50th Reunion

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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.

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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!!