Deceased February 7, 2020
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In Memory
We first met on an “endless” train trip from Philadelphia to Northampton in September 1951 for our freshman year. That meeting resulted in our becoming roommates, fraternity brothers and lifelong friends. During our working years, our main time of contact was at our five-year class reunions. It was the kind of friendship that did not need constant tending. After we both retired and became minimally competent at email, we would exchange thoughts and concerns about politics and activities on the Amherst campus. After various health challenges, Dick would send out medical bulletins which could be fully appreciated only by his medical friends and colleagues. Dick had a quiet and thoughtful approach to events and issues, and his responses to them were often delivered with a small, knowing smile. Our last email exchanges were in early January in what Dick labeled “the deadly Christmas letter,” which set forth the current exploits of our children and grandchildren. After a near-death experience, Dick was quick to thank his wife of 60-plus years, Barbara, for his recovery. Ironically, in our exchanges we would often congratulate ourselves for not being the subject of Rob Sowersby’s mortuary emails.
Dick died on Feb. 7, due to a staph infection. As an undergraduate, he was a member of the Beta fraternity, majored in biology, played squash and was on the Intramural Council. After Amherst he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. In 1968, he came to the University of Vermont Medical School where he was a professor of radiology for 33 years. Dick was a marathoner, running in 35 marathons, including seven in Boston. While studying in Boston in the 1960s, he met Barbara Davis, whom he married in 1968. She survives him, as do their two daughters and four grandchildren.
John Halsted ’55