Class of 1937
From the January/February 2016 Issue
Jim Beale celebrated his 100th birthday on Aug. 31 with 43 of his family members. In his assisted living facility, he goes by the name “Red Sox” because, with the exception of green for St. Patrick’s Day, he wears only red socks. He and Mona, his wife of 72 years who passed away in 2013, were great Red Sox fans and passed this on to many of their children and grandchildren.
From the July/August 2014 Issue
S. James Beale writes: “I have kept in touch with my roommate and fraternity brother Thurlow B. Bearse of Centerville, Mass., over all the years since 1937. He turned 100 on April 19, and I will be 99 on August 31. Still walking and feel good. My father, Samuel M. Beale, was a member of the class of 1899.”
From the May/June 2014 Issue
S. James Beale writes: “Classmate and fraternity brother Thurlow Bearse, of Cape Cod, and I have remained close all these years. Thurlow turned 99 and I turned 98 in 2013. Good memories, pretty good battery, but in a badly rusted chassis!”
From the September/October 2012 Issue
Wally Lineburgh is living in Delray Beach, Fla. Over the years he has enjoyed tennis, fishing, playing his keyboard for parties, and volunteering at Bethesda Memorial Hospital.
From the January/February 2010 Issue
S. James Beale still maintains letter contact with Alpha Tau Omega (ATO) fraternity brother Thurlow B. Bearse. James, who has a grandson who is in ATO, writes that Thurlow is thriving at 95 in his Cape Cod home.
From the January/February 2009 Issue
F. Hartwell Swaffield writes that he is sorry to learn of the recent deaths of his classmates Hugh Conklin, Richard Scott, and longtime class president Jack Skillings.
From the September/October 2008 Issue
Marty Margeson writes in for William Margeson: "Last year, my five-year-old and I spent a lot of time with Grandpa Bill in intensive care as he fought to live and recover from hospital error, and she decided she wanted to go to Brown. We told her that she would have to earn lots of A's. Both of my girls are very proud of Grandpa's soccer accomplishments and like to tell their teams that Grandpa Bill is in the Brown Athletic Hall of Fame for soccer."
From the July / August 2007 Issue
S. James Beale writes: “The class of ’37 will sadly miss Marty Tarpy. At our reunions he used to hire a bus to bring us to his home for drinks and a buffet, to swap lies, and send us back, sober or not!”
Emma Warner Kershaw (see David B. Casey ’62).
From the March / April 2007 Issue
Jim Beale writes: “Now we are all 90-something, keep walking. Don’t take more than two pills if you can help it. Don’t get on a plane!”
Hartwell Swaffield had great telephone chats in November with Dick Scott and Hugh Conklin. Hartwell writes: “Both are ‘hanging in,’ like the rest of the ’37 classmates.”
From the January / February 2007 Issue
Class secretary Eleanor McElroy reports: “Looking at the last class list, fifty or more of our class were still with us. All of us must be 89 or 90 or a bit higher. Please send in your class news to the BAM so we can keep in touch.”
From the July / August 2004 Issue
Hart Swaffield has been appointed to the new Brown Advisory Council on Admission.
From the January / February 2004 Issue
Jim Beale writes: “I’m happily living in a retirement community. I’ve had the same wife for sixty-four years. We have five children, ten grandchildren, twelve great-grandchildren, and another due soon. This whole gang got together in July for a week with plenty of spirits, and nobody got drunk or had an argument.”
From the September / October 2002 Issue
Class secretary Martin Tarpy reports that John Fenton and Charles White were inadvertently omitted from the list of attendees at the 65th-reunion luncheon over Commencement weekend.
Francis Eddy (see Hank Vandersip '56).
From the July / August 2002 Issue
William Ryan, of Los Altos, Calif., wrote in February: "I'm looking forward to our 65th reunion. It feels like the 25th."
From the May / June 2002 Issue
Report from reunion headquarters: "Reunion plans are complete. We hope to see you at Brown for a great weekend, May 24-27. Join us at your class events, Campus Dance, the Pops Concert, and the Commencement March. Register online at alumni.brown. edu. If you haven't received your reunion mailing, please contact (401) 863-1947; reunions@brown.edu."
From the March / April 1998 Issue
S. James Beale, Jacksonville, Fla., writes: "I had a fabulous time at the 60th reunion last May. Two coeds gyrated with me at the Campus Dance. One morning I skipped out of the shower and there was a gal brushing her teeth! We said, `Good morning,' and went on with the rest of the day. Wonderful time!"
Mary Louise Hinckley Record received the John S. Hope Award from the Brown Alumni Association at the annual alumni recog-nition ceremony in October. A lifelong volunteer, for the past decade Mary Louise has been active at the Maine Medical Center in Portland, as well as in church and community activities. Marian Martin McGowan, Eleanor Tarpy, Betty Rice Smart, and Eleanor McElory attended the ceremony.
Obituaries
Helen Williams Hill ’37 AM, of San Diego, formerly of Ann Arbor, Mich.; Mar. 28, at 106 years of age. Her mother died three years after her birth during the 1918 flu epidemic and at the age of 103 Helen published Searching for Sophie, a memoir about the loss of her mother. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College in 1936, her master’s from Brown, and was enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana when she fell in love with fellow student Donald L. Hill. They married, had a family, and moved to Ann Arbor, where they both became part of the community of young writers and teachers at the University of Michigan. In 1963, she joined the faculty of Eastern Michigan University and for many years was a professor of writing and children’s literature, serving as lead editor on three anthologies of poetry for children. In the 1980s and 1990s she transcribed and edited the diaries of her seafaring grandfather Capt. Edward Baker and the book was published by Duxbury Rural & Historical Society. As an advocate for people with mental illness, she and her husband founded Trailblazers, a rehabilitation center in Ann Arbor, for which she received numerous awards and accolades. After her husband’s death in 1998, she continued to write essays and memoirs and to lead a memoir writing group sponsored by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Michigan. In 2014, at 99, she moved to San Diego to live with her daughter. She is survived by four children, five grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews.
Mary Stanton Palmer ’37, of Saint Augustine, Fla., formerly of Storrs, Conn.; Jan. 2. She was a retired Tolland (Conn.) librarian. She was a member of the League of Women Voters and the Connecticut Library Assoc. She enjoyed traveling the world, cooking, knitting, and playing bridge. She is survived by a daughter, a son, two grandsons, a brother, and several cousins, nieces and nephews.
Thurlow B. Bearse ’37, of Centerville, Mass.; Mar. 5. After serving in the U.S. Navy, he began working at the family business, Bradford’s Hardware of Hyannis, and retired as president. He was past president of Cummaquid Golf Club, served six years on the Town of Barnstable Finance Committee, and was a board member of Bass River Savings Bank. He enjoyed gardening, hunting, fishing, and playing golf into his 90s. He is survived by two daughters, five grandchildren, six great-grandchildren, and a niece.
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