50th Reunion
After graduation I remained at Amherst as an assistant in the Zoology Department, and had a great year. Then I was convinced by my family to try the retailing experience in our family-owned department store. My father was having some medical problems, and it seemed the proper thing to do. However, after two ears I left to attend a condensed version of an engineering course at Stevens Institute of Technology. Dr. Harvey Davis, then president of Stevens, and I became good friends--he was intrigued that an arts graduate could excel in the engineering field, and I was asked to stay and teach. But, Curtiss-Wright wooed me to their engine division in the production engineering department, and I spent a fascinating year there before trying my hand as an instructor at Stevens.
The war intervened and I soon found myself at Annapolis. Then on to outfit the U.S.S. Cotten (DD 669), a destroyer, at her berth in Kearney, N.J., as an assistant engineering officer. It was during this period that I met my future wife, Barbara Lee Gumaer of Stamford, CT., while she was lunching with a mutual friend at Schrafts in New York. (She remains a "chocoholic" to this day!) After the ship's commissioning and "shakedown cruise," Barb and I decided to get married, having been assured by the Navy brass that we would be stationed on the Fast Coast for at least a year. The year was shortened to seven days and ten minutes and I was off to the Pacific. Meanwhile, Barbara decided she could gain admittance to the Norfolk (Va.) Naval Station by flashing her Coast Guard pass. She got in all right but then couldn't get out and landed in the "brig." The amateur spy found out we had sailed and had nothing in her possession to prove she was married to me except for a small newspaper clipping.
Needless to say, it took hours for her to prove who she was, but then she almost botched the whole thing by signing her maiden name on the Navy release papers !!The Cotten was attached to the Third and Fifth Fleets under Admirals Spruance and Halsey and remained in the Pacific until the occupation of Tokyo Bay.
The next period of our lives saw us take up residence in Bergen County, N.J., while I returned to the family department store and became enmeshed in retailing.
Meanwhile, the children kept arriving until the count reached four - three girls and a boy. I became an expert on motorcycles, car parts, horses, horse trailers, and horse shows. Barbara was renowned for her tailgate lunches and we muddled through the years in Tenafly, N.J., with four houses on the same street! At about the time some of the kids were flying from the nest, my father passed away. This was the undoing of the family department store and it was sold. I found myself in industrial real estate and kept my hand in until Barbara and I decided to "retire" a few years back. Retire to "what" was the question! Well, who would believe it, but we now find ourselves residing in Middle Island, N.Y., with our eldest, Jane, and Jean, her daughter. Jane has been breeding and showing Labrador retrievers for the past twelve years and convinced us to buy a boarding kennel for dogs and cats: Life is never simple and being in charge of "maintenance" keeps me going from morning to night.
So, to all of our friends, old and new, we offer this blanket invitation- if you are ever in the vicinity of Long Island, stop in - we run a hell of a cat house, with a 10% discount for senior citizens!!