In Memoriam

Alumni
Faculty & Staff

Alumni

Hortenze Kopple Heisel ’28 of New York, NY, died April 4, 2002. An interior decorator and oil painter, she was also a published poet. She is survived by two sons—including John Settel, the Harder Professor of Business at Skidmore in the early ’90s—six grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

Mae Finch ’29 of Whitehall, NY, died October 2. A history and music major, she pursued graduate work in education at State Teachers College (now SUNY Albany). She began her 42-year career as a classroom teacher, became head of the history department at Ft. Edward High School, and then was principal at Stratford Central School. She later returned to teaching first grade, which she found especially rewarding. A past elder, trustee, choir director, and superintendent of Sunday school for her church, Mae was a member of Eastern Star, Rural Charity Club, and Whitehall Historical Society. She is survived by two nieces, two nephews, and their children.

Katherine Wilmarth Holding ’34 of Queensbury, NY, died November 17, 2000. She is survived by husband William, two daughters, and niece Hope Hallenbeck Hall ’67.

Mary Hurley O’Connor ’35 of Amityville, NY, died August 6. A physical education major, she became a certified physical therapist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in NYC and worked in that field for a decade. She is survived by a daughter and two sons; husband Thomas predeceased her.

Janet Roukes Seaver ’35 of Sun Lakes, AZ, died September 9 following a stroke. A business major who graduated with honors, she was a staff member of Eromdiks and the Skidmore News. She was assistant to the director of admissions at Dartmouth College and a school department secretary. An active community volunteer who served Skidmore as a class agent, she enjoyed reading and playing bridge. She is survived by husband Edward, daughter Joan Seaver King ’69, a son, and a granddaughter; a grandson predeceased her.

Jean MacTaggart Morrison ’39 of Virginia Beach, VA, died July 10. She is survived by a daughter, a son, and four grandchildren. Husband Dick and son John predeceased her.

Marian Hoffecker Conybeare ’40 of Litiz, PA, died August 11. A business major, she was an administrative secretary at UGI Lancaster, a natural gas and energy utility, for more than 20 years. She was active in the American Red Cross, American Business Women’s Association, Heritage Center, and Meals on Wheels. A volunteer for her class’s 50th reunion, she enjoyed travel, music, and collecting seashells. She is survived by a son and a daughter.

Kathleen Smith ’42 of Leominster, MA, died September 28. A business major, she earned a master’s and a Ph.D. in business education from Boston University. A professor of business at the University of Rhode Island, she was also an avid international traveler and accomplished artist. She is survived by sister Margaret Smith Harrington ’51, a brother, and five nieces and nephews.

Mary Wiswall Cooke ’43 of Hockessin, DE, died September 16. A phys-ed major, she pursued graduate certification in elementary education at the University of Delaware. She taught third grade for the Alfred I. Dupont School District for 22 years, retiring in 1987. Volunteer activities included work for the Arthritic Foundation of Delaware, the Junior League, and various church committees. She is survived by two sons and a daughter.

Gladys Bradshaw Dainko ’45 of Riverside, IL, died May 26. A dietetics major, she and 15 other Skidmore students spent a summer picking green beans on a farm outside Saratoga Springs for shipment to U.S. military personnel stationed overseas. She enjoyed a lengthy career as chief dietician at the Metropolitan Life Company and was a longtime member of the American Dietetic Association, attending the Association’s Fourth International Congress in Stockholm in 1965. Gladys was active with the AAUW chapter in Jersey City, NJ, which established a scholarship named in her honor in 1997, and with the Brookfield Zoo in Illinois. She enjoyed international rail travel and was a frequent participant in Skidmore’s Summer Exploration and Judaic studies programs, regional alumni club events, and the annual polo luncheon. She was predeceased by her husband, Frederick, and leaves no known survivors.

Elaine McManus Lawless ’45 of Manassas, VA, died August 4. She majored in home economics. She is survived by husband Eugene, sister Rosalie McManus Dunham ’47, and several nieces and nephews.

Jane Barnard Chambers ’45 of Lewes, DE, died June 11 after a long illness. She majored in dietetics. Active in her church, she volunteered for her 50th and 55th Skidmore reunions and was fond of taking international cruises with her friends. She is survived by husband George, a daughter, and three sons.

Shirley Williamson Tower ’46 died January 3, 2002, after many years of suffering from emphysema. She majored in art. She had moved from Massachusetts to Florida to be near one of her daughters shortly before she passed away. She is survived by four daughters and a son.

Sandra Vinick Shapiro ’48 of Needham, MA, died suddenly on July 28. A sociology major, she was employed at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, NY, prior to moving to Pittsfield, MA, were she served on the boards of Recording for the Blind, Historical Society, Temple, and Berkshire Medical Auxiliary while raising her family. She was also a volunteer at the Cancer Institute, Norman Rockwell Museum, and Tanglewood. She is survived by a daughter, 2 sons, cousin Miriam Shapiro Weiner ’61, and niece Linda Maislen Frieze ’63. Husband Sheldon predeceased her.

Lois Baker ’48 of Syosset, NY, died August 15, 2001. A music major, she was awarded a Trustee Scholarship and graduated with honors. She earned a master’s in music education at New York University in 1964. A distinguished music educator for the Northport-East Northport Union Free School District for over 40 years, she served as president of the Long Island String Festival, VP of the Suffolk County Music Education Association, and member of the National Music Education Conference. She is survived by two daughters, two sons, and seven grandchildren.

Anne Tonole Ravage ’50 of Cloverdale, CA, died August 5 after a 30-year battle with cancer. She worked in television and as an antique importer and corporate headhunter prior to the birth of her children. She founded a chapter of the League of Women Voters in Greenfield, MA, served on the organization’s state board, and was appointed lobbyist for the Massachusetts Hospital Association to the state legislature. In later years, Anne rejoined the work force as a minimum-wage worker for a chemical company in Allentown, PA, retiring as an executive 10 years later. She is survived by husband John, a son, and a daughter.

Sallie Reimann Kimball ’53 of Doylestown, PA, died September 12 of cancer. A physical education major, she was a leader in the Women’s Auxiliary of Huntington (NY) Hospital for over 20 years. For Skidmore, she was an active class volunteer. She is survived by three sons and five grandchildren. Her husband, Frank, predeceased her.

Joan Toomasian Coen ’55 of Belmont, MA, died October 5. A psychology major, she taught second grade in the Watertown, MA, school district for more than 30 years. She is survived by husband Robert, two daughters, and a son.

Barbara Clark Hudson ’55 died December 3, 2001. She leaves a daughter, two stepsons, and a stepdaughter.

Karen Thorsell Sausee ’57 of Wilmington, NC, died September 10 after a long illness. A drama/music major, the former Miss Maine was crowned Carnival Queen at Skidmore, Dartmouth, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Following graduation, she moved to New York City, where she performed on Broadway and TV for 14 years, including appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show and a regular role on the daytime drama The Guiding Light. She subsequently moved to Cohasset, MA, where she was a church soloist, avid tennis player and sailor, and member of the League of Women Voters and Cohasset Yacht Club. In 1979, she moved to Wilmington, NC, with her family, where she served on the board of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce and the Cape Fear Garden Club. In 1982 she founded VR Business Brokers, which she ran for over 10 years. She especially enjoyed opera, musicals, and cooking. For Skidmore, she was a class agent, fund chair, and reunion volunteer. She is survived by two sons; husband George predeceased her.

Debra Lapeces Schwartz ’58 of Cincinnati, OH, died May 18. She majored in English. She is survived by husband Ted, two sons, and two grandchildren.

Marjorie Stegeman Tyler ’62 of Niles, MI, died October 11 after a brief illness. A former member of the Pawating Hospital board of directors, she also served as president of the hospital auxiliary. She was a member of the Niles Service League, the Niles Historical Society, and the Captiva Yacht Club in Florida. She is survived by husband Tim, a daughter, three sons, cousin Jamee Wadsworth Todd ’67, and 12 grandchildren.

Barbara Cole Trumbull ’65 of Glens Falls, NY, died August 27. Earning a bachelor’s in sociology at the age of 52, she was a social worker for the Warren County Department of Social Services for 17 years, during which she co-founded the Afternoon Out program of the Greater Glens Falls Senior Center. In 1995, she became the oldest person to earn a master’s degree from Vermont College when she graduated at the age of 82. Two of Barbara’s poems were included in From the Listening Place, an anthology published in 1997. She is survived by two sons, a sister, a brother, 13 grandchildren, and 22 great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by first husband Donald Trumball, second husband Jay VanVranke, and son David.

Deborah Waldbillig ’86 of Boca Raton, FL, died November 5 after a four-year battle with cancer. A government major, she graduated third in her class and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and the Periclean Honor Society. While still a senior, she began study at Albany Law School, where she was an editor of the Albany Law Review. She was elected to several honor societies and graduated magna cum laude in 1988. She was a tax and estate planning attorney with the firm of Hodgson Russ, where she was named partner in 2000. Her professional articles were widely published. She was involved in church and various community organizations in Lake George, NY, and Boca Raton. She is survived by husband Fred, two children, her parents, a brother, a sister, a niece, her grandmother, and several aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Arlynn Wilson ’95 of New York, NY, died suddenly September 28. A theater major, she built a successful career in theatrical directing and production. In 1997 she was assistant director of the Irvington Town Hall Theater’s production of The Prince and the Pauper, later managing the Signature Theater Company and working extensively as a private audition and acting coach for several years. In January 2000, Arlynn’s popularity among dramatic and musical theater actors was noted in Backstage magazine, which cited her ability to find “the ‘perfect’ audition piece” for each actor with whom she worked. She is survived by her parents and two brothers.

Robert Walden ’98 of Scottsdale, AZ, died August 26. A retired businessman, he completed a bachelor’s in studio art through Skidmore’s University Without Walls at the age of 70, having last attended college at Lehigh over 50 years prior. Following graduation from Skidmore, he was accepted as a juried member of the Arizona Artists Guild, the largest such organization in the state. He enjoyed spending time at his summer residence in Lake George, NY. He is survived by wife Dayle and six children.

Faculty & Staff

Alwin “Al” Barney, former chief of security at Skidmore, died November 18 in Saratoga Springs; he was 88. Hired in 1947 by President Henry Moore, Barney was responsible for a team of night watchmen, who conducted 24-hour fire checks of all residential units (which totaled 36 in the early 1960s) on the Scribner Campus. He trained and organized the watchmen into a security force that numbered 16 when the college was a two-campus operation from 1966 to 1982. Upon the college’s move to the Jonsson Campus, Barney was named director of life safety, responsible for both security and safety education. Among the campus-safety features attributed to Barney were the first emergency call boxes, which became known on campus as “Barney boxes.” Barney retired from Skidmore in 1982. An avid fly fisherman, he had also been a well-known baseball catcher with the Greenfield ACs, the Saratoga Ponies, and other minor-league teams. He is survived by daughter Jean. His wife, Eleanor, who worked in Skidmore’s registrar’s office from 1960 to 1980, died in 1982.

Edward “Ted” Reagen, professor emeritus of economics, died September 24 in Naples, FL. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Indiana and started teaching at Skidmore in 1960. A faculty member for 21 years, Reagen became chair of the economics department in 1975. He chaired the Committee on Educational Policy and Planning and was an early proponent of Skidmore’s Asian Regional Studies Program, as it was then known. The recipient of a Ford Foundation fellowship for study at Princeton University in 1961, he also spent a sabbatical leave at the London School of Economics; studied comparative economics as a Fulbright scholar at Tung Hai University in Taiwan; spent a summer at Harvard University, researching Japan’s economy; and, with a grant from the New York State Education Department, studied Far Eastern art and culture. On a local level, Reagen directed the first analysis of Skidmore’s financial impact on the community of Saratoga Springs. Current New York State budget director Carole Chulick Stone ’69, profiled in a 2001 Scope article, warmly remembered his ability to promote students’ academic development in the classroom while nurturing them with dinners at his home. Reagen is survived by his wife Lillian, who worked in the Lucy Scribner Library for 13 years.

Katherine “Kay” Scranton Rozendaal, trustee emerita and former chair of the board of trustees, died December 6 at her home in Niskayuna, NY. She was 92. A self-described “last of the professional volunteers,” Rozendaal spent more than six decades “doing everything she could to make the area a better place,” her son told Schenectady’s Daily Gazette. Having become a Skidmore trustee in 1947, she was active on the board for 32 years, serving as chair from 1971 to 1979—during which time Skidmore made the historic decisions to build a new campus and become coeducational. Elsewhere in the Capital Region, Rozendaal worked on behalf of a host of educational, civic, and cultural interests including WMHT-TV, Proctor’s Theater, the Schenectady Museum, YMCA, Dudley Observatory, Annie Schaffer Senior Citizens Center, Junior League, and Planned Parenthood. She also served on New York’s Commission for Children, and the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, among others. Rozendaal received honorary degrees and other awards from numerous institutions, including an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Skidmore in 1971. And, to celebrate her outstanding record of service, the college established the Katherine Scranton Rozendaal Citizenship Awards, presented annually at commencement to a select group of students.
Rozendaal, whose husband, Hans, predeceased her, is survived by two daughters, a son, a brother, nine grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

In Memoriam

Alumni Faculty & Staff

Alumni

Faculty & Staff

Alumni
Faculty & Staff