Yale Divinity School

H. Richard Bucey ’54 B.D. and his wife are enjoying family, church (first Congregational UCC, Hudson, OH), health, and volunteering. Richard is a trustee of the Hudson Library, the Akron YMCA Foundation, and Hudson Rotary Foundation, raising money for all three. Dick and his wife have adamantly opposed the Iraq War, and are distressed that so many are apathetic regarding the issues of world poverty and tribal genocide.

Edwin S. Gault ’54 M.Div. writes “The story of how God managed to turn a Biblical literalist Philadelphia Methodist into a card carrying member of the FOR, who picketed for the Union during the Yale employees’ strike of 1954, carried anti-war signs in Times Square in the 1960s in clerical garb, saw to the construction of two Long Island churches, served for a dozen years as Secretary of the New York Methodist Conference with 700 preachers and over 200,000 lay members, and then spent two decades in administration of the headquarters for the Ecumenical efforts of the American churches, that story takes more than 75 words (in fact, 99 to this point). That doesn’t include anything about the marriage to Carol and acquisition of four more children for a total of six, nor the family’s subsequent increase by 16 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren scattered from New York to Scotland, to Pennsylvania, Maryland, Florida and California. Nor does it include our retirement to Fort Myers in 1993, our support of the Southwest Florida Symphony, singing in the Symphony Chorus, singing in the choir of St. Hilary’s Episcopal Church and my frequent assistance with the liturgy, my work with the Community Civic Association and ten years as a Vice President of the SW Florida Yale Club. “ PICTURE

Elizabeth Dodson Gray ’54 B.D. is starting her 31st year as director of the Theological Opportunities Program, which began in 1973 at Harvard Divinity School. TOP is a series of ten half-day conferences on Thursdays each Fall (and again each Spring), which are planned by a committee of participants. Attendees come from the Cape, Rhode Island, the Connecticut River Valley, and the greater Boston area (70-80 each Thursday). Gray’s program is being archived at Smith College’s Sophia Smith collection, as are Gray’s papers. The Sophia Smith Collection is one of the foremost women’s archives in the world, and it has the papers of Margaret Sanger, Gloria Steinem and the National YWCA. David Dodson Gray ’54 B.D., ’56 S.T.M. assists Liz with TOP as registrar and banker and creator of TOP’s printed program-mailers. He continues to run Roundtable Press. They are away at Christmas time for a month visiting their children and grandchildren in Ogden, UT and Scottsdale AZ, and again for a month in June at their summer house of 44 years at a beach east of New Haven in Pine Orchard, CT.

John C. Drachenberg ’54 M.Div retired as Associate Minister at the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Oakland, CA in 2002. He and his wife Lois moved to Texas to be close to their oldest daughter in Bastrop. In 2005 John was asked to serves as Association Conference Minster in the South Central Conference of the UCC. John served for two years and has now been fully retired for a year and a half and is enjoying the more leisurely-paced life. He and his wife spent two weeks in the Smokies National Park in mid-August. John is currently working on a project of printing commentaries of six different commentators on the Gospels that include not only Craddock and Brueggemann, but also his good friend the late Bruce K Wood ’46 B.D. John is finding the project to be very informative as well as fascinating inasmuch as they raise and answer many questions he would not have thought of before the project. It is great to enjoy retirement in Texas, but if it were not for the air-conditioning he would not have chosen this place to retire.

Lou Hammann ’54 B.D. retired from teaching at Gettysburg College after 51 years in the academic saddle and is currently a member of Hundredfold Farm Co-housing community, near Cashtown, PA. He invites classmates to visit the web site to get a glimpse of the environmental future (hundredfoldfarm.org). Hammann remains politically active, especially on behalf of a humane and effective Healthcare system, and is working on a book on “the experience of relationships” as the basis of the Gospel and all other religious traditions.

John R. (Jack) Kelly ’54 B.D. lives on two islands: Jekyll off the Georgia coast in winter and Beaver in northern Lake Michigan in summer. He became a Professor Emeritus of the University of Illinois in 1995 after 30 years in a research and Ph.D. directing position and continued publishing on the topics of sociology of aging, leisure, life course, and economics. Most of his dozen books can be found on Amazon.com, cheap and out-of-print. Kelly refers to his own perspective as "social existentialism" (Freedom To Be, 1986), and has added a bit of evolutionary biology and become more clearly non-theistic. Both of Kelly’s daughters are social scientists, one at Purdue and one at Exeter (UK), and he has two grandsons, 19 and 7. He still plays tennis, flies his Cessna, reads, and is doing a little community organization.

Ronald Speirs ’54 S.T.M. writes, “YDS was lively in 1953-54 and as a British research student I learned from Erich Dinkler how to think in seminars and from my fellow students how to be involved in political and social questions, especially race and ‘socialized’ medicine.” Ronald is disappointed nowadays by the lack of prophetic critique in Reflections. He has had an interesting life in university chaplaincy, in the development of community metal health services and in counseling in the National Health Service. He was sorry earlier this year to miss being present at the visit of the Dean to Jesus College here; He was a patient of the NHS at the time!

John Walker ’54 B.D. is now in his 80s but still “going strong, like the energizer bunny.” He’s at St. Paul’s doing pastoral visitation, keeping busy, and he loves it. He’s been attending the Fall Convocations rather consistently with his fellow classmate, Bill Shirley ’54 B.D.

Frederick K. Wentz ’54 Div. had his most recent book published in February 2008. The book, Expanding Horizons for America’s Lutherans: The Story of Abdel Ross Wentz, is both a biography of a prominent Lutheran (Wentz’s father) and a look at a major trend for mid-twentieth century Lutherans. This is the first offering of a new imprint for the Gettysburg Lutheran Theological Seminary, Seminary Ridge Press. For twenty years Frederic has lived as emeritus professor just off campus at Gettysburg Seminary.

Paul Yount ’54 B.D. has lived in Hendersonville, NC since 1994. He will be serving a second term as president of the local Civitan International, a service club dedicated, modestly, to serving individual and community needs, especially concerned with helping the developmentally disabled. Paul also volunteers with Friends of the Library, primarily pricing religious books for the annual book sale, which earns $100,000 each year benefiting extra library services. In the flow of books by televangelists, Billy and his Grahams, conservative evangelicals, Yount counts it as a happy surprise to find an occasional Niebuhr (R. and R.) and other of his own theological supports.

Notes from 2007

Jean Blanning ’54 M.R.E. lives in West Hartford, CT in the same neighborhood with Van Gorder Parker ’54 B.D. and Wayne Rollins ’54 B.D., ’56 M.A., ’60 Ph.D., all classmates from the class of ’54.  The families remain close in their ties.  Jean has retired from a part time associate minister of parish life position in Simsbury First Church UCC and is now a writing consultant for students of Hartford Seminary, several of whom are international students from Damascus, Syria.

John C. Drachenberg ’54 M.Div. and his wife moved to Texas in 2002 after more than six years where John served as Associate Minster at the First Congregational Church UCC in Oakland, CA.  After “wandering in the wilderness” for 42 years and serving 20 years as an active lay member at Old First, John decided to seek ordination, and on St. Patrick’s Day in March 1996 at the age of 70, he was ordained in Oakland.  Despite plans to retire to Texas in 2002, after living there for one year John was called by the South Central Conference of the UCC to serve as the Associate Conference Minister in the Brazos Association in central Texas.  Working with 25 pastors and 13 churches was a great experience, but after 2 years, at the age of 80, he resigned.  Now at the age of 81, John is catching up on the reading he’s put off and enjoying the slower pace of living in the country in Texas.

Lou Hammann ’54 B.D., Emeritus Professor of Religion and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at Gettysburg College, retired in 1997 after 41 years in the saddle. During that time he served as chair of two different departments and director of a (then) new interdisciplinary program.  He even coached the varsity soccer team for 7 years, and accepted an invitation to serve as adjunct professor in the Philosophy Department for the last eleven years. He served on many local boards and promoted more than one local cause.  In addition to serving as co-chair of the National Council of the Alliance for Democracy, he is now part of a co-housing community dedicated to energy and water conservation.  He invites classmates to check out his web site at www.hundredfoldfarm.org to find an example of what you may be able to accomplish in the impending environmental crisis.  Latest book: Religion and Mythology: Married of Necessity (The University Press of America, 1998). He just celebrated his 55th wedding anniversary—and 78th birthday.  He and his wife have five wonderful daughters, six grandsons, and two granddaughters.

W. Paul Jones ’54 B.D., ’55 M.A., ’60 Ph.D. had his eleventh book published, An Eclectic Almanac for the Faithful:  People, Places, and Events That Shape Us (Upper Room Books, 2006).  He splits his time between a hermitage on Lake Pomme de Terre (southern MO) and Assumption Abbey (Trappist) in the Ozark mountains.  He created the Hermitage Spiritual Retreat Center for those seeking a short term experience of anchoritic silence.

John R. (Jack) Kelly ’54 B.D. is a Professor Emeritus of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana where he was a sociologist and social gerontologist for 25 years. He published 12 books with some translated into Chinese and Korean, along with about 150 papers and chapters. He now divides the year between Jekyll Island, GA, and Beaver Island, MI, where he plays tennis, flies his Cessna, and does some writing and community work. He left UCC parish work in 1970 to do a quick Ph.D at the University of Oregon. He has one wife and two daughters, both of whom are social science professors, one at Purdue University and the other at University of Southampton, UK.

At 53 years out from YDS graduation, Eugene Kidder ’54 B.D. is still in ministry as a Pastoral Psychotherapist in Seattle. His wife Barbara, who audited classes at the seminary and has journeyed with him through the years in Youth Ministry and counseling, shares in their commonly held private practice. This depth work of healing allows the couple to stay in meaningful work and play with love and service, while keeping them in life-giving renewal. Eugene retains his standing with the Northwest Regional Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and participates in the University Christian Church here. Their four children and seven grandchildren are all located in the Seattle area, so they enjoy a rich familial lifestyle.  They are deeply invested in classical music, both playing as they are able in the Orchestra Seattle/Seattle Chamber Singers.While they both have had major back surgery in the past year, they are for the most part blessed with good health.  They love staying in touch with close colleagues of ’54, Lou Hammann and Rex Tucker, their wives and families. Kidder also enjoys receiving the publications from YDS which keep him abreast of theological themes and justice concerns.

Wayne G. Rollins ’54 B.D., ’56 M.A., ’60 Ph.D. and D. Andrew Kille have co-authored a book of general interest in the field of psychology and biblical studies.  The title is Psychological Insight Into the Bible: Texts and Readings (Eerdmans, 2007).   In July, Wayne and his wife, Donnalou, traveled to Vienna for a meeting of the International Society of Biblical Literature, where Wayne presented a paper on “Psychological Criticism and the Bible: History, Theory, Method, and Agenda.”  They reside in Hartford, near six grandchildren, and Wayne serves on a part-time basis as Adjunct Professor of Scripture at Hartford Seminary.