the country
for a while but eventually went back to college. He graduated
in 1936 from Ohio State University and earned a MA degree
from Western Reserve University 10 years later.
He was married for 59 years to the former Audrey Koepf,
who died in 1993. Their Brecksville home backed up to what
is now the national park.
Nancy Lawrence Wood '35 passed
away.
Henry R. Senf '36 passed away.
John Brooks Stewart '36 passed
away January 11, 2004, just ten days shy of his 90th birthday.
Brooks Stewart educated himself in architecture, and carpentry
in order to design and build his own house. He enjoyed orchids,
rhododendrons and continually raised young trees in his nursery
for his land and community. His love of the ice flourished
during the 60s and 70s, when he held positions on the United
States Figure Skating Association Executive Board.
Harry W. Yerkes '36 passed away
in June 2003.
Raymond Crossley '37 passed
away in 1993.
Jean Turpisch Vint '37 passed
away.
David N. Rieser '38 passed away.
Eudora Hudson Vandeventer '38
passed away in June 2003.
Betty Owen Wilson '38 passed
away in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on March 27, 2003, at
the age of 89.
James Lee Grahl '39 died on
November 20, 2003, of respiratory disease. He was 87.
Grahl was the first employee and general manager of Basin
Electric, which was formed by 67 rural electric cooperatives
to provide reliable and affordable electricity to rural areas
in the Midwest. When he retired in 1985, Basin had 1,200 employees
and was producing 3,000 megawatts of electricity from five
power plants. After retiring in 1985, he lived in Hollin Hills,
a neighborhood in the Washington, DC, area. He grew up in
St. Joseph, Michigan, and was working for American Public
Power Association before taking the Basin job.
Among his many awards, Grahl received the 1993 Arthur Morgan
Award from Antioch College citing his vision of community
progress and commitment to social responsibility. He also
was inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame in Washington,
DC.
Contributions in Mr. Grahl's memory can be made to the James
and Eleanor Perry Grahl Book Fund at the Antioch College Library,
795 Livermore St., Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387.
John Anthony Hayes '39 passed
away July 6, 2003. Hayes was a retired office manager of Sacks
Electrical Supply in Akron, Ohio. He was an active member
of the Noxapater Baptist Church and headed the tape ministry,
making sure that homebound church members would receive recordings
of the weekly sermons. In 2002, he received the Senior Citizen
of the Year Award in Winston County.
Thomas Ewell Brown '40 passed
away March 4, 2003.
After attending Antioch, Brown joined the Marines, serving
in the Pacific during WWII. He retired as a major in 1946,
then joined Ford Motor Company as a financial analyst. When
Ford started Ford Credit Company, Brown was made the first
controller. He spent the remainder of his career serving Ford
Credit in various capacities. He was considered a gentleman
and a doer by all that knew him.
Adelio J. Montanari '40 passed
away July 11, 2001. He had Parkinson Disease for many years,
yet managed to be active almost to the end of his life.
Gretchen Robertson Weitz '40,
left on an adventure Friday, December 19, 2003, taking her
soul with her. This remarkable 86-year-old woman led a feisty
life. Her rebellious nature was demonstrated clearly as she
left her hometown of Stillwater, Minnesota to attend Antioch
as an economics major in 1935, a highly uncommon path for
a young woman of that era.
Bronson P. Clark '41, a businessman
and an activist, dedicated his life to working for peace and
justice. Born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, he graduated from
Antioch and married Eleanor Meanor '42 in 1941. He was a Conscientious
Objector in WWII and was imprisoned for his beliefs. He then
joined the American Friends Service Committee Ambulance Unit
in China where he worked until the end of the war. He lived
in Oberlin, Ohio, until 1961, when he left to serve with the
AFSC in Morocco and Algeria. Returning from Africa he became
Vice-President of Gilford Instrument Laboratories. During
the Vietnam conflict, he served as Executive Secretary of
AFSC, speaking and traveling extensively against the war.
During that period he was elected to the council on Foreign
Affairs.
Following his love of sailing, he moved to Vinalhaven, Maine.
He was also a founding member of the Mid-Coast Forum on Foreign
Affairs in Rockport, Maine.
Donald "Don" Graef '41
passed away in Montgomery, California on October 14, 2003.
Donald was an officer in the US Navy during World War II.
He then joined the Purchasing Department of Ford Motor Company
in Dearborn, Michigan, later transferred to Ford Aeronautics
in California. Following Jane's death in 1969 he remarried.
Donald spent his retirement in Carmel Valley, California.
He was an avid sailor and master craftsman of model ships.
Harold Wyckoff '41 passed away
at age 76 of cancer. Mr. Wyckoff was born in Niagara Falls,
New York. He obtained his PhD from MIT and was the author
of a number of publications of interest to the medical community
dating back more than 50 years. He was a Professor emeritus
of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University,
a fellow of Berkeley College, and a former president of the
American Crystallographic Association. For a number of years,
he was a member of the board of the Orchestra of New England,
which often performs at Battell Chapel in New Haven.
Donna Drickey Corrington '42
passed away on September 1, 2003.
G. Walter Erickson '42 passed
away August 20, 2003. Erickson graduated from Antioch College
and the Medical College of Virginia, where he received his
MD. He joined the South Bend Clinic in 1950, and conducted
the National Polio Field Trial in St. Joseph County, Indiana
in 1953. In his 50 years of practicing, he treated over half
a million children. In South Bend, Indiana, he was president
of the South Bend Clinic three times, Chief of Staff at St.
Joseph Hospital and Chief of Pediatrics at both St. Joseph
and Memorial Hospital, a director on the Memorial Health Systems
Board and Director of Pediatric Medical Education at Memorial
Hospital. He was the medical consultant for Head Start of
Indiana and Director of the Measles Vaccine Field Trials in
St. Joseph County. He was a director of the former American
National Bank and Trust Company from 1968-1994. In 2000 he
received the first "Life of a Child Award" from
Memorial Health Foundation. In 2003 he authored the book To
Save One Child which outlined his life's practice as a pediatrician.
J. Douglas Knox '42 died on
Friday, October 24, 2003. he returned to Antioch to earn his
MA in professional writing at Antioch University Southern
California. His thesis, Diary of a Madman, was published in
1987.
Roger Seccombe '42 died on January
28, 2004. He was born on May 1, 1919 in Memphis, Missouri.
He met and married, Jean Bennett '46 at Antioch in 1942. After
graduation that same year, he joined the U.S. Coast Guard
(CG) to serve in the WWII Solomon Islands arena.
After the war, he attended Columbia University and then
began his long teaching career, first at Goddard College in
Vermont. During the Korean conflict, he served in the Seattle,
Washington Coast Guard Port Security, and as Captain of the
Port of Astoria, Oregon.
The family moved to Palo Alto, California in 1954. He taught
history at Menlo Atherton High School for four years, then
transferred to Woodside High School to become the Chairman
of the Social Studies Department in 1958.
After "retiring" in 1982, he devoted the rest
of his life to community service in many capacities. He was
extremely active in St. Bede's parish activities and its outreach
program. In January of 2004, Roger began his fourth term as
President of Menlo Park Historical Association; continued
to co-edit Coast Guard Retiree Council newsletter; and collected
food and visited jail inmates for the Service League of San
Mateo County.
He was known for his incisive thinking, skill at forging
compromise amid conflict, concern for others, and an impish
sense of humor. He was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather,
attentive relative, and warm friend to those who knew him.
John H. Chandler '43, a labor
economist who retired in 1979 after 30 years with the Labor
Department, died of a heart ailment at his home in Bethesda,
Maryland.
Part of his career was spent in Puerto Rico and American
Samoa, where he helped enforce the Fair Labor Standards Act.
He later transferred to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, where
he rose to chief of the division of foreign labor statistics.
Before joining the Labor Department, Mr. Chandler worked
as an officer for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation
Administration.
Mr. Chandler was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised
in Glen Rock, New Jersey. He graduated from Antioch College
with a degree in business and economics, and he served in
the Navy aboard a landing craft in the Mediterranean and Pacific
during WW II.
He was a founding member of River Road Unitarian Church
in Bethesda, where he was active as a board member and treasurer.
In 1988, the Greater Washington Area Association Unitarian
Universalist Church, of which he was a board member, honored
his volunteer work by giving him its Unitarian Universalist
of the Year award.
He also belonged to the C&O Canal Association, the Appalachian
Trail Conference and the Wilderness Society.
Richard L. Golladay '44 passed
away quietly on September 26, 2003. He was born in Forest
Hills, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Antioch with a degree
in mechanical engineering. He retired from NASA in 1979 after
35 years as an Aeronautical Engineer. He was an active member
of the YMCA of Greater Cleveland and the United Methodist
Church.
James M. Jagger '44 passed away
June 2002.
Donna June Drickey Corrington '45
died from complications of throat cancer at the age of 82.
She spent her life serving others. At St. Paul United Methodist
Church in Madeira, Ohio, she organized study groups and social
service initiatives, sponsoring the Vietnamese refugee families
and the food co-op program.
She also served on the boards of the Metropolitan Area Religious
Coalition of Churches, the Madeira Home for Developmentally
Disabled and the Advisory Council for the Hamilton County
Juvenile Court.
She was an honorary life member of the PTA, having served
as president of the Deer Park Elementary School PTA and the
Valley Area Council of the PTA; district director for Hamilton,
Clermont and Brown counties; and vice president of the Ohio
State PTA.
Alicia Huston Wiley '46 passed
away in 2000.
Martha Baker Holmes '47 passed
away November 23, 2003 after suffering a cardiac arrest outside
her church in York, Pennsylvania. She was the wife of Russell
J. Holmes '48, whom she met at Antioch in 1942. They were
married 57 years.
She graduated from Antioch with a degree in elementary education
and did substitute teaching in the Spring Grove Area school
district for several years. She was a volunteer in the Reference
Department at Martin Memorial Library, York, for many years
and actively involved in the York Chapter of the American
Association of University Women. She was a long-time den mother
and trainer for the local Boy Scout Council and an early recipient
of the Silver Fawn award.
She was the newsletter editor for many years and an Honorary
Life Member of the Theodore Burr Covered Bridge Society of
Pennsylvania, as well as a member of York Post Card Club.
She was also a founder and member of the Unitarian Universalist
Congregation of York, where she was chair of Religious Education
for several years, newspaper editor for many years and former
Chair of the Board of Directors for two terms.
Emory T. Judy '49 passed away
March 23, 2001.
Warren S. "Buck" Beer '50
passed away May 4, 2003. A retired Lt. Colonel, Buck began
his military career during WWII as a member of the Army Engineering
Units. Later, as a regular Army officer, he commanded amphibious
engineering units during the Korean conflict and, subsequently,
an engineering combat battalion in both the United States
and Germany. His last assignment before retirement was in
family housing for the department of the Army in Washington,
DC. Among his professional accomplishments are his works on
Homer Research buildings, the Fahy Bridge, and the Martin
tower, as well as corporate engineering projects for Bethlehem
Steel, which he served as Construction Projects Supervisor.
He also spent four years as member and/or vice chair of the
Upper Saucon Township Planning Commission. In his retirement,
Buck devoted much time to his church, chairing the Property
Committee and Renewal and Evangelism Committee. He was also
involved in the church's Pastoral Care team and Respite Care
team. In addition to his service and engineering skills, he
touched many people's lives
William James Sande '50 passed
away on September 24, 2003. Sande worked for the Red Cross
from 1951-1986 and retired as vice president for disaster
services and human resources and training.
George William Sorensen '50,
a professor emeritus of sociology and journalism at San Diego
State University (SDSU), died in January 2004 due to complications
following surgery.
He was born in 1924 in Woodhaven, New York. He graduated
from East Hampton High School and, shortly thereafter, joined
the US Navy, achieving the rank of Chief Petty Officer. He
served during WWII in the Atlantic (including D-Day) and the
Pacific where he landed in Japan shortly after V-J Day.
Following his discharge, George attended Antioch on the
GI Bill and received a degree in literature and language.
It was there he met and married Barbara Stinneford '48 to
whom he was married for 55 years. They had a son, Brad, and
a daughter, Laura.
George earned a degree in journalism at Boston University
and a PhD in mass communication at the University of Iowa.
He was associated with the East Hampton (NY) Star. He also
taught and held administrative positions at Monmouth College,
New Jersey; Ripon College, Wisconsin; Hamline University,
Minnesota; and Moorhead State College, Minnesota.
He was given a joint appointment in journalism and sociology
at SDSU in 1967 where he taught and was involved in research
in the areas of mass communication and society, international
journalism and the foreign press and the sociology of mass
communication. He was co-founder and first coordinator of
the SDSU graduate program in Mass Communications. He won a
National Science Foundation award to study political research
as a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan. He was
appointed by the US Navy to teach sailors on the USS Hancock
en route from San Diego to the Philippines in the Program
for Afloat College Education.
After retiring, in 1986, he and his wife traveled extensively
in the US and abroad and attended 35 Elderhostel Programs.
He was an active member of the Laguna Mt. Volunteers, delivered
Meals on Wheels, and took numerous adult education classes
including eight years of Tai Chi.
He will be remembered as a kind and gentle man with a quick
wit, delightful sense of humor, intellectual curiosity and
love of nature. He cared deeply for his family and friends
and found joy in teaching and every day happenings.
Harriett Reinsel Howlett '51,
passed away on October 5 of 2002.
Janet Goldrich Kohn '51, age
75, passed away on January 19, 2004.
From the 1980s until her retirement, she worked for the
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and served on the National
Council for La Raza. Kohn retired in 1995 after a 34-year
legal career that included work in labor law.
A resident of Washington, she was born in Cleveland and
graduated from Antioch. She did graduate study in sociology
at Cornell. She moved to Washington in 1952. She was secretary
to Ernest H. Gruening, a former governor and later senator
from Alaska who lobbied for Alaska's statehood.
She graduated from George Washington University's law school
in 1961. She was a lawyer with the National Labor Relations
Board, assistant executive director and legislative representative
for the US Conference of Mayors and a lawyer in the Washington
office of Zerdling & Maurer, a Detroit-based law firm.
She was associate general counsel of the AFL-CIO. In the 1980s,
she began working for the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights,
where she retired in 1995.
Elanie "Lanie" Van Brink
Melamed '51 passed away August 7, 2003 in Montreal,
Canada. Writing a PhD thesis in her fifties on the importance
of play in adult learning was Lanie's way of passing on the
wisdom and energy of her first half-century. As a child in
the mid-30s, she attended a folk music camp (featuring Pete
Seeger) for several years. Lanie met her husband Andy folk
dancing at a world youth festival in Europe in the late 40s.
While at Antioch College, she interned at the renowned Highlander
Folk School in Tennessee where song, dance, and theatre were
used to promote social justice. In the 50s and 60s, Lanie
worked with Fellowship House and Farm (a human relations agency
in Philadelphia and Pottstown, Pennsylvania); was granted
a MA in folklore and human relations by the University of
Pennsylvania; taught games and folk dance at the Eastern Cooperative
Recreation School for many years; and helped develop the Powelton
Village neighborhood of Philadelphia in to an intentional,
multi-racial community where she and Andy raised their three
children - Kenny, Robby and Cindy.
To protest the Vietnam War, Lanie and Andy (a city planner)
moved their family to Montreal in 1965. Lanie continued to
build community through folk dance and co-founded the Woods
Music and Dance Camp in Ontario, Canada. Wherever she was,
people would be on their feet - moving, laughing, connecting
at many levels.
Lanie's chapter in Women Confronting Retirement: A Non-Traditional
Guide chronicles her last 25 years. Her keen intellectual
gifts and curiosity were infused with her love of play. She
taught folklore and recreational leadership, group behavior
and women's studies at Dawson College, Concordia University
and McGill University, all in Canada and after retirement,
at Goddard College in Vermont. She was a "popular educator"
in social justice movements, advocating for peace, women,
health and the environment.
Around the time that Andy died of Alzheimer's disease in
the early 1990s, Lanie was first diagnosed with breast cancer.
Typically, she transferred this latest challenge into yet
another opportunity to learn, teach and act. Joining Breast
Cancer Action Montreal, she became a trainer for women's awareness
and an advocate for government policy that emphasized prevention
more than cure.
As one of the Ragin' Grannies in Montreal, she joined other
politicized grandmothers who challenge our culture's degrading
stereotypes of older women and call for social justice through
disarming antics, ourtageous granny costumes and biting satirical
songs.
Robert Gregory Blodgett '53
passed away August 19, 2003 at home in Wayzata, Minnesota.
William L. Finefrock '53 died
of injuries sustained in a garage fire. He was at home when
he smelled smoke coming from the garage. Bill opened the garage
to find a fire that engulfed him.
Well-known as an auto journalist in the 60s through the
mid 80s, particularly for his involvement with Competition
Press and AutoWeek, Finefrock devoted most of the past 20
years to his car collector activities, including displays
at the San Francisco Auto Show and as proprietor of the Reno
Swap Meet. An avid historian, he was frequently called upon
by today's auto writers as a prime resource.
Highly respected by many throughout the automotive world,
Bill will be missed for his cheerful, easy-going manner, joie
de vivre, professional productions, and willingness to share
his knowledge and love of the automobile.
Bill was born November 8, 1930 in Alliance, Ohio. In his
early childhood, he moved to Port Angeles, Washington, where
he subsequently graduated from high school. Bill returned
to Ohio to attend Antioch, graduating in English and journalism.
Wendell B. Tasher '54, age 72,
passed away recently.
James F. Zeisler '54, passed
away on April 30, 2003. Ziesler was born August 6, 1930 in
Pontiac, Michigan. He received his degree in architecture
from Antioch. He served in the US Army from 1954-56 and in
the Reserves as a Sergeant first class for several years.
He retired from the University of Michigan in 1989.
Patricia Dorsey '55 died August
2, 2002 at home in Sierre Vista, Arizona. Pat is remembered
at Antioch for her involvement in the Summer Shakespeare Festival.
After graduating she served as a tour guide to the United
Nations and then became Assistant Editor and contributor to
Parents Magazine in New York. After a long marriage to actor
William Basset, she began working again in the academic administration
in the University of California system. She rose from Assistant
to the Chair of the Academic Senate to Assistant to the Chancellor
of the University of California (1988-89), and then Executive
Office Manager (1990-92). She retired to Sierra Vista, Arizona
in 1993.
Her first poem published in Antioch's Promethean, Contrast,
appeared fifty years ago: "I know of a thing that is
red when born - /The rising sun on a misty morn,/The smooth
worried face of a child./I know of a thing that is red as
it dies - /The last glowing coals of a fire where it lies,/The
fluttering light of a star."
Richard V. Frye '55 passed away
on August 5, 2002.
Herb Gardner '58 passed away
September 24, 2003, following a long illness. Gardner received
a Tony Award for his play, I'm Not Rappaport. Two of his other
works, A Thousand Clowns and Conversations with My Father
had long runs on Broadway. Gardner also directed the 1996
film version of I'm Not Rappaport, which starred Walter Matthau
and Ossie Davis. Other actors to perform in his plays include
Judd Hirsh, who won Tony awards for his performances in Rappaport
and Conversations, and Tom Selleck, who starred in a revival
of A Thousand Clowns. Several of Gardner's works appeared
in "Herb Gardner: The Collected Plays," published
in 2000 by Applause Books. "I cannot offer an explanation
for why I wrote these plays because there is none," Gardner
wrote in the volume's introduction, dated January 2000. "Playwriting
is an irrational act. It is the Las Vegas of art forms, and
the odds are terrible … God help me, I love it. Because
it's alive…. For a few hours all of us, the audience,
the actors, the writer, we are all a little more real together
than we ever were apart." Mr. Gardner was born in New
York City and graduated the High School of Performing Arts
in 1952. He attended Carnegie Institute of Technology and
Antioch College.
Lesley Margaret Hiller Menninger '58
finally escaped a long illness on December 27, 2003. Born
in Las Vegas to Robert Exton Hiller '27 and Eleanor Woodruff
Hiller '30 both also deceased. After graduating Antioch College
in 1958 with a BA in biology, she continued her education
at Harvard, receiving an MA in 1959.
Ms. Menninger not only worked in biological research at
Caltech, Harvard and the University of Iowa, she also was
an active participant in local efforts to bring foreign language
education to elementary schools. Due to her passionate support
of the arts at the University and in the community, she received
the Iowa City Chamber of Commerce Star Award in 2001.
Margot Kathryn Palmer Treitel '58,
a published poet from the age of ten, passed on December 20,
2003 at the age of 68. With degrees in journalism and philosophy
from Antioch College, and over 500 published poems, she was
in love with the written word. Her passions were acknowledged
in 1987 when she received the Artscape Literary Arts Award.
Margot Kathryn Palmer Treitel
'58
(select image to view collage)
Peter B. Bright '60
died August 12, 2003 at his home in Palo Alto, California
after a six-year struggle with cancer. Bright was born in
1937 in Ohio and first attended Ohio Wesleyan College before
graduating from Antioch. He went on to complete his PhD in
mathematical biophysics at the University of Chicago. He completed
his MBA at the Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA.
Dr. Bright served at SUNY Buffalo, the University of Texas
Southwestern Medical School, the Southern Methodist University,
UCLA, and USC Medical School. He also worked in the aerospace
industry for over 20 years, working for the Aerospace Corporation,
General Electric, and Lockheed Martin Marietta in Los Angeles,
Washington DC, and Sunnyvale. He had lived in Silicon Valley
since 1995 and had been an active member of the Palo Alto
Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship.
Richard A. Goodman '60, UCLA
Anderson School of Management Professor Richard, died of cancer
Jan. 22, 2004. He was 65. Goodman studied electrical engineering
at the California Institute of Technology and Antioch College.
He obtained a MA at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's
Sloan School of Management and a doctorate from Washington
University. Goodman remained active in his UCLA roles until
his death. He is survived by his wife, Ann Pollack, a daughter,
two sons, two stepsons, and his grandchildren.
Carletta Jones Hartsough '64
passed away in 2000.
Larry Niswander '64 passed away
in January 2004.
Jerry Ainsfield '70 passed away
September 6, 2003 due to complications from a liver transplant.
Ainsfield retired from teaching in 2000 after his first liver
transplant. He worked in Washington, DC area schools from
the late 1960s to the mid-1980s. Prior to his teaching work,
Ainsfield served the Peace Corps in Liberia.
Albert P. Smith '71 passed away
on February 7, 2003.
In 1954, after spending several years in industrial management,
he joined the engineering faculty at the Ogoutz Campus of
Pennsylvania University, now Penn State Abington, where he
taught until his retirement in 1972. During that time, he
also earned a BA degree from Goddard College before enrolling
in Antioch-Putney Graduate School of Education. He also served
as president of the Old York Road Area Industrial Management
Club of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
Claudia Wolz '71 passed away
in June 2003 after having MS for over 20 years.
Edsel Matthews '73, a passionate
jazz and arts producer, died of heart failure on New Year's
Eve at his Oakland home. He was 53.
Mr. Matthews, who was born and raised in the Harlem neighborhood
of New York City, was the founding director of Koncepts Cultural
Gallery, a scrappy nonprofit Oakland organization that showcased
adventurous musicians for two decades.
Started by Mr. Matthews in 1983, Koncepts provided a forum
for avant-garde and international artists of color who were
generally not being heard in mainstream clubs and concert
halls. It presented an impressive range of musicians.
Mr. Matthews, who displayed African American visual art
and booked poets and spoken-word artists with musicians, put
on shows at a variety of venues over the years. In the mid-80s,
Koncepts presented concerts at Oakland's Jenny Lind Hall,
where jazz trombonist and "Saturday Night Live"
band member Steve Turre played his first date as a leader.
In the late 80s, Koncepts remodeled and took up residence
in an abandoned Western Pacific Train depot in Jack London
Square. It served as the group's home, and as a venue for
shows by Oakland's Jazz in Flight, until Koncepts lost its
lease in 1992.
Mr. Matthews and his colleagues went on to produce events
at the Oakland Museum, Laney College Theater, Fort Mason's
Cowell Theater and elsewhere.
Mr. Matthews, who studied politics at Antioch West in San
Francisco, was an outspoken man who often criticized the power
structure and sought to empower local black artists and organizations.
A critic of Oakland, Mayor Jerry Brown's art policies, he
was a leader in the fight to save the multicultural Alice
Arts Center, where Koncepts has its office. Mr. Matthews learned
to navigate the nonprofit arts world, receiving grants for
his grassroots group from the National Endowment for the Arts
and other public and private sources.
"Edsel was a dreamer and a visionary," said Art
Sato, a San Francisco elementary school teacher who did publicity
and bookings at Koncepts for 15 years. "He taught a lot
of people not to set limitations on themselves," Sato
said. "He wanted to involve the marginalized communities,
people of color, to show them that they were fully capable
of accomplishing great things."
San Francisco jazz drummer Eddie Marshall, who played at
Koncepts as a member of Bebop & Beyond and with other
groups, called Mr. Matthews "a very intelligent and sweet
man who developed exciting and innovative programs."
John Enriquez Fermin '74 passed
away.
Howard R. Renfrow '76 passed
away June 16, 2003.
Rosemany Kross Hilberg '78 passed
away on October 5, 2003. Hilberg was formerly the president
of the Montgomery County Board of Education (Washington, DC),
and later became a school system program counselor. After
her retirement, Hilberg contributed to the Washington Post
and self-published her memoirs, "Shifting Gears for Eighty
Years."
Susan S. Dunn '80 passed away
in the summer of 2003.
Charles S. Ingler, Provost of
Antioch College from 1982-1983, died December 13, 2003. Ingler
was an observation pilot for the United States Army during
World War II. He also assisted in the development of Wright
State University later to become secretary of the founding
boards of trustees, for both Wright State University and Sinclair
Community College. Active in politics, Ingler worked in the
Council of State Governments in Chicago, and the Ohio Legislative
Service Commission in Columbus. He also became the public
affairs director for NCR, Vice Chancellor of the State University
of New York, and vice president at Kent State University before
retiring. Charles "Bill" Ingler was hardly affected
by retirement - he served on the governing board of the Carillon
Historical Park and steering committees of the Dayton Public
Education Fund and the Lower Great Miami Basin Council.
Philip Severin Jr. passed away
August 4, 2003 of a form of bone marrow caner. He was 72.
He worked in development at Antioch College from 1967-1977,
before working at Yale University and Washington University.
He began a career in commercial real estate in 1980 with Siteman
Organization, and later worked for Wallace McNeill and Hilliker
Corp. He was a lifelong tennis enthusiast, avid swimmer and
biker. 
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