Category: Featured Legacies Home

Ruth Fromstein (BSJ56)

Ruth Fromstein, a lifelong lover of arts and culture, learning, languages and Judaism, died at her Bethesda home on February 28, 2023. She was 87. Ruth was a beloved mother, grandmother, sister and friend – and, especially, wife to her husband of 66 years, James Fromstein.

Ruth and James met in 1952, when they were both undergraduate students at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. They got married the day after graduation and immediately moved to North Carolina, where James was stationed as an Army private first class.

They later moved to James’ hometown, Milwaukee, where Ruth began a career as a writer, advertising copywriter and public relations consultant. She also wrote a book, Milwaukee: The Best of All Worlds and later produced a history for the 150th anniversary of her synagogue, Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun.

Ruth was also dedicated to community involvement as well as to the arts, often finding ways to join the two. She served as a docent at the Milwaukee Art Museum, volunteered for the Milwaukee Public Museum and was a board member of the Volunteer Center for Greater Milwaukee. She was a frequent visitor to all manner of arts institutions, including dance performances, jazz and classical music concerts, and art museums.

She traveled widely. She loved languages, especially French, taking immersion classes and studying in France in mid-life. She was passionate about the importance of learning, which prompted her to pursue educational opportunities throughout her life.

Ruth was also deeply involved with Jewish life. Born in Lexington, Kentucky, she moved with her parents at an early age to Birmingham, Alabama, where her father, Milton Grafman, was the rabbi at Temple Emanu-El from 1941 until 1975. Both Ruth and her brother, Stephen Grafman, were greatly influenced by their parents. Milton Grafman was a descendant of a long line of rabbis and cantors. His wife of 64 years, Ida Weinstein Grafman, graduated from the University of Cincinnati when women students were very much in the minority.

Ruth grew up during a time when women generally did not read from the Torah or celebrate a Bat Mitzvah. True to her devotion to learning and Judaism, she learned a Torah portion and read it as part of her grandson’s Bar Mitzvah in 2009.

Survivors include her husband, James Fromstein (BSJ56) of Bethesda, Md.; daughter Mollie Fromstein (Jeffrey) Katz of Bethesda, Maryland; son Richard (Raleigh Shapiro) Fromstein of Golden Valley, Minnesota; granddaughters Mari Fromstein of Orono, Maine, Emily Katz of Washington, D.C., Elisha Fromstein of Boston, Massachusetts., and Julia Fromstein of Golden Valley, Minnesota; grandson Benjamin Katz of Bethesda, Md.; and brother Stephen (Marilyn) Grafman of Potomac, Maryland. Mollie attended Medill’s bachelor’s program (BSJ85), and Ruth and Jim’s son, Richard, like his father, was a Medill cherub.

Mollie said this about her mother:

“Northwestern and Medill left strong, positive imprints on the Fromstein family. My parents made lifelong friends in their Medill classes and in Greek life, limited for them in the 1950s to a handful of Jewish fraternities and sororities. They cheered on the Wildcat football team for years, often driving to Evanston from Milwaukee to attend games dressed in purple while a big NU flag waved from their car as they sped down Interstate 94. Though they did not attend their graduation, they relished marching in the procession at their 50-year alumni reunion and celebrating with their classmates.”

The family requests that contributions in Ruth’s name be made to one of the three similarly-named congregations that occupied such an important part of her life – Temple Emanu-El of Birmingham, Alabama; Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun of River Hills, Wisconsin, or Temple Emanuel of Kensington, Maryland.

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/silver-spring-md/ruth-fromstein-11178165

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Russ Bensley (BSJ51, MSJ52)

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date August 16, 2022
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Reprint from Legacy.com

Robert “Russ” Bensley finished his final broadcast on August 9, 2022. The oldest (by minutes) child of Robert Daniel Bensley and Sylvia Gates Holton Bensley, Russ is survived by his children Skip Bensley, Robin Arena, and Vicki (Ryan) Stevenson; his grandchildren CJ, Sabrina, Jordan, Sarah, Andrew, and Ryan, as well as his twin brother Edward (Laura) Bensley. He is predeceased by his wife, Patrica Bannon Bensley. Also survived and predeceased by a sea of those who admired and respected him throughout his long career at CBS, as a horse farmer, and as an overall great guy.

Russ grew up on and around the University of Chicago campus, where his grandfather was the head of and his mother professor of Anatomy (and the first female graduate of the University of Chicago Medical School), and his father and aunt were integral to the vast scientific advances made there, particularly in the realm of diabetes research, for which the senior Robert Russell Bensley won a Banting Medal. He graduated from Hyde Park High School and went on to earn both an undergraduate and master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University. During his years there, he commuted daily from Hyde Park, as he was also caring for his grandfather.

Russ’ career began in radio, eventually landing him at the WBBM-TV station, where he wrote and anchored the late-night news broadcast. Amusingly, this broadcast was watched by one Pat Bannon while sitting at Wally’s Tap in Homewood; she would meet him in person and then marry him almost 20 years later. Russ made his national news television debut doing “man on the street” interviews following the death of JFK.

The CBS network then brought him to New York, quickly making him a producer (eventually executive) of the Evening News with Walter Cronkite. In 1968 he took a crew to cover the Vietnam war, got shot, and then evacuated to a hospital that was then bombed.

“Not a great day” as he put it.

In 1971, he won the first of four Emmy awards for his work on the groundbreaking documentary, “The World of Charlie Company,” for CBS.

After his time on the evening news, he headed the Special Events Unity, covering events like space shuttle launches, royal weddings, and presidential conventions and elections. He recently told his family he loved special events because he wanted to be where the action was. He was the executive producer of On the Road with Charles Kuralt, which he enjoyed for the interesting and uplifting stories. He also taught journalism courses as a guest teacher in a variety of settings, including Columbia University, New York.

After his retirement from CBS in 1985, he, Pat and daughter Vicki moved to Niles, MI, where they raised Morgan Horses until 2003. When asked about what seemed like a major life change, Russ was frequently known to quip, “It’s just a different kind of manure.” He continued remote work for CBS for almost 3 years, putting together a videocassette series, The Vietnam War with Walter Cronkite.

After horse-farming, he took up his favorite title full-time-Grandpa. Russ and Pat moved to Homewood, IL (where Pat had grown up) in 2003, and he remained there until 2014, when he moved into the home his daughter, Vicki, and husband Ryan built for them. He enjoyed the rest of his years in the “west wing” with Vicki, Ryan, his grandsons Andrew and Ryan, and a variety of cats and dogs whom he adored. His grandsons clearly benefited from his constant presence; both have gone into journalism.

Russ celebrated his 84th birthday by jumping out of a “perfectly good” airplane, handling it like a pro, and at 86 had to have an amputation of his lower leg (unrelated to the jumping out of an airplane) proceeding to put everyone in rehab – including 30-year-olds – to shame. (Upon waking from surgery being asked how he was, he replied, “Footloose and fancy-free.”) He walked at home without so much as a cane, and used a walker only at the annoying insistence of his daughter. Until the stroke that disabled him seven weeks prior to his death, he took daily walks, got his own paper and did the crosswords, all while shaking his head at the changes in TV news.

Russ’ colleagues say he was among the best in the business, and to this day speak with great admiration and affection for him and his work. Giants in the industry have described him as “one of the all-time great television news producers and editors” and “the best newsman television ever had….[and] that for a few years a lot of Americans got their information about what was going on in the world from the honest and direct way [he] chose to tell them.”

Russ’ kind heart was even bigger for animals. If you are inclined to honor him in some way, please make a donation in his name to the South Suburban Humane Society, where many of his beloved pets came from. If you want to honor him another way, sneak some oreo cookies and perhaps a good, dark beer.

And above all, the family encourages you use the phrase he was famous for as often as you can – “Everything is Going to be All Right.”

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/robert-russ-bensley-obituary?id=36206997%26utm_source%3Dfacebook%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_campaign%3Dobitsharebeta

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Ken Bode, former Medill dean and political journalist, dies at 83

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date June 7, 2022
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Dr. Bode in 2004. (Matt Bowen/DePauw University)

Ken Bode, political journalist and former Medill dean, died June 2 at a care center in Charlotte. He was 83. During Bode’s career in journalism, he reported on the presidential campaign trail for NBC, made prizewinning documentaries for CNN and moderated “Washington Week” for PBS.

Associate Professor Emeritus Richard Roth, who was hired by Bode in 1998 and served as his senior associate dean, offered this:

“I am saddened at the news of Bode’s death. He was a giant in journalism – NBC’s chief national political correspondent and, later, even during his first two years as dean at Medill, moderator of PBS’s “Washington Week in Review” – and a gifted teacher and a visionary dean.

It was Bode, who earned a PH.D. in political science before becoming a political reporter, who saw a future in “specializations” at Medill — having graduate journalism programs in partnerships with the Northwestern schools of business, law and medicine, to supplement the basic and industry-specific teaching of Medill’s own accomplished faculty. Some students also earned master’s degrees from the law school and some certificates from Kellogg.

I recall, too, an early conversation with Bode in 1998 when he said, “I am not going to be dean of a second-rate broadcast journalism program,” which motivated him to close a deal with the McCormick Tribune Foundation to provide funding for a new building with a state-of-the-art broadcast studio, from which a regular newscast to the campus could be produced. Finally, I might note, Bode used a million-dollar gift from Medill alumnus Rance Crain and Bode’s own national political connections to bring a diverse selection of big-name speakers to Medill and Northwestern, including the likes of Special Prosecutor Ken Starr to talk about the impeachment of Bill Clinton; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; his former NBC colleague Tom Brokaw; civil rights activist and journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault; former First Lady Rosalynn Carter; the late Sen. John McCain; the Rev. Jesse Jackson and another great Chicagoan, journalist and writer Studs Terkel. He was more than just a colleague and boss: Bode, his wife and his daughters, were friends as well. I will miss him and his big personality greatly.”

Medill Associate Professor Emeritus Richard Roth, who was hired by Bode in 1998 and served as his senior associate dean, offered this:

I recall, too, an early conversation with Bode in 1998 when he said, ‘I am not going to be dean of a second-rate broadcast journalism program,’ which motivated him to close a deal with the McCormick Tribune Foundation to provide funding for a new building with a state-of-the-art broadcast studio, from which a regular newscast to the campus could be produced. Finally, I might note, Bode used a million-dollar gift from Medill alumnus Rance Crain and Bode’s own national political connections to bring a diverse selection of big-name speakers to Medill and Northwestern, including the likes of Special Prosecutor Ken Starr to talk about the impeachment of Bill Clinton; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; his former NBC colleague Tom Brokaw; civil rights activist and journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault; former First Lady Rosalynn Carter; the late Sen. John McCain; the Rev. Jesse Jackson and another great Chicagoan, journalist and writer Studs Terkel. He was more than just a colleague and boss: Bode, his wife and his daughters, were friends as well. I will miss him and his big personality greatly.”

Read Bode’s obituary in the Washington Post.

Photo credit: Dr. Bode in 2004. (Matt Bowen/DePauw University)

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Kurt Paul Stocker (IMC faculty)

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date March 21, 2022
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Kurt Paul Stocker passed away on February 11th, after a 10-month fight following complications from heart valve surgery. He was 84. Kurt was our patriarch and didn’t leave much on the table. He rounded Cape Horn, he dove from an airplane at 82 years old. He left an indelible impression on all of us. He was a huge contributor in the lives of his family. Beyond the professional accomplishments, Kurt was an artist, a skilled printmaker and filled much of his retirement time in his Corrales studio, porch side with his friends or in a catboat in Florida.

A long time public relations, public affairs and corporate governance professional, Kurt served as Chairman of the NYSE Individual Investor Advisory Board, as a Director of NYSE Regulation Inc. As a member of the Advisory Committee of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and as a member of the Board of Governors of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc (formerly, NASD).

Kurt was a Senior Executive with Continental Bank Corporation, United Airlines, Allstate and Hill & Knowlton companies.

Other professional organizations included serving as a past President of The Arthur W. Page Society, as well as being inducted into their Hall of Fame. Kurt was a past Commodore of The Chicago Yacht Club. He was a visiting lecturer and Assistant Professor in Medill IMC in the ’90s and served on advisory boards for PR Newswire, Journal of Integrated Marketing and San Isabel Land Protection Trust.

Kurt and his wife of 62 years, Kathleen attended Marietta College where they met and wed. Kurt is survived by his son Peter and daughter Jennifer and 4 grandchildren, Cate, Graham, Emma and Ian.

Tribute provided by Peter and Jennifer Stocker.

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Valerie Boyd (BSJ85)

Photo: Valerie Boyd, the author of a critically acclaimed biography of Zora Neale Hurston, appears at a reading in D.C. in 2009. (Susan Biddle/The Washington Post)

By Emily Langer, Washington Post

Valerie Boyd, a journalist who chronicled the life of Zora Neale Hurston in a critically acclaimed biography and edited a forthcoming compilation of the journals of Alice Walker, thus illuminating African American women of letters from the Harlem Renaissance to the present day, died Feb. 12 at a hospital in Atlanta. She was 58.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, said her friend and power of attorney, Veta Goler.

Ms. Boyd spent nearly two decades as a reporter and arts editor at her hometown newspaper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, training the journalistic eye that she would turn on Hurston in the biography that became her first major literary achievement of her own.

“Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston,” published in 2003, was the result of nearly five years of research. Ms. Boyd charted Hurston’s life from her birth in 1891 in Notasulga, Ala., to her upbringing in the all-Black town of Eatonville, Fla., through her literary activity during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s and her anthropological exploration of African American folklore, to the circumstances that led to her death in penury in 1960 in Florida, where she was buried in an unmarked grave.

“Because I am a Black Southern woman, I felt very close to Zora, as if I could paint a picture of her life almost from the inside out,” Ms. Boyd told an interviewer for the online magazine In Motion. “I wanted to give readers a sense of what it was like to be Zora, to walk in her shoes, to live inside her skin.”

Ms. Boyd’s 2003 biography of writer Zora Neale Hurston. (Scribner)
Ms. Boyd was an undergraduate at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., when she first read Hurston’s best-known work, the 1937 novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” a coming-of-age story about a Black woman named Janie Crawford.

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“I was just amazed,” Ms. Boyd said, “that a book published in 1937 could speak to me so clearly and so resonantly through the decades.”

Years later, she became a regular attendee of the annual festival held in honor of Hurston in Eatonville. In 1994, she said, she attended a speech there by Robert E. Hemenway, the author of a 1977 biography of the writer.

By Ms. Boyd’s account, Hemenway surveyed the shortcomings that he said were inherent in his book as a work about a Black woman written by a White man. According to Ms. Boyd, he said that Hurston was owed a new biography, by an African American woman.

“When I heard those words, I felt it was my calling,” Ms. Boyd told an interviewer with Northwestern. “But even though it felt like something I would do, the thought of doing it was just frightening.”

She put off the task, judging herself not ready. Less than two years later, a literary agent called to ask if she might be interested in writing a biography of Hurston. “I felt like fate was calling me — and that Zora herself was calling me,” Ms. Boyd said.

Hurston had complicated the job of any future biographer, Ms. Boyd wrote, by disguising “many truths of her life in a confounding but crackable code.” In order to obtain schooling at a Baltimore high school, she reported her age as 16 when she was in fact 26. Her 1942 autobiography, “Dust Tracks on a Road,” however skillfully written, proved an unreliable account of the facts of her life.

With the passage of time, more dust, as it were, had clouded the story of Hurston’s life. It had been partially cleared by Hemenway’s book and by volumes including “Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters” collected and edited by Carla Kaplan (2002). But in “Wrapped in Rainbows,” reviewer Jake Lamar wrote in The Washington Post, Ms. Boyd produced a “scrupulously researched, gracefully written” work that will “most likely remain the definitive Hurston biography for many years to come.”

Ms. Boyd’s project was a journalistic odyssey, in which she located the few living acquaintances of Hurston and scoured the archival records of her life. But it was also an “intuitive, spiritual process,” she said.

“Sometimes,” she told the Northwestern interviewer, “it seemed as if Zora would look at me in a very approving way, and sometimes she seemed to be looking at me like, ‘Oh, please.’ And I would dutifully press delete.”

Ms. Boyd often reflected on the sisterhood of African American writers, observing that “Zora’s, Alice’s and my generations are holding hands.” Alice was Alice Walker, the author of the 1982 novel “The Color Purple,” which received the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for fiction and was adapted into a 1985 film starring Whoopi Goldberg. Walker had helped reawaken interest in Hurston with an article, “In Search of Zora Neale Hurston,” published in Ms. magazine in 1975.

Ms. Boyd happened to meet Walker during her research for the biography and said that Walker, upon learning of her work, touched her face and said, “Bless you, my child.” Some years after the publication of the Hurston biography, when Walker set out to publish her journals from the years 1965 to 2000, she selected Ms. Boyd as her partner in the endeavor.

“Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice Walker,” edited by Ms. Boyd, is slated to be published April 12, according to the publishing house Simon and Schuster.

“Valerie Boyd was one of the best people ever to live, which she did as a free being,” Walker said in a statement provided by the Joy Harris Literary Agency. “Even though illness was stalking her the past several years, she accompanied me in gathering, transcribing, and editing my journals. … This was a major feat, a huge act of love and solidarity, of sisterhood, of soul generosity and shared joy, for which she will be remembered.”

Valerie Jean Boyd was born in Atlanta on Dec. 11, 1963. Her father ran a gas station and tire shop, and her mother was a homemaker.

Ms. Boyd received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Northwestern in 1985 and a master of fine arts in creative nonfiction writing from Goucher College in Towson, Md., in 1999.

In addition to her work at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Ms. Boyd freelanced over the years for publications including The Washington Post. She was a senior editor at the publication the Bitter Southerner. In recent years, she was a writer in residence and professor at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia

At the time of her death, according to Simon and Schuster, Ms. Boyd was at work on an anthology titled “Bigger Than Bravery: Black Resilience and Reclamation in a Time of Pandemic.” Her survivors include two brothers.

Ms. Boyd noted that, in deference to her subject, she had visited Hurston’s grave in Fort Pierce, Fla., before embarking on the biography.

“I wanted to make a connection with Zora,” Ms. Boyd told the Journal-Constitution, “so I took an offering of Florida oranges, which she loved, and some money — she never had enough money in her life — and a pack of Pall Malls.”

Just as she was leaving, she saw a black crow similar to the one that had circled over the inaugural Hurston festival in 1990. Attendees had named it “Zora.” Ms. Boyd took the sign as permission to proceed.

“I believe that it was something that I was put here to do,” she told the Orlando Sentinel in 2003. “My destiny led me to Zora.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/02/15/zora-neale-hurston-biographer-valerie-boyd/?utm_campaign=wp_about_us&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_aboutus&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F361358f%2F620f8a5d9d2fda34e7992da9%2F61e19e609bbc0f2783c953a8%2F38%2F59%2F620f8a5d9d2fda34e7992da9

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ITF announces prize to honor longtime tennis journalist Tom Perrotta (BSJ98)

Post author By John Riker
Post date February 11, 2022
No Comments on ITF announces prize to honor longtime tennis journalist Tom Perrotta (BSJ98)

The International Tennis Federation, along with co-sponsors ATP, WTA and the International Tennis Writers Association, announced a media award to honor the legacy of longtime tennis journalist Tom Perrotta (BSJ98).

The Tom Perrotta Prize for Tennis Journalism will be presented annually to an outstanding tennis journalist under the age of 40, along with a $2,000 cash prize. Perrotta worked as a freelance sportswriter and as a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, specializing in his passion for tennis and covering the world’s major tournaments.

“The tennis community lost a beloved member when in January 2021, Tom Perrotta succumbed to a brain tumour after a four-year battle,” Simon Cambers, co-president of the International Tennis Writers Association, said via the International Tennis Federation website. “We hope that his work and this award can serve as an inspiration to the next generation of young writers.”

Perrotta was born in Brooklyn, NY and attended North Providence High School in Rhode Island. Prior to his career as a tennis journalist, he attended Medill and graduated in 1998.

After a four-year battle with a brain tumor, Perrotta passed away on January 6, 2021 at the age of 44. He is remembered fondly by his colleagues and fellow sportswriters for his kindness and strong work ethic, which were evident even in the most high stakes of moments. Perrotta is survived by his wife Rachel Kane and sons Paul and Sean.

“He was so personally committed to helping and being generous with his colleagues,” Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Gay said. “It didn’t matter if they worked alongside him, he was beloved in the newsroom, or on the road at an event.”

“I’m so happy that this (prize) was something his family and close friends put together. Tom would be incredibly honored by it. He was somebody who was always looking to help a colleague, but also help find the next great colleague.”

More details about submissions for the Tom Perrotta Prize can be found on the ITF website.

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Granville Cooley (BSJ56)

Granville C. Cooley age 86 of Paris, died Friday, August 6, 2021, at his home following a short battle with cancer.

Granville loved dancing and singing and the many friends he made doing so, especially his dear friends at the Friday Night Blues.

Born August 31,1934, in Tulare, CA, he was the son of the late Buford Cooley and the late Flossie Burkett Cooley.

He graduated high school in Blytheville, Arkansas, and went on to study journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.

He worked for United Press Chicago, Herald-Palladium of Benton Harbor, Michigan, and The Journal-Standard of Freeport, IL.

He was married for six years to the former Mary Elizabeth Street, who survives of Flippin, AR, and is survived by their two children, Mark Cooley and Carmen (Mark) Watkins, both of Paris; grandchildren, Jason Rabey and Jessica (Parke) Homesley; and seven great-grandchildren: Levi, Finley, Josh, Harlie, Ezra, Lily and Ruby.

He was preceded in death by his beloved wife of 19 years, Donna Gail Rhodes Caldwell Cooley, with whom he shared a love for travel and a love for their church, First United Methodist of Paris.

Source: Published by the Paris Post-Intelligencer

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Marjorie Brumitt (BSJ51)

Marjorie F. Brumitt, 92, died peacefully on September 11, 2021. She was born in Canton, Ohio to Lois Isabel Pence and John Edward Fick.

Marge attended Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, where she was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority and an active participant in and fan of all NU sports prior to and after her graduation. She returned to Evanston after graduation to work at Kemper Insurance Company, and met and married her late husband of 61 years, Robert W. Brumitt. She was a volunteer with Evanston Hospital, the Kappa House Board, the Junior League of Evanston, Girl Scouts and most recently the First Presbyterian Church of Wilmette. There she served as an Elder, Trustee, Treasurer, Sunday School Teacher and was pleased to be a charter member of the Chancel Bell Choir. She was a devoted daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother and was happiest spending time with her family. She is survived by her children Jane, William (Yvana), Ellen (Robert) Brown, and Nan (Edward) Scott, her grandchildren, Haley, Stuart (Verity) and Connor Brown, Ella Brumitt, Cullen, Brennan and Maeve Scott, great-grandson, Hugo Brown, her brother John (Carole) Fick, her cousin Norman Jackson, brother in law Roland (Vicki) Brumitt and many nieces and nephews. In addition to her husband and parents, she is preceded in death by her sister Virginia (late John) Fellows, brothers in law Richard (Barbara) and Raymond Brumitt, and sister in law, Janice Brumitt.

The family wishes to thank the staff at Emerald Place for their care and kindness these past few years.

Source: Published by Chicago Tribune on Sep. 15, 2021.

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Donald Shanor (BSJ51)

Donald Read Shanor of Edgartown and Chappaquiddick, foreign correspondent, author, and former Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism professor, died on August 31, 2021, at his Edgartown home after a brief illness. He was 94.

He and his late wife, Constance (Collier) Shanor, first came to Martha’s Vineyard in the early 1970s, and became year-round residents in 1993. Their Pierce Lane home was once an icehouse on Sheriff’s Meadow Pond, and was moved to its present site in the 1920s. To be closer to the ocean in the summer, the Shanors built, with their own hands, a getaway on Chappaquiddick.

Don was born on July 11, 1927, in Ann Arbor, Mich., a son of William and Katherine (Read) Shanor. He was a graduate of Comstock Park High School in Comstock Park, Mich., and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., in 1951. In 1965 he received an M.S. degree from Columbia University

In 1945–46, Don served in the U.S. Naval Reserve in the Pacific. A lifelong animal lover (devoted especially to Chesapeake Bay retrievers), he frequently regaled his children about the time he adopted a monkey on a Pacific island stop and taught it how to type.

It was at Medill that he met Connie Collier, who would be his wife for the next 66 years. In the early 1950s, the young couple took a freight boat to England to find work as journalists. They lived abroad for several years — for a time, on a houseboat on the Thames River in London — when Don worked for United Press International. Later, as a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Daily News, covering Germany and Eastern Europe, the Shanors lived in Bonn, Germany, and Vienna, Austria. They also lived in Beijing, China, where Don taught journalism at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Don was on the faculty of the Journalism School at Columbia University from 1970 to 1993, where he headed the international division for foreign students. He was present at the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989. In the days that followed, he walked the entire 29-mile length of the barrier that divided East and West Berlin to interview Germans who had lived with the wall since 1961. Along the way, he collected small pieces of concrete rubble to bring home to his children.

He was the author of five books, including “Soviet Europe,” and co-author, with his wife, of “China Today.” At the time of his death, Don was completing his late wife’s biography about Isabel Barrows, America’s first female ophthalmologist.

If he was not writing, chopping wood, or listening to classical music, Don Shanor was likely to be found with a hammer and nails building something. Once, he decided to build his own catboat. It was never sailed, however, though his granddaughter, Zoe Shanor, a frequent companion of his on outdoor adventures, is planning to get it — at last — into the water.

Even in his 80s, he was indefatigable. He looked forward to the Land Bank’s annual cross-Island hike, and enjoyed long rides on his Chinese bicycle, the Flying Pigeon. But there was nothing as wonderful as ice skating with Zoe on Sheriff’s Meadow Pond.

Don is survived by his sister, Alice Marsh of Grand Rapids, Mich..; two daughters, Rebecca Shanor of New York City and Lisa Shanor of Oak Bluffs; and a granddaughter, Zoe Shanor of Oak Bluffs. In addition to his wife, he was predeceased by a son, Donald Jr.; a brother, Richard; and a sister, Katherine Baum. A private celebration of life will be held.

Contributions in his memory may be made to the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, Box 1088, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568.

Source: Published on The Martha’s Vineyard Times

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Linda Bennett (MA64)

Linda J. Bennett of Saddle Brook NJ and formerly of Ringwood NJ passed away peacefully on September 12th, 2021.

She is preceded in death by her parents William and Claire (nee Friedman) Reichenfeld and husband Alan J. Bennett, and survived by her sister Marilyn (Larry) Owens. She was a loving mother to children Joshua (Susan) Bennett, Samantha (Mark) Stankiewicz, and Matthew Bennett. She was a proud and doting grandmother to Carolyn Bennett, Cayla Stankiewicz and Anya Stankiewicz.

Linda was born in New York City in 1942 and moved to Plainfield, NJ where in high school she met her future husband, Alan Bennett. She went on to earn a BA at Montclair State College and MA at Northwestern University with degrees in Journalism.

She worked for the Bergen Record as a reporter, then as a technical editor for publisher Prentice Hall and later for the American Management Association, among others. After retirement, she enjoyed working at the Bergen Ethical Culture Society for 11 years where she developed wonderful friendships and camaraderie. Visitation with the family will be held at the C.C. Van Emburgh Funeral Home, 306 E. Ridgewood Ave, Ridgewood NJ on Saturday, September 18th at 10:00 AM and at 2:00 PM. To celebrate Linda’s tireless advocacy for the disabled, please consider a small donation to Bancroft Neurohealth at www.Bancroft.org.

Source: Published by C.C. Van Emburgh – Ridgewood on Sep. 13, 2021.

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