Spring 2012 AAUS Newsletter

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY SCHOOL SPRING

2012 NEWSLETTER

MEMBERSHIP

*Ben Burtt, 38 *Thomas D. Bowen, ‘38 *Caroline Hildreth Rolfe, ‘61 *Joseph Davidson, ‘38 *Washington Smith, Jr., ’46 brother of Don ’62 and Rudolph ’50 Smith, and Constance Smith McVoy, ‘47 *Adrienne Mooney Luksza, ’59, sister of Mike ’62 and Phil ’58 Mooney and sister-in-law of Alice Shuff Mooney,‘58

We are wrapping up another successful membership drive 2012. Again thank you everyone who renewed their membership and the continued support of our Life members. AAUS currently has about 415 members. This is pretty good for a group limited by length of the school’s existence and an aging population.

Also we extend our condolences to Karen Williams, '64 on the passing of her mother, Marian Williams Curtis who was just 4 days short of her 98th birthday.

FAREWELLS Unfortunately we must mention the sad part of our newsletter: the farewells.

I have learned of these through family notifications and sometimes through returned mail. If any of this news is in error please correct me and I will put the correction in the next newsletter.

This time it seems especially sad since so many of those who have passed have close relatives who are also University School members. We send our deepest sympathies to their families and friends.

Again, if I have left out any relatives who also attended University School please alert me.

OUR ANNUAL MEETING WHEN: SATURDAY, JUNE 30TH TIME: 12:30 – 4:00 WHERE: RAMSEYER HALL This year we will NOT be meeting in Rm. 100 since it will be undergoing renovation. (Many of us have such fond memories of Mary Tolbert and our choirs in that room so not meeting there this year will be very sad.) However, we have been graciously offered the second largest room in Ramseyer. Our meeting then will be held in RM. 136. PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE - RM. 136!

*Ann (Toni) Reynolds Silverio,’51 sister of Ben ’62 and Pete ’56 Reynolds. *Joseph Devennish,’35 father of Julie ’69 and husband of Polly Saxe Devennish, ‘41 *Cathy Clark Stoner, ’55 sister of David (Clark) Barnard, ‘55

The annual meeting will first consist of a short meeting in which officers will be elected and a treasurer’s/membership report will be given. Then we will have 1

regarding address, etc. “everything is good to go”. If that sounds like you, or if you don’t get a print directory by the end of July please contact me. I am sorry I messed up your order. Contact Steffanie Haueisen, jswhaueisen@yahoo.com or (614)846-6494.

introductions of those attending. There will probably be two classes celebrating their 50th and their 60th reunions who will be joining the rest of us. One of our esteemed guests at the Annual Meeting will be Coach Bob White who is coming in from Minnesota to attend the class of 1962 50th reunion as well as our meeting.

After introductions will be group picture time followed by a tour of the building. This will probably begin around 1:30. Light refreshments will be served; beverages, nuts, cake, cookies.

GREAT OPPORTUNITY Tom Thatcher, ’45 sent AAUS some of his University School memorabilia in which was included a ceramic mug from one of their class reunions. It was made by acclaimed local potter Nicodemus. I told him that sadly the OSU Archives only collect paper related items and what should we do with the mug. He graciously offered to donate it, along with two other Nicodemus pottery items, to AAUS to sell as a fundraising event.

This is a great opportunity for us and potentially for any of you who might collect Nicodemus or know someone who does. We really appreciate this Tom!!!

Two questions spring to mind. *Does anyone know of a connection with Nicodemus to University School?

Nicodemus worked out of his studio in Clintonville with his primary production period during the 1950s and 1960s. I remember going to his studio to buy items with my mother, Melba Woodruff, and several other University School teachers. I always wondered if there was a connection between Nicodemus and someone on the faculty or student body. *Does anyone know how it came to be that Nicodemus was chosen to make these mugs for the reunion, and how many he made? He was very well known by then and it couldn’t have been inexpensive for a special order of this kind. What a wonderful reunion memory this is!

DIRECTORY Directory orders have been coming in nicely. Since I want to do as thorough a job as possible in tracking down those on whom we have no addresses and I am in the midst of several other commitments right now, I have decided that I can’t get it printed and mailed until mid to late July. If this changes the location to which you would like it mailed please notify me. For those who want electronic versions, they will be ready about the same time.

I have been amazed at how many of you sent over $200 in donations, some small, some quite large, to help with the printing and mailing costs. I really, really appreciate your generosity and apologize that I simply don’t have the time to thank you individually. I also deeply appreciate all the kind words you included with your orders. Yes, I do love being associated with such wonderful people.

I have one order for a print directory which got separated from its envelope and there is no name on the form. It would help me a lot to find out who wanted “plain old school print”, 3hole punched (yes!!, si, si!) and who said, in

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If you know anything regarding the answers to my questions, please let me know.

The sale: I have tried to price the items fairly. I have followed the pricing of Nicodemus for several years but I am certainly not an expert, nor is there much of his work on sale at any given time.

If you would like to purchase one of these items, please call or e-mail me, jswhaueisen@yahoo.com , (614)8466494 with your bid. (Do not send any checks at this point.) The bidding period lasts until Sunday, June 17th, (Father’s Day). If there are identical highest bids, then it goes to the first one received.

If, after the bidding period, there are no offers on any item then it will go on EBay. Again, thank you very much for this opportunity Tom Thatcher!

2. A miniature jug. Nicodemus miniatures are very rare. It is ceramic with an N on the bottom (as well as a C for Chester). It is in his characteristic blue glaze. Asking $75.

1. The signature piece of Nicodemus, the Robin. Probably his best known work; the Robin is in his famous ferro-stone material, signed on the bottom and still has the label. Asking $150.

3. The reunion mug. Ceramic, gray tone glaze with brown accents of clay showing through the glaze. Signed.

Asking $50.

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(artists, musicians, authors, media industry); in Education (primary, secondary and college level); in Science(doctors, scientists, dentists, social sciences); in Political Sciences(mayors, councilmen, attorneys, community involved personnel); and many others.

Try to keep the information to approx.

1 typed page for easier adaption to electronic mode, or send several installments. I will be including these as well in the newsletter. Please send your “Special Achievers” directly to the website or to jswhaueisen@yahoo.com or to AAUS, 587 Fox Lane, Worthington, OH 43085.

AAUS WEBSITE www.tosus.org The website is continually adding information. We have been given the goahead from the membership to go ahead with the personalized website, configurable membership database (up to 500 members), secure sign on with email address & password, group mailing list, private event calendar, file repository for email lists, class rosters, etc. (limited to 250 mb), and member forum (blog). Once that is up and going, the website will add in the details for you.

John Jacobs, ’62 has added a section entitled, “Special Achievers” to the website. He and AAUS are seeking your help to compile a detailed list of people, students and faculty who are “Special Achievers”.

We have many “Special Achievers” in every occupational field and personal interest area. Please send any biographical information you have (hopefully even a picture) on anyone in your class, or certainly among the faculty, whom you would like to recognize. Please also consider yourself in that category, some of your accomplishments may not be known to others and we would appreciate being able to share it. Don’t be shy or minimize your accomplishments.

These accomplishments can be past ones and/or current ones. We are interested in recognizing these accomplishments in current University School people but also those who have passed away. We wish to recognize individuals who have made a difference in their occupation, organization(s), community involvement or through the sharing of a hobby.

I am personally aware of many outstanding individuals in the Arts,

The following is a good example of not knowing the extent of a classmate’s full contribution to the world.

I knew of my classmate John Howard’s (’64) outstanding contribution to the field of primary and secondary education through his teaching and administration work. I had no idea what he had been up to since retiring. I received this from John, looked up his website and was blown away. Look for yourselves, www.mysteriousgems.net.

He says, “I have been teaching English for the past nine years at St. Johns River State College in Florida; however I penned my first book in grad school at OSU in 1972. I am the first author in history to write a fiction book without “To Be Verbs-am, be, being, is, are, was, were, and become.” Many contemporary scholars have added “become” to the list of irregular to be verbs. My passion is the verb and the sentence. I have been developing a typology centered on the verb as the center piece of language – a true morpher that changes into six other parts of speech. No other part of speech has the form or structural features.

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in California and Nevada. The company has an accomplished team at the helm, having extensive experience in the design, production, and sale of wireless technologies for civilian and military applications. The company would soon introduce a range of Aerius green mobile phones equipped with its proprietary energy efficient communication technology for cellular handset and other mobile communication devices.

Secondly, I have studied the syntactical form of the sentence and the use of free modifiers to add coloration and voice to its structure. I have two more books coming this summer and some Giclee art related to the initial book. God bless!”

(Editor note: I am a fiction junkie and can hardly wait to read these!)

Another example of a “Special Achiever” – Bill Luxon, ’50 CEO of Aerius International whose guidance and leadership earned this prestigious award for his company. Quite an accomplishment!

(About Frost & Sullivan Green Excellence Awards Instituted as an integral part of the Environment & Building Technologies Practice of Frost & Sullivan, Green Excellence Awards are presented to companies that have excelled in green product and technology innovation, and service achievements. These Awards recognize groundbreaking ideation and innovation across a multitude of disciplines that originated from a firm sense of environmental responsibility.

Recipient companies are committed to a continuous focus on reducing the dependency on finite resources, from concept to commercialization. Their efforts demonstrate a resolve to reduce the impact of climate change and overall ecological footprint.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.)

2009 FROST & SULLIVAN GREEN TECHNOLOGY AWARD The 2009 Frost & Sullivan North American Green Excellence of the Year Award in the field of wireless technologies goes to Aerius International in recognition of its development of a breakthrough cell phone antenna design that increases cell phone battery life by 2 to 4 hours, increases handset range, and single cell coverage area significantly while reducing the frequency of dropped calls. By allowing cell sites to work efficiently by using up to 50% less power, this technology, when widely deployed, has the potential to reduce cell site CO2 emissions by up to 1.2 million tons per year just in the United States. The increase in coverage area would also mean reduced infrastructure costs, thereby aiding governments and cell-site operators around the world looking to expand their rural wireless coverage.

CORRESPONDENCE John Reuter ’60, “Since taking early retirement from full time practice, I have been teaching part time at Guys Dental School here in London(England). The way we were taught at University School is now judged to be a highly effective method. It has been a great second career experience, with much encouraging

Aerius International is a cell phone engineering, product design, and marketing start-up with facilities

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will be 95 in July and am in excellent health both physically and mentally.

Best to who ever is left from the class of 1935 and all those who followed me.”

feedback from the students. As they have been quite generous to me, I realized some time ago how very little I had expressed appreciation of my teachers all those years ago. One teacher who specially impressed me was Irwin Sleznick, who taught special science together with other classes. He not only taught very effectively, but had a sense of humor. One day he began a seminar by drawing a large letter U on the board, and pointed to the top left while saying that “sexuality is not absolute with the top of each leg being pure masculine and pure feminine, but with graduations between.” He then pointed to the bottom of the U and said, “this is where Biology teachers were”.

After reading his book about his Second World War career acting as a Japanese translator whose job was to precede American troops attempting to talk Japanese soldiers out of their island caves, I managed to contact his home, expressing how much I valued his teaching. Unfortunately, he was undergoing kidney dialysis, so I could only pass on my message via his wife. I only wish I had done so much, much earlier. I would have liked to share teaching experiences with him.”

Mary Chapman McVey, ’48, “I entered U-High in 1944 and graduated with the class of 1948 and am always interested in hearing anything about the school and the people that attended UHigh as well as the staff.

If you are interested, I still have a copy of the school song and also the Principles booklet which was in with my graduation letter.” (Yes, we would.)

Shirley Hendrick Frondorf, ’44 “When I was going to University School (over 60 years ago) we lived in Worthington. It was during the War and my father was in the Army at Ft. Hayes.

We lived on E. New England Ave. It was in a little group of New England style houses with a tennis court we all shared. I wonder if that house is still there or even if Ft. Hayes still exists.

(Yes, they both do, though they look different now.) Worthington was pretty country like in those days. I rode a shuttle bus home from school that didn’t run very often out High Street and when it got to Worthington I walked the rest of the way. Very cold. Finally I had a boy friend who had a car – very unusual in those days. We were all kind of wild then. After school we went across the street to a kind of saloon on the corner of Woodruff and High and drank beer – nobody said anything about age cards.

What a wonderful time it was, and what a wonderful school it was. Nothing can compare!”

Walter Page, Jr. ’35, (on his move from Columbus to California). “My wife of 70 years died last march but I am now in a wonderful retirement community near Glendale, California. My suite at the top floor of the resident building overlooks Glendale and the San Gabrielle Mountains. My daughter lives 15 minutes away and my son 40 minutes away. Glendale is between Burbank and Pasadena.

I still have my home and get back to Columbus a couple of times a year. I

PLEASE CONTINUE TO SHARE WITH OUR READERS!!!

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