Yale Divinity School

Notes from 2008

Ellen Alter ’56 Div. and her husband Bob ’55 B.D. continue to live in Wooster, OH and from October through December in Mussoorie, India, where they spent much of their missionary career and have a family home now occupied by a son and his wife. Christmas gatherings of the extended Alter clan are often held there. They maintain close ties with Woodstock School and its alumni.

Jay Anderson ’56 B.D. ’57 S.T.M. and his wife, Lois, live in Newton, KS. In 2007 they went to Russia, toured Moscow, the Volga, and St. Petersburg and visited the Methodist Seminary in Moscow and a missionary family they help support. Recently they returned form an Alaskan Cruise. Last spring they attended the United Methodist General Conference in Fort Worth, TX as prayer delegates. Jay is an area representative of The Mission Society and the U.S. Center for World Missions.

Verlyn Barker ’56 B.D. ’60 S.T.M writes, “I give thanks for my experience at YDS and its contribution to my life and work.” Recalling classmate Frank Mullen ’56 M.Div., Verlyn says, “Frank and I saw a lot of each other when we were both living in New York and were both on the Dean’s Advisory council.”

J. Henry Coffer Jr. ’56 B.D. lives in Hendersonville, TN. Coping with colon cancer he says, “I consider myself very fortunate in that I am still doing well in the eighth year since the original diagnosis and surgery. One of my ‘discoveries’ has been the DVDs produced by The Teaching Company. They feature top professors in nearly every field. These lectures have kept my brain alive and active.

David E. Durham ’56 B.D., after being a minister for the past two years in the British Methodist Church, is moving into a year-round retirement cottage on Cayuga Lake, NY. He says, “We enjoyed extensive reading in Celtic Christian spirituality and seminars with Philip Newell and David Adam during our life in northeast England. I wish I had encountered the great Irish/Scot Celtic saints earlier in my life!”

Richard Gelwick ’56 lives in Harpswell, ME and writes, “All is well.  I am still teaching as an adjunct professor at Bangor Theological Seminary.  This fall I am teaching ‘The Theology and Ethics of Paul Tillich.’”

Ted Halsted ’56 M.Div. participated in a Volunteers in Mission project in Waveland, MS in February 2008. Recently he visited four former exchange students, in Germany, Finland, and Austria, who continue to be “daughters” in the extended Halsted family, and participated in an Elderhostel study/travel seminar on “Europe in Transition” in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary.

Ruth Hooke ’56 M.Div. sang in an international choir festival in Salsburg, Austria this past summer.  In November Ruth will be in Nazareth, Israel with an Arabic peace group.  Ruth lives in Amherst, MA.

Charles A. Kennedy ’56 B.D. will be teaching an adult ed class on the Muslim statement addressed to Christians, “A Common Word Between Us and You” at Colby-Sawyer College, New London, NH. Chuck is the current president of the New Hampshire Bible Society and on the board of the New Hampshire Council of Churches.

Mary Fran Libassi ’56 Div. currently lives in Bloomfield, CT.

In 2008 Nick Piediscalzi ’56 B.D. fulfilled a life-long dream to live in Italy for an extended time. He spent two months studying Italian at La Universita per Stanieri de Perugia and one month visiting relatives and friends. Nick lives in Santa Barbara, CA.

Don Preslan ’56 B.D. and his wife Jean attended anniversary events at two of his former parishes: his first church in Burton, OH, and his second church in Chillicothe, OH.  “It was truly a blessing to re-live past experiences with loved ones in both churches.” says Don.  As Class Agent Don is delighted that 84% of the Class of 1956 contributed to the YDS Annual Fund ($9,415).  The Preslans live in Loveland, CO.

W. Roscoe Riley ’56 M.Div. continues to enjoy good health and occasionally does some supply preaching. During the year he was a construction worker for Habitat for Humanity on Cape Cod, MA, in Augusta, GA and Biloxi, MS. His most important news is that on November 11, 2007 he married Joy Hendrickson. They reside in Mashpee, MA.

Roger F. Rose ’56 M.Div. resides in Aiso Viejo, CA. Since retiring in 2000 he has been involved in ministry in Chinese churches. In 2001 he spent a school year in Taichung, Taiwan to begin learning Mandarin, and serving in ST. James Church, Taichung. He has continued in language study since returning to the USA and currently serves part-time at St. Thomas church, Hacidenda Heights, CA. The Roses have three children and four grandchildren.

Norm Thomas ’56 M.Div. hosted a family reunion at a YMCA camp in Colorado this past summer.

Bob Thomason ’56 B.D. went bicycling in Germany during the summer.  A high point was visiting Leipsig, where a church had a courageous witness for peace long before the Wall fell.

Since retiring from full-time pastoral ministry in 2001, Ron Woodruff ’56 M.Div. has continued to be busy as chaplain to the Huntley, IL Fire Department; chaplain of the McHenry County Illinois Habitat for Humanity; vice-chair of his Neighborhood watch; and active in church. Ron lives in Woodstock, IL.

Notes from 2007

Ellen Alter ’56 Div. writes that she and her husband Bob Alter ’55 B.D. have returned from their annual pilgrimage to India, where they celebrated Christmas with their son Steve and his family who live in their family home in the Himalayas and son Andy and his family who came from Australia. Since then they have been busy planning a mission study tour of North India with folks from their church in Wooster, OH.  They continue to attempt to outrun the ravages of time with regular walks and exercise.

Donald Beisswenger ’56 B.D. of Nashville, TN was recently awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by Macalester College, having received a Distinguished Citizen Citation from the College in 2002.  After graduating from YDS, Beisswenger pastored churches for seven years.  In 1962, he developed a business-industrial ministry while working on assembly lines in Chicago. He also traveled to the South to register African-American voters and advocate for the black community. In 1968, he joined the Vanderbilt Divinity School as a professor and director of field education, bringing national recognition to the divinity school for the excellence of the program. Beisswenger has co-edited five volumes of Theological Field Education: Key Resources and has been active with the Association of Theological Field Education, serving one term as president. After retiring from Vanderbilt in 1996, he continued to work on behalf of the poor and homeless in Nashville and to study the oppressed poor in Latin America. His activism led to his arrest and incarceration for protesting at what was then The School of the Americas at Ft. Benning, GA. Beisswenger said at his sentencing.  “We must always seek to obey God rather than humans. Thoreau once said that protest without resistance is consent. I think we consent if we don’t protest.”

As a UCC pastor, Bobby R. Bonds ’56 M.Div. is presently serving his fourth interim since retirement. In May he and his wife went to Stanwood, MI to visit with classmate Arthur Meissner ’56 M.Div. and his wife for the past three years, Lila.  Meissner's first wife, Clare, died in an auto accident about four years ago.  They spent several days touring northern Michigan and remembering YDS days.  Bonds reports that he now considers himself a “part-time preacher” and a “full-time grandpaw!”

David Broad ’56 B.D. died Dec 20, 2006.  His widow, Eckie, lives at their home in Chagrin Falls OH.  This information was reported by Darwin Mann ’56 B.D., ’57 S.T.M.

John Carey ’56 B.D., ’57 S.T.M. returned to Anchorage, AK in the summer of 2004 to serve a second stint as Interim Pastor at Immanuel Presbyterian Church. Since then he and his wife Mary have decided to move to Alaska permanently to be close to their daughter and three little granddaughters.  John continues to serve the church there.

Ted Halsted ’56 M.Div. toured India in August  2007 with his daughter Carolyn.  Highlights included visiting Belgaum in Karnataka where Halsted had been housefather of a boys hostel in 1951-1952 and going to Nadiad in Gujarat for the dedication of a new classroom built in memory of his wife Marcy at Methodist School of Nursing, which she helped found in 1953. Marcy and Ted met in India in and subsequently shared 52 years of marriage.

Edward Hummel ’56 M.Div. and his wife Joann Hummel ’55 M.Div. have been “busy as beavers” with environmental projects in California, getting  Rancho Palos Verdes to commit itself to the “US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement,” along with 4 other South Bay cities.  They have also had major involvement in the staging of a second annual energy fair with 30 exhibitors and 250 in attendance.

Charles A. Kennedy ’51 B.A., ’56 B.D., ’61 Ph.D. has been teaching adult-ed classes at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, NH on such varied topics as vaudeville, Islam, and the Wesleyan movement in England.  Kennedy still does supply preaching and sings in a choir.  He is president of the New Hampshire Bible Society and on the board of the NH Council of Churches.