Obituaries and Tributes

 

 

 

 

Therefore, we have revised our previous policy not to present obituaries of our deceased classmates. This decision is made in light of Smith’s actions and as we approach the years when sadly classmates’ deaths become more frequent, and we need more and more to pay tribute to our well-lived lives, our accomplishments and our loves.

We are starting with the most recent classmates for whom we have received obituaries or tributes and will gradually fill in as far back as possible. To that end, please let us know if you have any you would like to add or if you have any comments or suggestions.

2024

Susan WERNER Thoresen
June 14, 2024

From Sue’s husband, Bob:

I apologize for not being able to call everyone. But we have prepared
this announcement. Feel free to share it with your Smith colleagues.
Thank you all of your support. Bob

Susan Werner Thoresen
November 5, 1944 – June 14, 2024

Sue’s life journey with all of us has come to a close. Sue died on June 14 in mid-afternoon. She is now at peace. During the time (almost three years) she had been living with bile duct cancer, she conducted her life as she always had with grace, optimism, and gratitude. Sue lived life to the fullest even when she had setbacks due to the various treatments. Selfless and nurturing, she led a purposeful, productive, accomplished, and joyous life.
In the nine days after admittance to the hospital, she was alert, engaged, funny, and making new memories with all of the family. It was a beautiful bonding experience that our family will forever cherish. Sue informed the doctors that she was not dying until she saw a pre-publication copy of her new book entitled Choose Joy. Erik (our son) and I managed to do a proof/edit and got it to the printer so that it could be delivered to Sue last Friday. She saw it, held it, and savored the accomplishment.
Since Monday, June 10, Sue had been in Hyder Family Hospice House as she transitioned toward the closure of her life. She slept peacefully, listened to classical music,heard stories from her book, and was without pain.
There will be a celebration of her life (there is so much to celebrate) later in the year. In accordance with her wish, it will not occur until Choose Joy is printed in its final form and available for distribution.
Our family and I want to thank everyone for your generous support and love, your well wishes, and the many offers of help during our journey.

With Love, Bob and
Kristin, John, Jackson and Avery Swartzendruber
Erik, Traci, Lilli and Clem Thoresen
Cal and Jill Werner
Ann Werner/Terry Dibble

More information will be available in the near future, including an obituary, and the particulars of the Celebration of her Life at South Church in Portsmouth. In the meantime, as Sue would say, find ways to express gratitude and always Choose Joy.

A Tribute from the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation:
We were thrilled to honor Susan Werner Thoresen as our 2024 AmplifiHER at our 7th Annual GALA a few weeks ago. Our AmplifiHER award is given annually to a person or persons who have dedicated their personal and professional lives to lifting up women and girls in the Granite State. Sue’s lifetime of service as a community leader, volunteer and philanthropist are among the many reasons she was selected as our 2024 AmplifiHER.
We are immensely grateful to our Video Sponsor, Saltwater Collective, who produced and edited this exceptional tribute to Sue. Take a look at the video!

Here is a story from seacoastonline about the NHWF honor to Sue on May 3, 2024.

Mary Clara “Polly” PRICE
June 7, 2024

Polly died June 7, 2024 in Abington PA. After Smith she had a career as a teacher and administrator. She co-founded the Cultural Education Collaborative in Boston and held several high ranking positions at Harvard, including Associate Dean for Administration of the Graduate School of Design and head of university-wide Human Relations. She was active in progressive politics and in retirement worked tirelessly in the campaigns of Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick.
She leaves her husband Tom Parker, son Jonathan Rabinowitz, two grandchildren and three step-grandchildren.

Barbara REEVES
January 22, 2024

Barbara Jane Reeves, October 8, 1944 – January 22, 2024, retired Virginia Tech instructor, died peacefully at her home in Blacksburg in late January, 2024, at age 79. Professor Reeves taught a rich variety of graduate and undergraduate courses in Science and Technology in Society, History, Religion and Science, and Humanities (the latter two in the Department of Religion and Culture) from 1993 to 2019. At Virginia Tech, she received an Earth Sustainability curriculum development and teaching grant from the Center for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

Prior to coming to Virginia Tech, Dr. Reeves taught courses at Cornell University and Ohio State University, where she was specially recognized by the Department of History “in appreciation of [her] service and collegiality” in 1986-88. Prior to that, Reeves lectured on the History of Science at Harvard University, where she earned three graduate degrees: Masters of Art in Teaching, 1967; AM in History of Science, 1969; PhD in History of Science, 1980. In 1971, while a PhD student at Harvard, she was initiated as a full member into Sigma Xi, a professional organization that supports and honors scientific research and innovation. She received a NATO Postdoctoral Fellowship in Science from the National Science Foundation in 1983-84, after completing her PhD at Harvard. Her undergraduate degree in Physics was in 1966 from Smith College, where she was initiated into Phi Beta Kappa. She was also a proud graduate of Philadelphia High School for Girls.

An informal memorial service for Dr. Reeves will be held on Thursday, February 22, at 5:30 p.m., in 134 Lane Hall on the Virginia Tech campus. Local friends, faculty colleagues, and former students are cordially invited to attend in person, and those unable to do so are warmly invited to attend via Zoom (please request the link from shalfon@t.edu).

Published by Roanoke Times on Feb. 21, 2024.

Roberta BELDING O’Connor
January 2, 2024

In an email dated January 2, 2024, Roberta’s sister says:

“My sister, Roberta Belding, a proud alumna, passed away this morning, 1/3/24, in Harbor Springs, MI. She leaves behind 2 sons, Scott and Frank Heston, and 1 sister, Dorthy Belding.”

 

Bonnie Fraser GREGG
January 1, 2024

Bonnie Fraser Gregg

Bonnie Fraser Gregg passed away peacefully on January 21, 2024, at Morristown Medical Center at the age of 79.
Bonnie was born in Buffalo, New York on September 19, 1944, the daughter of Ralph Joseph Gregg and Jane Hadley Tweedy. She graduated from Buffalo Seminary and Smith College where she received her BS degree in Economics Magna Cum Laude in 1966. Bonnie was a member of Jordan House at Smith, sang in the Glee Club, took crew, and toured Europe with the Smith Chamber Singers and the Princeton Men’s Chorus. After graduation, Bonnie joined AT&T as a programmer in their Data Systems Division. After several promotions, she became an expert in the IBM systems software used by AT&T. Later in her career, she transferred to the Management Assessment program, then to the Finance Department where she managed the $500 million Uncollectible Bad Debt Reserves claimed on the AT&T Tax Returns, then worked in the Treasury Department, and finally in the Revenue Journalization Management organization where, as Production Controller, her organization was responsible for journalizing 60 billing systems into the AT&T General Ledger amounting to $24 billion in annual revenue.
Of her many accomplishments in her career, one stands out: the IRS typically waits several years before auditing large corporation’s tax returns. Uncollectible Bad Debt Reserves are especially scrutinized in those audits because they are estimates which reduce the amount of taxes owed. In 1994, the IRS challenged $1.3 billion that Bonnie had booked in the first four years after the AT&T divestiture. Once notified of the challenge, Bonnie cancelled her vacation, and reconstructed the methodology she used 10 years prior. She met with the IRS auditors and successfully defended her methodology. AT&T Tax Vice President Mike Andolina attended the meeting and said in an internal publication, Bonnie’s presentation “was extremely effective, thorough, professional, and persuasive – Bonnie was sensational and saved AT&T close to $200 million in additional taxes”.
Bonnie was an excellent golfer and pianist, and loved traveling, the theater, concerts, seminars, lectures, reading and, although a good cook, particularly enjoyed eating out. Most important, she was a good friend to many. She was predeceased by her parents and her brother, Ralph Winthrop (Win) Gregg. She is survived by her sister Jane Gregg Lehmbeck and brother-in-law Donald R. Lehmbeck, niece Kim Elizabeth Lehmbeck and her two sons Reece Winthrop and Tyler Benjamin, and her nephew Jason Fraser Lehmbeck and wife Kerri Page Lehmbeck, and their son Griffin Michael and daughter Peyton Page.
Bonnie will be buried in a family plot in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York after a small service in their chapel. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Smith College or the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

2023

Margaret “Peggy” Spencer CHASE
December 1, 2023

Margaret “Peggy” Spencer Chase was born in Sterling, Kansas on February 16th, 1945, the second of four children. She graduated with academic honors from the Katherine Branson School in Marin County, California and then headed East to study English at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. After graduation Peggy moved back to California with the intention of attending graduate school. She briefly taught Latin and grammar at the Ojai Valley School, and soon met Tim Carey who was teaching at The Thacher School. They were married in Thacher’s outdoor chapel a few years later. Peggy and Tim moved East to live in Middlebury and then Cornwall, Vermont. While there, Peggy worked at the Counseling Service of Addison County where she ran Big Brothers Big Sisters and helped develop innovative programs such as a Teen Center, Friendly Visitors (teens visiting the elderly) and Women Organized for Work, which supported women entering the workforce. In 1972 they had their first daughter, Elizabeth Farr Carey, and then Edith “Edie” Chase Carey followed in 1974. Shortly thereafter they relocated to Massachusetts, eventually settling in Dedham. Peggy attended graduate school at Boston College and received her Master’s degree in Social Work. For several years, she worked for New England Telephone Company in the Employee Assistance Program, focusing on substance abuse issues. Peggy later joined Work Family Directions and was an impassioned expert in her field. She once lent her expertise to a piece about work/life balance on Tom Brokaw’s NBC Nightly News. She spent many years providing management training around work/life balance, coping with stress, substance abuse, and effective communication in the workplace, most recently for ComPsych and Balancing Life’s Issues. She also derived great pleasure from her work with Embark’s CRAFT program supporting and assisting families dealing with substance issues. She identified deeply as a social worker in every aspect of her life. Peggy was married to her second husband, Dick Barry, from 1984-1992. In 1992 Peggy relocated to Littleton, Colorado, where she later met Tony Mueller. They moved to Boulder, Colorado and were married and later moved back to Peggy’s roots, just down the road from her childhood home in Ojai, CA. She and Tony enjoyed a bi-coastal life between Ojai and Wiscasset, Maine for many years. Peggy moved to Colorado Springs in 2017 and built a life around her youngest grandchildren, Luca and Emmy, while continuing to make frequent visits East to spend time with stepchildren, Sadie and James Farr.

She is survived by her daughters, Farr Carey and Edie Carey, son-in-law Matthew Fitzsimmons, four grandchildren, Sadie and James Arnold and Luca and Emmy Fitzsimmons, and siblings: Edie Chase McDougal, Nelson Chase and his wife Cindy Strawbridge, Newton “Kim” Chase and his wife Cindy Chase, nieces: Cricket Damon, Faith Sykes, her husband Mike and their children Phoebe and Hewitt, Emilie Chase, Heather Rosenberg, her husband Jake and their children Leo and Chase, Teal Buetzow, her husband Eric and their daughter Lily, as well as many extended family, countless friends and her beloved cat, Edwin.

Memorial services will be planned for next summer.

Margaret “Peggy” Spencer Chase

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aruna NAYYAR Michie 
September 5, 2021

Ellen (Wick) Emerson reports that “Our classmate Aruna Nayyar Michie died on September 5, 2021; she was a close friend and I’ve told her husband Barry that I would notify Smith of her passing. Barry wrote a lovely obituary for Aruna, and if it’s possible to have a link to the obituary I’d like to send that to you so that classmates can read of Aruna’s remarkable life.” Here is the obituary for Aruna Nayyar Michie

Aruna Nayyar Michie, aged 77, retired KSU Political Science faculty member passed away 5 September 2021 at Good Shepherd Hospice, Manhattan, after a five week siege stemming from several long-standing illnesses.

Aruna was born 9 August 1944 in the Naval Hospital, Bombay. Her father was Pran Nath Nayyar, at the time seconded from the British Indian Army to the Navy and serving on the signals ship, INS Talwar (actually shore based) for WWII. Her mother was Kusum Prasad, journalist and internationally known scholar. She was predeceased by her parents, her Michie father and mother in-law with whom she was very close, and younger brother, Kapil, her only sibling.

Her parents were intimately involved for years with the Indian Nationalist movement and knew all the top leaders. They also instilled her with a deep social conscience that she retained throughout life. Among other things her parents were main instigators of the several weeks long February 1946 Indian Naval Mutiny (they called it a strike) beginning in Bombay and spreading to the whole fleet and into other service branches as well. Her father’s signals ship was central to communications. The mutiny was a result of widespread discontent among Indian ranks about living conditions and ill treatment. They made the point that although Indian military personnel remained loyal during WWII, the Brits could no longer count on their loyalty. It was time for the Brits to leave, thank you very much! The mutiny ended peacefully and without retribution, a hiccup along the way to Independence that came the next year in August 1947 when Aruna was three. Importantly, the mutiny gave a strong attention-getting and unforgettable message to the Brits.

When Aruna was ten the family moved to New Delhi. Her father became a consulting engineer. Her mother was earlier well established professionally as Kusum Nair, journalist and internationally known author on rural development based on research in India, China, Japan and the US. Her family home became an intellectual salon for meetings with friends in the international diplomatic corps, Indian politicians and officials, international scholars, authors, artists and others. Quite a rarified environment for a young girl.

As a young girl Aruna attended a top end international boarding school in the lower Himalayas with primarily American ex-pat students and teachers, the reason she spoke with an American accent. Whenever the topic of Woodstock would come up in US conversation she would say “Oh, I was at Woodstock”, much to everyone’s amazement, and furthermore “I was there from first standard through graduation from high school in 1962.”, further occasioned by listeners’ confusion. And then she would have to explain that Woodstock is the name of her school …always good for a laugh.

Aruna was a 1966 graduate of Smith College, North Hampton, Massachusetts, finding summer work in New York with the Ford Foundation. Finishing her undergraduate degree in International Relations, she returned to India where she became a local hire for the American Peace Corp as an associate director in the Northern Regional office in charge of programs and volunteers in the state of Rajasthan. It was there she met Barry Michie, a volunteer serving in Rajasthan. They were married in New Delhi at her parents’ home in an Arya Samaj ceremony 3 July 1968.

Growing up a very urbane city girl, Peace Corps was her first experience with village India and culture, a venture highly supported and encouraged by her parents. Despite a bit of initial trepidation of stepping into the unknown, she readily took to it and continued so during married life of fifty-three years with rural projects and research in rural Rajasthan of her own and her husband’s. So, she became both a village and a city girl.

Newly married both she and Barry entered graduate school together in 1968 at Michigan State University, supporting each other and completing PhD degrees, she in Political Science and he Anthropology. Both luckily found appointments at Kansas State, initially temporary replacements for faculty on sabbatical. Her position became tenure track and her husband eventually in International Programs. So, they did not suffer a commuting marriage common for many academic couples.

Seventeen years into marriage a son Chetan was born in 1985 in Manhattan, welcomed with much joy and love. Chetan spent a year in India, also attending Woodstock, when Barry had a three-year project in Rajasthan with an Indian agricultural university. Chetan is now a restaurateur in Lawrence, Kansas.

Aruna was proud of her Indian heritage, so indelibly part of her identity that she never gave up her Indian citizenship despite living in the US for fifty-three plus years as a green card holder. This put her in the curious situation of being a political scientist who never voted as she had no Indian constituency from which to vote; as a non-citizen voting in the US was out of the question.

Aruna had a remarkable career at Kansas State, mentoring junior and other faculty and students including those applying for and many winning prestigious scholarships (Rhodes, Trumans, Marshalls) helping to put K-State on the map. She also received recognition for excellence in teaching. She served two terms as Faculty Senate President representing faculty to KSU administration and the Board of Regents putting her weight behind winning changes to health insurance, family leave and the KSU Handbook for both staff and faculty. For a number of years she was an ombudsperson mediating disputes between faculty and administration. She touched many lives across K-State and is well remembered as someone kind, helpful and who readily stood her ground, making her point cogently, articulately and without rancour.

In the last stages of her final illness Aruna became increasingly aphasic that started several years previously with Parkinsons that never affected her mind. Near the end she rarely could make herself understood, quite frustrating for her and most uncharacteristic to those who knew her in her prime. Unforgettably, three days before she died while still in hospital, she was able to find the words. Slowly, deliberately and with great effort she enunciated her last intelligible words when Barry and Chetan went to see her . “I…Iove…you…both. Don’t…worry”. She was not afraid of death and died painlessly and peacefully with both Barry and Chetan at her side to her last breath.

Although a secularist and not religious, a simple, powerful Yogic mantra is appropriate with her passing.

OHM. SHASTRI, SHASTRI, SHASTRI

Ohm signifies the all encompassing cosmological essence of reality and consciousness, past, present, and future from which all things emanate and to which they return.. Ohm is the primordial word present at the very beginning, not unlike “The Word” in the Book of Genesis. Shastri signifies, peace, harmony and love.

For years she was adamantly against a memorial service. No services are planned. The family is, however, planning an informal gathering to be announced for friends and colleagues at the Manhattan City Park – open air and conscious of the Covid threat. Please contact Barry Michie at sikarra@ksu.edu or at 565-0270 if you would like to attend for exact venue, date and time. Condolences can be posted on the Yorgensen-Meloan-Londeen page, the funeral home handling her cremation.

2020

Nancy WATKINS
March 9, 2020

This obituary was submitted by Penny Minkler Fitz-Randolph for Nancy Watkins, who died on March 9, 2020.

 

NANCY WATKINS, Fairfield, IOWA

Submitted by Penny (Minkler) Fitz-Randolph
641-472-4988
pfitzr@gmail.com
March 18, 2020

Nancy Watkins, 75, died March 9, 2020. She was born in Kansas City, Mo., in 1944, and was raised by her parents, Madalyn B. Watkins and John S. Watkins Jr. She attended Barstow School in Kansas City for high school and graduated as valedictorian in 1962. She graduated Smith College in 1966 with an A.B. in economics, and received her Juris Doctor with honors from George Washington University in 1975.

Nancy lived in Fairfield, Iowa, for the past four decades, where she practiced law and was the beloved international student advisor for Maharishi International University. She looked after the international students like a mother, in addition to navigating the complicated student visa process. To many she was a guardian angel whose love and support filled in for being far from home.

Many of the international students, who became close friends and thought of her as family, filled her home and office so completely with gifts of appreciation that nearly every surface was covered, like “an international curio collection,” said a lifelong friend.

Nancy always lent her kindness and intelligence to people in need. Before moving to Fairfield, she worked as a criminal defense attorney in San Francisco, taking on difficult cases and working with people who others wouldn’t. She volunteered in prisons, offering legal services to inmates and finding out whether they had fair trials.

Friends say she was “ferocious on the side of right.” Her work in bringing Transcendental Meditation to the inmates of San Quinton prison in California was noted in a letter of thanks signed by 120 inmates.
In addition to her International Student advisor work, Nancy offered individual tax preparation and performed marriages. She became an ordained Divine Light minister, so that she could officiate marriages, which she did for hundreds of couples.
Nancy was also admired for her incredible memory, her extraordinary brightness and quick wit.

She had an adventurous spirit and loved to travel, making annual trips to France with the Knights Templar organization and attending weddings and other family events of her international students who had become lifelong friends, all over the globe.
She had a great appreciation for culture and the arts, frequently attending local theatre and musical events and regularly purchasing art from local artists that she wanted to support. Her generosity and philanthropy is known by many non-profits in town, to several start-up business ventures and to countless individuals she quietly helped in times of need.

Throughout her life, Nancy valued spirituality and self-development, practicing Transcendental Meditation for five decades. Always adding to her education, she took many advanced courses in Vedic studies and become a Transcendental Meditation teacher. She devoted her life to the support and success of the Maharishi International University.

Nancy was preceded in death by her parents and her brother, John S. Watkins, III.
She is survived by her nieces, Juli Watkins of Castle Rock, Colo., and Michelle Watkins of Leawood, Kan.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations to the Maharishi International University be given online at giving.miu.edu.

2007

Molly IVINS
January 31, 2007

 

Molly Ivins obituary

 

A Tribute to Molly Ivins by Judy Bronstein Milestone:

I only knew Molly in college from her Sophian role, but was lucky enough to get to know her in more recent years. We both wound up at political conventions from 1984 on. I particularly remember a segment we did on assertive Texas women—Ann Richards, Liz Carpenter and Molly—for they were close to the exercise of power and saw the absurdity of it. Conventions could be dull stuff, but not for these three. And there was more than one time when a guest cancelled and Molly bailed me out. The guy who ran the CNN news operation then was impressed when I could snag Molly. I always knew I owed her.

One Thursday night in the early 90s, I was waiting for a plane at National (now Reagan airport) and there was Molly on a book tour and headed to Atlanta. We juggled seats so we could sit together and I think we had one drink in the airport, and another when we boarded. Sitting to our left was Senator Bob Graham from Florida and right in front of us, my then Congressman Newt Gingrich In playful mode, I said to Senator Graham—here’s my friend Molly Ivins and he jumped out of his seat—excited to meet her—and even had a copy of her book in his briefcase which she autographed for his wife. Then we tapped Newt on the shoulder to introduce her, but he just grunted—and we got a great chuckle. We talked on that flight about her discomfort with her celebrity—something she had not anticipated and didn’t fully relish. When we landed Molly’s press escort was there to meet the plane – and as they always do – asked Molly if she wanted to use the facilities. I can still Molly rolling her eyes as I left the airport.

A few years later she was in Atlanta for some event and we found time for a very long lunch – I think the restaurant wanted to bean us – but it was such a good chance to laugh not only at politics but the foibles of the news business.

The last time I saw Molly was at Carol Christ’s Inaugural. She so graciously took part in a panel about Smith’s role in her development as a public person—and then all weekend long, made us laugh. Some humorists are scripted funny, but Molly was the real thing—oneliners bubbled from her in her many dialects.

For our 40th reunion, we did a panel based on a column Molly wrote about the prospect of a woman president. Molly had planned to be there, but the chemo was too debilitating, and she had to cancel at the last minute. It is a tribute to her that four of her Smith classmates had a lively and informative discussion—and even not present, Molly’s spirit was in the room.

Paul Krugman wrote a thoughtful piece in the New York Times February 2nd about Molly’s bravery—and it was true. When so many members of the press lost their voice after 9/11, Molly kept talking. For her laughter, her gutsiness and our shared affection for Smith, I will miss her.

Paul Krugman’s Article on Molly

Review of MOLLY IVINS, A REBEL LIFE by Bill Minutaglio and W. Michael Smith