Grinnell College Class Letters
Promoting and sustaining relationships between classmates and the College.
Scarola, Nancy Jean (von Lackum) (05/15/1939–12/14/2000). Nancy von Lackum of Waterloo, Iowa received a B.A. degree in American Studies from Grinnell in 1961. She was active in the Women’s Recreational Association (Dance Intramural Chair), the women’s swimming club (White Caps) and lived in Loose Hall. Later she was a teacher in Denver, Colorado. In 1963 she married Richard Gridley Barrows. After their divorce, she married a Mr. Scarola.
William Ernest “Ernie” Rutherford, M.D. (June 12, 1939–July 28, 2012)
On July 28, 2012, the Grinnell College Class of 1961 unexpectedly lost a talented classmate and friend, Dr. William Ernest “Ernie” Rutherford. On a beautiful Saturday morning near his Monroe, Louisiana home, Ernie accidently drowned.
Ernie made significant contributions to our undergraduate years, 1957-1961. He lived in Cowles Hall and served our junior year as its Vice President and the next year as its President and thus as an ex officio member of the Council of
House Presidents (C of HP). He also was on the staff for the 1960 Cyclone yearbook. Ernie was a letterman in track and football and thus a member of Honor G.
On the track team he was a pole vaulter and javelin thrower. At the Midwest Conference meet in 1960, he tied for first in the vault and was third in the throw. His senior year, Ernie was the Captain of the team and finished first at the Conference meet in both of his events with a vault of 13 feet and a throw of 170 feet. In 1961 he was awarded the College’s Harold Alexander Trophy for the Most Valuable member of the track team. (To the right is his photo with his pole and javelin from the 1961 Cyclone.)
A football game program from 1958 said he was a “5′ 9,” 155-lb. tailback [who was] inexperienced, but doing a fine job. A good passer, he will probably run the team next year.” (To the left is his photo from that program.) The next two years, however, the team switched from a single-wing to a winged-T offense led by quarterbacks, Bob Woito ’60 and Art Peterson ’63. Nevertheless, Ernie earned letters for three years as a defensive back.
Ernie’s involvement in football and student government his senior year merged in an interesting tale of Ernie’s leadership.
Grinnell won its final football game in 1960, defeating Ripon, 23-0. After the team’s return to campus that night, they had a festive beer blast on North Campus (Mac Field). As a result of the party’s noise, some house presidents (and hence Ernie’s fellow members of C of HP) went onto Mac Field and indiscriminately issued fines to members of the team.
Afterwards, Ernie was upset and led discussions at Cowles as to what should be done. As a result, Cowles (led by Ernie) seceded from student government and proclaimed that it would thereafter make and enforce its own rules, would no longer be part of student government and would not be subject to C of HP rules and dictates. (To the left is a photo of the leaders of the Cowles secession (from left to right): Ernie Rutherford and our classmates John Powers, Bill Kell, Jack Pitts and John Morris.)
The Cowles secession gathered much sympathy from other students and even from some faculty members (really something of a rebellion against in loco parentis). Students in other residence halls began to contemplate secession, and for a time it appeared that the whole fabric of student government might fall apart. Instead, in the Spring of 1961 a student constitutional convention was held that with subsequent student referendum approval totally reorganized student government.
The new constitution formed a new Student Government Association (SGA) with a Student Senate to make the rules for student conduct, the existing C of HP and AWS (Associated Women Students) Board to enforce the rules and new student courts to adjudicate violations of the rules. In the Spring of 1961, at the student government nominating convention, Rutherford gave the nominating speech for his fellow Cowles secessionist, Bill Halama, who went on to win the election and become the first SGA president in 1961-62.
Ernie’s obtaining Grinnell’s B.A. degree in Chemistry-Zoology in 1961 was an important step in his journey to fulfill his dream from age 4 of becoming a medical doctor. (His senior photo from the 1961 Cyclone is to the right.) His interest in the College was sparked by a visit to his high school in Albuquerque, New Mexico by a Grinnell admissions counselor who helped him obtain a scholarship that enabled Ernie to attend the College.
After graduating from Grinnell, Ernie took the next step in becoming a physician. He went directly to the University of Colorado School of Medicine, where he obtained his M.D. degree in 1965. For his last year of med school he was awarded a prestigious scholarship by the Boettcher Foundation. In 1964, during his junior year in medical school, he married Ileta Fay Atchley and began their life of 48 years together.
From 1965 through 1967 he was an Intern and Resident at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Drafted in 1967, Ernie spent the next three years in Germany as an Air Force doctor while he and Ileta traveled throughout Europe and Scandinavia. He developed a love of skiing and became an honorary member of ski patrols in Germany and Czechoslovakia.
In 1970 he returned to Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis as a Research Fellow in Renal Disease where over the next eight years he did pioneering research on chronic kidney disease.
In August 1978 he and his family moved to Monroe, Louisiana. There he started a new life in the private practice of medicine to meet the medical needs of the large African-American population with high incidences of diabetes and kidney diseases. By 1982, he and Dr. Joan Blondin opened the first Northeast Louisiana Dialysis Center in Monroe, ultimately growing the practice to six clinics in the region. Dr.
Rutherford was influential in establishing a rural health clinic in Start, Louisiana with Jennifer Bennett who worked with him since 1981.
In November 2006, Ernie started another new venture–university teaching. At Louisiana State University Conway he was a full professor of clinical family medicine, always teaching his residents to question everything, and to learn the “why” not just the “what,” and always to listen to the patient (his mom always told him that). He received the teacher of the year award in 2010.
Ernie is survived by his wife Ileta, son Phillip Raymond Rutherford (Grinnell ’88) and his wife Felicia Stingone and their two daughters Gabriella and Francesca, son Jason Stewart Rutherford ’93 and his wife Jessica Rutherford and their two daughters Melanie and Nina, sister Margie Kimbrough, and a ‘surrogate’ son Joe Mansour. He is also survived by numerous sister- and brother-in-laws, nieces and nephews.
Gifts may be given to Grinnell College in memory of William “Ernie” Rutherford ’61. Friends and family wish to establish a scholarship that will benefit Grinnell students interested in pursuing a degree in medicine. Those wishing to contribute may do so by sending a check to Grinnell College, Old Glove Factory, Attn: Meg Jones Bair, 733 Broad Street, Grinnell, IA 50112.
Walton, Funeral Services Set for Drowning Victim (July 30, 2012), http://myarklamiss.com/fulltext?nxd_id=154452
; Brown, Update- Man Drowns in Bayou Desiard (July 30, 2012), http://myarklamiss.com/fulltext?nxd_id=154312; Obituary, William Ernest “Ernie” Rutherford, http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thenewsstar/obituary.aspx?n=william-ernest-rutherford-ernie&pid=158868332&fhid=12536#fbLoggedOut.
Ross, Rodney Reid (December 24, 1938—May 1975). Rod Ross from Omaha, Nebraska attended Grinnell for his first year and a half of college and lived in Langan Hall.
Rogers, Phyllis Noreen (01/23/1940–11/17/2007). Phyllis Rogers of Fulton, Missouri, after a year at Williams Woods College, transferred to Grinnell in 1958. She received Grinnell’s B.A. degree in Mathematics in 1961. She had an excellent academic record: Linn Smith Prize for Excellence in Mathematics and Phi Beta Kappa (1961). She also received the Ladies Education Society Citizenship Award. She was a member of the Math Club, the Choir and Women’s Glee Club. Phyllis lived in Cleveland and James Halls.
Upon graduation, Phyllis was awarded a Grinnell Travel Service Scholarship for a year’s work (1961-62) at the College of Commerce in Tanganyika (n/k/a Tanzania). She then studied economics for the next four years (1962-66) in graduate school at the University of Minnesota, where she also was a teaching assistant. Phyllis then embarked on a career as an actuary for several insurance companies and later the Presbyterian Ministers Fund. She was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and membership in the Academy of Actuaries.
Rogers, Kay Ann (Ashby) (02/11/39–01/08/92). Kay Ashby attended Grinnell for the first three years of college. She was a leader in student government (Student Council, 1957-58 and Main Hall Baffleboard, 1959-60). She was active in the Women’s Recreation Association and its Board. She lived in Main and Haines Halls.
Kay married Grinnell class mate, Charles Raymond (Ray) Rogers. In their 30 years of marriage, Kay devoted herself to their family. Her greatest joy was raising their three sons–Stan, Kyle and Kent–to be kind, gentle and generous with their families and in their work as she was. Kay also made it possible for Ray to try to make a difference by “doing it his way.” As Ray said, the world is better because of her. Kay was survived by Ray and their three sons.
On July 10, 2014, Grinnell College lost one of its distinguished graduates and our friend and classmate, Paul Gillan Risser. He was
Vice Chair of the College’s Board of Trustees, which he joined in 2007 and which he also served as the Chair of its Search Committee that selected Raynard S. Kington as the College’s President.
The current Chair of the Board, Clint Korver, ’89, said, “Paul was a stalwart of the Board” and “an extraordinarily accomplished scientist, administrator, and champion of the value of a liberal arts education. His high level of intellectual energy and demonstrated commitment to excellence in all aspects of his work were inspirational and contagious; he will be missed.”
As a Grinnell undergraduate, Paul was a Biology major and a member and captain of the cross country team and Honor G. He was a resident of South Younker Hall, serving as its President and as a member of the Council of House Presidents (CofHP) his senior year.
For our 50th reunion, Paul recalled the College “as a place of real community where for the most part there were relatively mild differences of views and perspectives; some of us were passionate about circumstances or issues, where we pursued causes but we looked as much inwardly as outwardly; we generally worked hard and all rejoiced in a liberal arts education as we pieced together its personal value; career choices were of interest but not of desperate concern; and faculty frequently were heroic in their support of us as students and really as friends.”
After obtaining his Grinnell B.A. in 1961, Paul’s next stop was the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he earned the M.S. degree in Botany and Ph. D. in Botany and Soils in 1965 and 1967 respectively. He then returned to his native Oklahoma to serve for the next 14 years (1967-1981) on the Botany faculty of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, where he became a full Professor and Chair of the Department of Botany and Microbiology.
In 1981 Paul entered university administration as Director, Illinois Natural History Survey, University of Illinois (1981-1986). He then moved on to Provost and Vice President for Research and Academic Affairs, University of New Mexico (1986-1992); President, Miami University, Miami OH (1993-1996); President, Oregon State University (1996-2002); Chancellor of the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education (2003-2006); and Chair and Chief Operating Officer of the University of Oklahoma Research Cabinet.
Upon Paul’s passing, an official of the State of Oklahoma said Paul “was a great Oklahoman and educator who worked tirelessly and selflessly to better the lives of Oklahoma’s young people” and was “a strong and visionary leader whose work improved college enrollment and graduation rates.”
Paul also served as Acting Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History; the National Science Foundation’s Program Director of Ecosystem Studies: and president of three national professional organizations: the American Institute of Biological Sciences; the Ecological Society of America and the Association of Southwestern Naturalists. He chaired the Board of Environmental Studies and Toxicology of the National Academy of Science and of the Institute of Ecosystem Studies of New York and was the Secretary General of the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment. Paul was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was an advisor or consultant with many prestigious scientific organizations (including the National Science Foundation and the National Academy of Sciences) and agencies conducting scientific research and public policy development (including the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Park Service).
He also was a Trustee of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the Executive Director of EDGE, Oklahoma’s economic development organization, and Chair of Oklahoma’s P-20 Council.
All of these scientific endeavors drew upon his research interests in the structure and function of grassland and forest ecosystems, environmental planning and management, landscape ecology and global change. Throughout his career Paul authored or edited six books and published more than 100 chapters and scientific papers in referred journals. These many accomplishments were recognized in 1994 by Grinnell’s awarding him the honorary Doctor of Science degree.
On November 17, 2002, Paul spoke on “The Danger of Fragmentation,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7TeGa6YX2g, for the TEDxOUSalon, a program of Oklahoma, self-organized events to share a TED-like experience. He spoke about the need to understand the fragments of any situation or problem and how they relate to the whole in terms of a theory. For making decisions, we need to understand the fragments (what, how and why) and how they relate to the whole in terms of a triple bottom line: profit, people and planet.
For many years Paul battled cancer, which caused the amputation of his left arm in 1999 and which eventually caused his death. In his last days while working on his laptop computer in his hospital bed, he said, “So much to do. So little time.”
At Paul’s memorial service at the First Presbyterian Church of Norman, his twin brother and fellow Grinnell classmate, Jim Risser, recalled their maintaining a special relationship even though miles apart after College. For example, more than once they coincidently exchanged the same birthday or Christmas gifts, and when Jim was in an airplane accident, Paul without any knowledge of the incident called their mother to ask what had happened to Jim.
The program for the memorial service quoted this beautiful poem by his wife Les composed for Paul on Valentine’s Day of 2014, “”I love you for your integrity, honesty and commitment to always doing what is right.//I love you for your generosity whether in sharing of your ideas or the sharing of your material resources.//I love you for always endeavoring to make things better, no matter how insurmountable the challenges may be.//I love you for being an idea-man, a doer, and a humble man of great accomplishments.//I love you for your indefatigable will to ‘keep on going.’//I love you for loving my daughters and making them ‘our’ daughters.//I love you for adding four wonderful sons to my life.//I love you for the gift of your mom—a true gift in my life.//I love you for being open-minded, tolerant and free-spirited.//I love you for believing that is equally important to work hard and play hard.//I love you for showing me the world.//I have loved being ‘us’ every moment of every day, of every year.//I love you P.G.”
Paul is survived by Les; twin brother and classmate, Jim (Barbara); brother Ted (Trudy); sons David (Holly), Mark (Yola), Stephen (Kelly) and Scott (Hilary); stepdaughters Amy (Randy) and Sarah (Bob); and 14 grandchildren.
In celebration of Paul’s life and contributions to education, the Paul G. Risser Scholarship Fund has been created at the University of Oklahoma. Contributions to the Fund may be made through the University of Oklahoma Foundation, 100 Timberdell Road, Norman, OK 73019.
When I met Bob in seventh grade in our home town of Milwaukee, he was laughing about getting caught in the woods without any toilet paper. A poison ivy rash takes a long time to heal.
Experiments in physics and chemistry played an important part in our lives in Shorewood High School. We made a zip gun out of a car antenna, and its bullet severely dented our water heater. Black powder was easy to make, but when we tried to make nitroglycerine, the concoction boiled, and we threw it into a snowdrift.
Spending money was earned by life guarding on Lake Michigan. Lifeguards dug deep holes in the sand to bury dead fish. One sport was for two guards to jump into the hole, and each try to get out while forcing the other back in. Bob was wiry and very good at these pit rumbles.
We instituted the New Year’s Eve sans-suit swim in Lake Michigan. We couldn’t understand why others didn’t join us.
In preparation for college we took a night-school course in typing. Our mothers thought we were such good boys that they should fix us snacks for after our typing class. Soon we got bored with the class so we went to the movies and then collected our snacks.
During our joint campus visit to Carleton, Bob split up when a student blew a simple geometric proof. We decided to go to Grinnell.
Bob and I and our fellow Grinnell classmates Phil Grimm and Jon Groteluschen spent a spring vacation in New Orleans during our Grinnell years. We were low on money, so we decided to sneak Bob into a drive-in movie. Bob was cut by the trunk lid and needed stitches. They were free since Bob’s dad was a doctor.
We took a canoe trip into Canada. Again we were low on money, so we checked ourselves into the jail in Ely, Minnesota. We thanked the jailer in a Christmas card.
Bob was best man when Jeanette and I were married.
After graduate school at Northwestern, Bob taught Industrial Engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His courses were difficult, and he laughed at the derogatory graffiti about them on the walls of the campus restrooms.
The cops pinched Bob when he rode his motorcycle through a campus flower bed in Amherst.
Amherst is at a low altitude, so when Bob visited New Mexico he was a little out of breath. He couldn’t admit this, so in a climb into the high country he took an uncharacteristic interest in plants, streams, flowers―anything to rest.
Our parents retired to the same subdivision in Arkansas. After Bob got sick, his dad arranged for us to take a canoe trip on Arkansas’ Buffalo River. Bob joked about his illness and how it was a perfect foil against insurance salesmen. He died a few months later.
Peter Lysne
In Fall 1957, Floyd Price, Jr. came to Grinnell from the small southwestern Nebraska village of Hayes Center. However, he was born in 1939 in Kansas City, Missouri to the Rev. Floyd M. Price and Rowena (Lindley) Price, who moved around a lot due to his father’s` being a United Church of Christ (UCC) preacher, resulting in his son getting to know different parts of the U.S.
When Floyd joined our class, he became a four-year member of Clark Hall, and a fellow classmate and Clark Hall resident recalls that Floyd was serious, quiet, dependable, solemn, gentle and a steady presence but always in the background.
That description also applies to his major extra-curricular activity as the manager of our varsity football team for four years. Floyd was the first person to arrive before every football practice and the last to leave after it was over. His duties included handling all the balls, dummies, jerseys and other equipment, assisting the student trainer with first aid and confirming hotel bookings for road trips. For games he handled kick-off and extra-point tees plus kept track of each player’s time on the field to determine his end-of-season eligibility for a varsity letter. In recognition of this service, the players after the end of the sophomore season made him an honorary member of Honor G, the men’s athletic club. (It should also be mentioned that for his first two years he was the manager of the varsity basketball team and that he served as a waiter in Cowles dining hall.)
Academically Floyd was a chemistry-zoology major, which was the basis for his B.A. degree in June 1961. Then it was on to the University of Nebraska to obtain a M.S. degree in physiology in 1963 and serve as a research associate at Nebraska’s Institute for Cell Research, 1963-64.
Next Floyd started a 31-year career at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, where he made major contributions to molecular cell biology. The focus for his work was studying mechanisms of carcinogenesis using tissue culture models. The results of much of his research proved that genetic predisposition to cancer is associated with deficient DNA repair. His research also contributed to the development of a potential assay (lab test to find and measure the amount of a specific substance) for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease. Floyd co-authored 60 scientific papers/articles during his career. In 1968 he was elected to membership in Sigma Xi (the Scientific Research Honor Society) and received the National Institute Health Quality Performance Award for his being the senior or co-author of 12 research articles about malignant transformation of mammalian cells in vitro.
After buying a house in Germantown, Maryland in 1984, Floyd saw a poster at a local grocery store advertising the town’s new UCC church (United Church of Christ of Seneca Valley). He immediately visited the church and became one of its charter members and served on its first Missions Board and Nominating Committee. He started the church’s first children’s choirs, the “Morning Stars” for very young singers and “Rainbow Singers” for older children. Over the years, he wrote several original songs for these church groups. Floyd enjoyed playing the recorder and sometimes offered special musical pieces for church services, particularly with other instrumentalists. He also sang bass in
the church choir and was generous in sharing his preferences for favorite hymns and choir music. He described the church, especially the choir, as his local family.
He often addressed his church friends with expressions of abiding love and gratitude for his fellow “children of God” and found hope and meaning in God and the sacred story. In his retirement, he started volunteering weekly in the church office (folding the bulletins for Sunday worship services). The office staff and pastors counted on Floyd and looked forward to seeing him each week for his gifts were numerous and his love and heart were huge.
Floyd also told friends that when in 1993 he fell and broke his neck, God was looking out for him by sending friends to check on him and then helping him to walk again when doctors had told him that he couldn’t walk again.
In Floyd’s final days his pastor asked what scripture he wanted read at his memorial service, and Floyd said the one about Jesus telling Peter to feed his sheep three times. Here is that passage (John 21: 15-17): “When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” [Peter] said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” A second time Jesus said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” [Peter] said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” [Jesus] said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because [Jesus] said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And [Peter] said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.””
The pastor believes that this passage was chosen because “Floyd knew what it was to feed and to be fed. What a gift he was to us and we were to him. Feed my sheep lived out in real time.”
Price, who was unmarried, is survived by his beloved sister, Beatrice Price of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, many cousins in Pelzer, South Carolina and many friends and colleagues at Grinnell College, the University of Nebraska, the National Cancer Institute, the United Church of Christ of Seneca Valley and elsewhere. —Duane W. Krohnke
June 23, 1936–July 13, 2000
Mike Recht of Clayton, Missouri was at Grinnell College for two years (1957-59) and lived in North Younker Hall. He then transferred to Washington University.
Rehwaldt, Charles Arthur, Jr. (“Chad”) (10/16/1937–10/20/1995). Chad Rehwaldt of Muscatine, Iowa was a student at M.I.T. from 1955 to 1958 and at Grinnell from 1959 to 1961, but did not receive a degree from either institution. At Grinnell he was a Philosophy major, a photographer for the College annual (1960 Cyclone), and a member of the Camera Club. He lived in Dibble Hall. Chad served in the
U.S. Army, 1961-63. He was a self-employed photographer, 1964-69, and later he worked with a photography marketing firm. Chad was survived by his wife, Helen Frances (Burland) Rehwaldt.
