Memories of Carol Thacher

I did not know Carol during our college days although I obviously knew she was a beautiful, outgoing cheerleader and a member of Tassels (freshmen women’s honorary society) and Mortar Board (senior women’s honorary society).

After she became a lawyer in downtown Minneapolis, she specialized in providing legal advice to businesses on various issues. As counsel at a law firm at the end of her legal career, she also was a mentor to many beginning lawyers. One of them said she had “taught me about professionalism, the value of practical advice and the importance of listening” and that he “realizes now the fundamental impact [she] had on my practice.”

As fellow Minneapolis lawyers, Carol and I occasionally had lunch together for general conversation about legal practice, family, Grinnell friends and general issues of the day, but our relationship did not really start until she hired me to represent her Italian client in a lawsuit in state court in Minneapolis. At the time Carol was a partner in a small law firm that did not have litigation capabilities.

Although the client in the lawsuit was a Minnesota corporation, it was owned by an Italian businessman, and in reality the litigation was an intra-Italian family dispute or feud. As a result, Carol and I had many meetings and conversations about facts and legal issues in the case.

She was deposed in the case, and I was her lawyer. The opposing counsel was unnecessarily annoying, and I had to make many objections.

When our principal client contact, Federico, was in town for the case, he joined Carol, her husband (Steve Ross), my wife (Mary Alyce) and me for a delightful dinner at Forepaughs, a restaurant in an elegant, 19^th century St. Paul mansion.

Later Carol and I had a trip together to visit the client in Bergamo, an old city in Lombardy northeast of Milano and the hometown of opera composer Donizetti. On a weekend Federico took us to Verona, where he had played trumpet in a production of “Aida” in its Roman Coliseum. Our walk around the city took us to the famous balcony where Juliet was wooed by Romeo. On our return to Bergamo, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant overlooking Lake Como. It was the best day of the trip.

As her class obituary says, Carol’s after-dinner remarks at our class’ 50^th reunion were wonderful. She charmed me by recalling her student years when she was skinny and could eat anything she wanted and could sleep through the night. That also was a time when she “was so naïve a lot of life’s problems and issues passed me by” and “could easily be surprised by the dumbest things.” Then she “could touch her toes, walk and chew gum at the same time,” and “the guys would flirt with me and ask me out on dates.”

Carol’s last days were spent in hospice care, and the day before she died, I visited her. Although she was sleeping and non-communicative, I told her that all of our classmates and I loved and supported her in those difficult days.

The Minneapolis StarTribune obituary guest book had these two entries from classmates. Phil Grimm said, “My heartfelt thoughts are with Carol’s family. Carol was a good friend at Grinnell. A great dance partner with a beautiful smile. Carol made our 50th reunion a great success with her wit and charm. We’ll miss her.” Jack Erler added, “My thoughts are with her family. A long time ago Carol and I together endured psychology, worked at Wyonegonic and became lawyers in states with the first letter M.”

Carol is survived by daughter and son-in-law (Marta Skluzacek (Brian) Drew), stepdaughter (Kerry Ross) and four grandchildren (Henry, Caroline and Elizabeth Drew and Asher Ross). Other survivors are Carol’s mother (Beatrice Thacher), sisters and brothers-in-law (Sue Crolick, Ann (Will) Schmid, and Becky (Tracie) Bell), brother and sister-in-law (Tom (Su) Thacher), brother-in-law (Rick Ross), sister-in-law (Sande Ross) and many loving nieces and nephews.

Duane W. Krohnke

 

Carol E. Williams Sykes (February 2, 1940—September 17, 2014)

Carol Williams was from Chicago’s Morgan Park High School, where she was one of its first African-American cheerleaders. She was a student at the College, 1957-59. In her freshman year, she was a member of Orchesis, a women’s modern dance group, and the next year was a staff member for the 1959 Cyclone. She lived in James Hall the first year and in Loose Hall the second.

Thereafter, she obtained a B.A. degree from Roosevelt University and a Master’s from National Louis University. Then she was a teacher for the Chicago Board of Education until she retired in 1990.

Carol, for many years, was a member of committees and boards of the Art Institute of Chicago, a supporter and Board Member of the Deeply Rooted Dance Theatre and member of the Chicago chapters of Smartset and Girlfriends social clubs. She loved to travel and visited many countries.

On August 2, 1960, she married Weathers York “Sonny” Sykes. They had two children: Lori Denise Sykes Stewart (Rodney) and Stephen York Sykes, who survived her along with stepson Rev. Michael Gregory Sykes (Myra) and three grandchildren.

Duane W. Krohnke

 

Stone, Judson Lewis (“Jud”) 05/25/1938–02/17/1990. Jud Stone from Topeka, Kansas served in the U.S. Army, 1956-57, before enrolling at Grinnell in 1957. He received a B.A. degree in Psychology in 1961. He was active in the campus radio station (KGRW) and lived in Langan Hall.

In 1963 he obtained a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Michigan. He then worked as a child therapist before becoming the Director of the Downriver Child Guidance Clinic in Detroit. When federal legislation mandated development of community mental health centers, Jud became one of the earliest directors of such a center. In 1981, Jud moved from Michigan to Illinois to become of Director of the Elk Grove-Schaumburg Community Mental Health Center in suburban Chicago.

In 1960 he married Judith Bourne Stone (Grinnell 1960). When Jud died at age 51 in 1990, he was survived by Judith and their two sons.

 

Stanley, Carol June (”Judy”) Wasick (June 19, 1939—July 20, 2008)

Carol June (“Judy”) Wasick from Chicago was with our class for our freshman and sophomore years (1957-1959). She lived in Cleveland and Read halls and was involved in the Orchestra, Glee Club, Cosmopolitan Club and Young Republicans. Here is a photograph of her from the 1959 Cyclone.

Judy went on to get her B.S. degree from Cal Poly and her Masters degree in English as a Second Language from Fullerton State University. She then became a public elementary school teacher until her retirement in 1995.

In August 1959 she married Glen Preston Blanton, Jr., with whom she had two daughters (Sydney Lynn and Alysia Ann). Her second marriage in March 1977 was to Emilo J. Stanley, a geography professor from Yugoslavia.

Duane W. Krohnke

 

Standefer, Jack Milton (02/27/1939–11/29/2008). Jack Standefer from Des Moines, Iowa attended Grinnell for one and a half years. He transferred to Drake University, where he received a B.A. in Education in 1961. He also obtained a M.A. degree in Mathematics from the University of North Carolina.

Jack then taught mathematics in high schools in Iowa and Florida for 44 years. Toward the end of his teaching career he also taught math at Valencia Community College in Orlando, Florida.

Jack was survived by his wife, Judith and four children.

 

Shipley, Jerry James (11/29/39–1/13/96). For the first two and a half years at Grinnell, I knew Jerry Shipley only by reputation: he was a brilliant and a very serious student. His heavy black-rimmed glasses and his intense manner made him a formidable person. His reputation was backed by solid accomplishment: the prize for the best academic record our freshman year, Phi Beta Kappa, in the Fall of our senior year, honors in economics and Alumni Association Senior Award.

Over the balance of our college years, I was able to get underneath the intimidating exterior shell to find a very witty person who was trying just like the rest of us to find his place in the world. We both were involved in student government and the senior men’s honorary society. We also were in a very demanding and rewarding course, the Political Economy Seminar with Professors John Dawson, Harold Fletcher and Joe Wall.

After we graduated, Jerry and I worked the following summer for Professor Dawson in the basement of Burling Library manually cranking calculators to grind out flow-of-funds numbers. Later that summer the three of us drove to Washington, D.C. to discuss these numbers with people at the Federal Reserve Bank headquarters.

It was that summer while living together that I discovered that Jerry was an excellent cook. I also learned we had similar backgrounds. We came from small Iowa towns although Jerry’s (Ames) seemed like a metropolis to me. We were only sons. We were not close to our fathers who had not gone to college and who had low status jobs (Jerry’s was a barber). Our mothers, on the other hand, had some university education, and Jerry’s, as I recall, was a secretary at Iowa State University. We both were diligent, good students who saw educational success as the way out of this background.

Jerry went to graduate school in economics at Stanford and received a M.A. degree in 1963. For reasons I never knew, however, he never received a Ph.D. after three additional years of graduate study at Stanford. From 1966-71 he taught economics at University of Maryland.

The next 11 years, 1971-1982, he was a staff economist at the Office of Management and Budget; one of the OMB Directors for whom he worked was David Stockman. He then worked as an economist for several trade associations until his death in 1996.

Jerry married another Grinnell classmate, Judy Clyde, and they had two sons, Adam and Peter.

By Duane W. Krohnke

 

Simmons, James Richard (March 1, 1939—November 4, 2022)

Jim Simmons from Chicago’s South Side joined our class after graduating with a scholarship from Francis W. Parker High School (FWP), an eminent private school just off the shore of Lake Michigan on the city’s prosperous North Side.

At Grinnell, he immediately make his mark as a capable, valuable member of our class and as a resident of Smith Hall, which he served his senior year as its president. That meant he was a member of the Council of House Presidents, whose overall leader, Gary Knamiller, says Jim always provided a feeling of warmth and laughter and support for whatever they were doing.

Jim received his Grinnell B.A. in Sociology-Anthropology in 1961 followed by a M.A. in Social Work in 1964 from the University of Chicago and a M.B.A. from Brandeis University in 1984.

As Jim told us in our 50th reunion booklet, he started at the College “intent on becoming an aeronautical engineer, [but] after almost getting buried in the science building, I made the judicious decision to switch majors from physics to anthropology/sociology. Little did I know then how that decision would significantly influence my life. It happened that I was talking to another Grinnellian, who at the time was in graduate school in social work who told me, ‘you’re good with people so you should consider becoming a social worker.’ Needless to say, I took his advice and made a wonderful career as a social worker. In retrospect, I also realize the intrinsic values of social work (e.g., acceptance of differences, valuing individual choices, and self-realization) were nurtured during my years at Grinnell.”

Jim expanded on those thoughts in the next reunion booklet when he said, with counsel from Roger Smith, his Smith Hall mate and class of 1960, “I found my true calling as a social worker, working with delinquent kids in Chicago’s inner city. I began by working with street gangs and after graduate school (University of Chicago, MA (Social Work), 1964), I worked for the Illinois Department of Juvenile Corrections, where I was responsible for the maximum security dormitory housing sixty juveniles from all over the state. My subsequent career included being a psychotherapist, administrator, consultant, college instructor, and public policy analyst. It has been very evident to me that my Grinnell experience prepared me for these experiences in ways that I didn’t realize except in retrospect. At Grinnell I learned how to think critically, express my thoughts effectively, both verbally and written. I think my altruistic tendencies were enhanced and stimulated, leading me to a stimulating and rewarding social work career.”

Nor can anyone forget Jim’s superlative athletic career at the College. In football as an end, he was a letterman and all-conference his sophomore, junior and senior years plus most valuable player and co-captain his senior year and Little All American his last two years. In basketball he was a letterman all three years plus recipient of an award for outstanding player his sophomore year. Jim also earned letters in track all three years and his mile relay team set a new conference record. Jim managed to squeeze in the freshmen baseball team his first year. All of these awards naturally made him a member of the Honor G honorary athletic club and the College’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

Jim’s positive Grinnell experience undoubtedly rubbed off on his family, some of whom also became Grinnellians: his brother (William B. Bailey, 1974), his son David Sean Simmons (1988) and daughter-in law Kimberly Simmons (1989).

Simmons’ friend and classmate from Chicago, Jim Lowry, adds that the two of them enjoyed singing old Everly Brothers songs at a College talent show accompanied by fellow Grinnellian, Herbie Hancock (class of 1960), now a world famous jazz pianist.

Immediately upon learning of Jimmy’s death, Lowry wrote, “Accepting a death of a close friend is difficult at any age, but is extremely painful during your twilight years. I just lost my close friend of seventy plus years He was the nicest person one would ever meet. This death was very painful.”

“To relieve my pain,” Lowry said, “I immediately visited his house and listened to the pain felt by his widow. I hugged her and told her I loved her. I did the same with his two fantastic sons, when they came to visit me. The same day I called my older brother and told him I’m coming to visit him and his lovely wife. In the warmth of their home we laughed and reminisced the good times. I also told him how much I love him and appreciate his being a part of my life.”

“My pain didn’t go away, but I felt better and I was able to sleep that night,” Lowry concluded. “My advice to all, don’t be afraid to tell the persons close to you, you love and appreciate them. And don’t put off the visit… they might not be there when you finally find the time in your life to visit them. Close friends are dear. Cherish, love and hug them.”

Lowry later provided a moving eulogy at Simmons memorial service on December 3 that stated, “I was privileged to know Jim Simmons (or Jimmy Simmons, as we called him on the South Side) for 75 years, thus practically all my life. My life journey with Jimmy started in kindergarten at A.O. Sexton Grammar School in the gym class led by an outstanding P.E. teacher, who was Jimmy’s Mother (and later, my surrogate mother), Phyllis Simmons.” The eulogy continued as follows:

• “In many ways, Grinnell was an extension of FWP–academically challenging, participating in three sports and maturing as young adults. But it was at Grinnell, Jim truly blossomed as an athlete (little All-American in football, all conference in basketball and football, a solid student and a campus leader. Everyone on campus loved and respected Jim Simmons.”
• After college graduation, . . . [Jimmy] married his high school sweetheart Joan and soon became the father of two wonderful sons—Ricky and David.”
• “Over the next 60 years, . . . the bond between us only became stronger. There was seldom a week we did not call each other, a month when we did not view sports events together and as friends did not confess how fortunate and blessed we were for having each other in our lives.”
• “When we both reached 80 years of age, we called each other more often, accepting we were ‘on the back nine of life,’ we repeated the same stories over and over, laughing constantly. We often mentioned, as close as we were, we never had a single argument.”
• “Although we always shared stories of FWP, Grinnell, and local and national political events, we devoted the majority of our time discussing our families. He never stopped talking about his sons Ricky and David, whom he loved deeply. Without failure, he also would devote hours talking about his grandchildren.”
• “Their discussions usually shifted to the two women in his life: his Mother Phyllis, who amazed us all with her longevity, intelligence and wisdom; and his wife Judy, whom he loved so much.”
• “Jim was loved by all. Jim had a positive impact on me, on his family and on everyone who got to know him. Jim Simmons, you were my brother. I will miss you every day for the rest of my life.”
• “Keep smiling Jimmy, you are in another place, but you will always remain the anchor on whom we always lean and your smile will ever be present.”

Jim is survived by his wife Judith Simmons; sons James R. Simmons, Jr. (Ricky) and David Sean Simmons (Kimberly Simmons); grandchildren Aaron Simmons and Jeremy Simmons of Chicago, IL, Asha Simmons Paulino (Bryan Paulino), Aria Simmons, and Aidan Simmons of Columbia, SC; great-grandchildren Ashley and Ariana Simmons Paulino of Columbia, SC.; and brother William B. Bailey.

Duane W. Krohnke

 

Shipley, Judith (Clyde)–November 11, 1938—March 6, 2022

Judy Clyde left the sunny clime of Carpinteria, California to join our class in the Fall of 1957. She resided in Main Hall (her freshman year), when she became a women’s intramural tennis champion; Loose Hall (her sophomore year), when she participated in Fetzer Sing and in Loose Hall’s winning presentation at the south campus Dance Intramural competition; and Haines Hall (her senior year). Her junior year she spent in Paris at the University of Sorbonne, where she employed and honed her skills in the French language that was her major for graduation in 1961. As a result, Paris became a lifelong love for her and a place she revisited many times.

She was active in theater at the College, playing a young mother with child in the play “The Cave Dwellers” by William Saroyan and the laundress in “Tiger at the Gates” by Jean Giraudoux (English translation by Christopher Fry).

While at Grinnell she and classmate Jerry Shipley met and developed a loving relationship that resulted in their marrying on December 24, 1961. Their first son, Adam Clyde, was born in 1963; their second, Peter James, in 1966. (It also should be noted that Judy and Jerry were divorced in 1994 and that Jerry died in 1996.)

In 1962-64 Judy attended Stanford University, earning a M.A. degree in Education. (In 1982 she earned a M.A. degree in English from Georgetown University.)

After she and her family moved to Washington D.C. in 1966, Judy began her teaching career in the DC Public School system and taught French and English for 30 years at Calvin Coolidge and Benjamin Banneker High Schools. She received multiple teaching awards and recognition and her mission – lifting the lives of disadvantaged inner-city kids — is evidenced by the troves of letters and postcards she received from former students writing from places like Paris or Rome or Ivy league schools about their successes and her impact on their intellectual development.

For decades in retirement, Judy achieved her dream of travelling the world to dozens of places on every continent. Places she would study and learn about before and after her travels. Especially memorable was a Grinnell Alumni trip to Spain in 2006 with friends from our class and era.

Mexico also was a favorite place for Judy and family, especially for many simple and traditional Christmases in Zihuatanejo, Mexico on the Pacific coast. Her son Peter “will forever treasure the sunrises and coffee or sunsets and margaritas we shared together on that beach. My mother enjoyed good food and wine (just a half glass!) and was always up for exploring new culinary experiences.”

Judy was distressed at the political discourse within the U.S.– and appalled by the rhetoric of recent leadership. She believed in the institutions of this country even at its worst moment. Her sense of humor and curiosity in other people’s stories always shone through and was someone with whom you could pass hours in conversation.

Her son, Peter, had the following moving words about his mother. “I am so grateful for everything she did for me and for who she was as a person…….and as I sift through her books and things, I am reminded of what an extraordinary life she led and the life she provided for me. She was a caring, supportive and patient mother, a wonderful grandmother to my children and a truly great friend.” Here is her photo from about seven or eight years ago in son Peter’s garden.

Her memorial service was held on a beautiful day in early April 2022 at Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C. It was officiated by a pastor friend who gave a short sermon. Peter’s children and wife each did a selected poetry reading and Peter read a eulogy.

Duane W. Krohnke and Nancy Welch Barnby (co-authors)

 

Sexton, Patrick James (05/01/1939–03/02/1995). Patrick Sexton of Waterloo, Iowa attended Grinnell College for one year (1957-58).

 

John N. Scott (February 25, 1939—February 20, 2020)

From Lexington, IL, John was with our class our first three years (1957-60). The following three years (1960-63) he studied jazz music at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and was a professional jazz trumpeter in combos in that city.

Our sophomore year, John and I lived in separate rooms in the Gates basement, and Herbie Hancock ’60 frequently came over from Clark Hall to John’s room to listen to jazz LPs on his HiFi set. When Miles Davis LPs were played, John jammed along on his own trumpet while Herbie sans piano listened and hummed. (How amazing that only a few years later Herbie was a member of the Miles Davis Quintet, 1963-68.)

In the spring of our junior year, John played the trumpet in the Herbie Hancock Quintet on campus with Herbie, piano; Bob Taylor ’63, trombone; Phil Balick ’63, bass; and Steve Hecht ’62, drums. According to the S&B (the student newspaper), the group’s music included three pieces written by John plus three others by John and Herbie together with “the bulk of the credit” for the latter belonging to Hancock. Two of the Hancock-Scott tunes—“Portrait of Miles” [Davis] and “Griffin”–had been well received in “the Chicago jazz world” by 1960 with “Portrait of Miles” being played on the road by a group led by the well-known drummer, Philly Joe Jones. The S&B article also said, “Scott aspires to writing as well as playing jazz,” as he “is a serious student of jazz, and his one ambition is to play it” with those skills to be enhanced by his attending Berklee (‘Cool’ Five Play Oldies, Moderns, S&B, April 22, 1960).

Although Hancock had played in or led several jazz group throughout his four years at the College, the S&B article reports Herbie saying, this group was the best of all of them. “There’s something happening with this group. Most of the guys are seriously interested in jazz and are trying to say something of their own. It makes playing a gig more than just another dance job.” Moreover, with the previously mentioned originals, said Herbie, “We play a lot of tunes no one else plays.”

Moreover, Herbie, in his 2014 memoir Possibilities, recalled that John could “play pretty well” on the trumpet and became “a close friend; we even wrote a song together that I would later record for my second album,” My Point of View with trumpet by Donald Byrd (Blue Note 1963). That song was “A Tribute to Someone,” which was written and played at Grinnell as the previously mentioned “Portrait of Miles.”

Another Hancock-Scott song, “The Maze,” also was written and played at Grinnell and was recorded on Herbie’s first album, Takin Off (Blue Note 1962) with trumpet by Freddie Hubbard and is listed as a Hancock-Scott composition in The Real Jazz Solos Book (MP1630.28.R44 (2014) on the Berklee College of Music website.

Somehow, John found time, presumably 1963-64, to attend Southern Illinois University to obtain a B.A. degree before going to the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago to obtain

D.D.S. (Doctor of Dental Surgery) and M.S. degrees in 1966. Thereafter he was a successful endodontist performing root canal surgeries in the Champaign-Urbana area.

While he was practicing endodontistry during the days, at night and on the weekends, John played trumpet in jazz combos he formed while mentoring many young jazz musicians, composing many jazz tunes and recording jazz CDs. Later he created a more durable set of 10 CDs of his ensembles and compositions from Chicago and Central Illinois along with a list of his compositions. (Planet of Fools: A Tribute to John “Dok” Scott, https://sites.google.com/view/dokscott/compositions.) Now we can understand why his email “handle” was “jazzdok.”

On August 30, 1967, John married Nancy H. Pogel ’62, but they were divorced around 1973. A second marriage to Linda Gavelek also ended in divorce.

John retired from his medical practice in 2003 and moved to Las Cruces, NM, for the next six years before returning to Central Illinois. After living in a memory care facility, John died on February 20, 2020 in Mahomet, IL. He was survived by his sisters Jeanie Scott and Ruth Scott Robben.

Duane W. Krohnke