Tributes and Memories of Those We Will Miss
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Wesleyan University Wasch Center for Retired Faculty Newsletter Vol. 10, No. 1 Spring 2019 Tributes and Memories of Those We Will Miss PETER FRENZEL TRIBUTE Written by Karl Scheibe The first half of this issue features tributes and memories for the following individuals who have passed away since our previous issue published January 2018: hile Peter Frenzel’s Wesleyan career spanned 52 years, it seems Peter Frenzel ...................................p. 1 W appropriate here to focus on the last years of his life, when he occupied an office on the David Schorr....................................p. 2 third floor of the Wasch Center. If he and Laurie Lew Lukens......................................p. 2 were in Middletown, Peter would make the trip daily from their nearby home on Miles Avenue Peter Kilby........................................p. 3 to his office. Upon arriving in the morning, he would pick up his coffee downstairs, then take Douglas J. Bennet...........................p. 4 the elevator to his office, which looked out on John David Maguire.........................p. 5 Lawn Avenue. His door was usually open—and I’m not sure he ever locked it. Many of us in Lewis C. Robertson...........................p. 5 the house looked forward to having a chat with Also included in this issue are the following articles and Peter—either in his office or elsewhere in the event listings house. Occasionally he left his cane somewhere, and delivering it to him offered a good excuse WILL Spring Course Offerings......p. 9 for stopping in to see him. Peter was a gifted Updates from Emeritus Faculty........p. 10 and genial conversationalist—patient, learned, and endowed with a wry sense of humor. A From Wesleyan to Burning Man.......p. 12 conversation with him left one enlightened and Spring Film Series.............................p. 13 enlivened. Peter served as the first editor of the Wasch Middletown’s Oddfellows Playhouse: Center Newsletter, and he occupied this post A Theater Lab for Kids.....................p. 14 for ten years. He combined quiet competence Spring Lecture Series........................p. 15 with a determination to keep things engaging, and innate good taste. The 20 issues of the A Memorial Photo Collage ..............p. 19 Newsletter for which he was responsible Continued on page 2. 1 Tributes and Memories continued from page 1. constitute an irreplaceable archive of material the Newsletter, he served many terms on our about distinguished members of our faculty, about Advisory Board. He offered courses in our WILL individual academic programs, and about the program, often with his friends Walter Mayo character of the Wesleyan community we know and Joyce Lowrie, on grand opera, for which they and love. shared a passion. And he would consent, after some Peter was a large man with a strong voice encouragement, to offer talks in our Wednesday and a remarkable range of talents—in music, afternoon series, on topics such as German in medieval studies, in variants of the German medieval poetry and song—complete with stirring language, in culinary arts, in humorous poetry. recitations in Middle High German. From his arrival at Wesleyan in 1966 until his death Mostly Peter is remembered as a friend—a in May, 2018, he was a fixture in the Wesleyan gentle, caring, and able person who gave us more community. He and Laurie became notable for than he received and who never called attention to their hospitality; colleagues young and old coveted his own needs. It is easy to see him in his light-blue invitations to the holiday feasts at their home. The University of Michigan robe, carrying the mace as antithesis of a self-promoter, Peter never asked for Faculty Marshall, or to recall his stirring sounding or expected recognition for his many contributions of the bells of South College, to mention just two to the life of the University. In giving of his time, of the many roles he performed at Wesleyan. These energy, and intellectual resources, he stood out images and memories are indelible, and those of us for his generosity. Peter Frenzel was also a deeply who have them in our heads and hearts possess a honorable man, a man of unwavering integrity. rare and precious gift. Within the framework provided by the Wasch Continued on page 3. Center, Peter did everything. In addition to editing Wasch Center for Retired Faculty 2 Tributes and Memories continued from page 2. DAVID SCHORR avid Schorr, Professor of Art, died on Saturday, June 16, 2018 at the age of 71. D David was born and raised in Chicago and he received his B.A. from Brown University, and his B.F.A. and M.F.A. from Yale University. He arrived at Wesleyan in 1971, and over the past 47 years, he taught a wide range of courses including printmaking, drawing, typography, book design, graphic design, and calligraphy. In the printshop he was famous as a benevolent dictator, who both enforced strict requirements and offered generous encouragement. He received the Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 2015. David’s career as an artist and designer was younger faculty, and a devoted friend to many as broad ranging as his teaching. He designed people in many parts of the world. many posters and books, provided illustrations His colleague Jeffrey Schiff, Professor of Art, for numerous books (including Parallel Lives, by said: “David was an incomparable raconteur who Phyllis Rose, and Norman Shapiro’s translations loved bringing people together around art and of La Fontaine’s fables), provided hundreds of conversation. He was a dedicated teacher, who literary portraits for The New Republic (some cared deeply about his students and the fullness of of which currently hang in the Shapiro Writing the educational enterprise, and did much to shape Center and in the President’s Office), and had the studio arts at Wesleyan.” Phyllis Rose, Professor an active practice as a painter and printmaker, of English, Emerita, added: “He was the most life- exhibiting regularly with the Mary Ryan Gallery affirming, life-enhancing person I’ve ever known, in New York City for over 30 years. David’s work vital in himself and a source of vitality and joy to addressed themes ranging from the human others. He was playful and self-dramatizing, and, at comedy (Commedia dell’Arte) and tragic loss the same time, a deep humanist, who loved music (the AIDS crisis) to nostalgia. By any measure, his and poetry as much as he loved art and felt they career was wholly successful. all worked together. The day before he suffered While all this is true and admirable, it is far the aortic dissection that eventually felled him, he from capturing David’s uniqueness. He had a taught a class on printmaking in Italian to Italian marvelous wit, and an extraordinary cultural range students at Bologna’s Accademia di Belle Arti and that included visual art, and music from opera to said to me on FaceTime, ‘I LOVE teaching!’” show tunes, and movies, and literature. He could There were two memorial services for David, one recite from memory many dozens of poems. And at the Wesleyan Chapel in September, and the other he loved talking about it all, not to demonstrate in New York, in an auditorium of the Morgan Library, his sophistication but to share his pleasure. Many in October. Both of them were filled to capacity. of us can remember his exclaiming some variant David leaves behind his sister-in-law, Natalie, and of: “Have you read this book?” / “Have you seen her daughter Sarah (Wesleyan 1999) and son Max this show?” / “Have you heard this recording?” // (Wesleyan 2003) and their families. “Oh, you have to!” David was a peerless colleague at Wesleyan, showing particular kindness toward Continued on page 4. 3 Newsletter Spring 2017 Tributes and Memories continued from page 3. LEW LUKENS PETER KILBY ewis “Lew” N. Lukens, Professor of eter Kilby, Professor Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, of Economics, LEmeritus, passed away last Saturday, PEmeritus, passed September 8, 2018 at the age of 91. away on August 2, 2018, at Lew received his B.A. from Harvard the age of 83. University and his Ph.D. from the University Peter received his B.A. of Pennsylvania. He came to Wesleyan in 1966, from Harvard University, first in the Biology Department and then as one his M.A. from Johns of the founding members of the Department of Hopkins University, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, where he and his D.Phil from the remained until his retirement in 1999. University of Oxford. He worked with USAID as Lew’s research involved the regulation of an Industrial Economist in Nigeria for two years gene expression by eukaryotic cells, specifically before arriving at Wesleyan in 1965. the genes for Type I and Type II collagen. He was an economist whose work focused on He received many research grants from the economic development, particularly in Africa. National Institutes of Health, National Science Over his career, Peter held appointments as a Foundation, and the United States Department Fulbright Fellow, a Ford Foundation Foreign of Agriculture. During his years at Wesleyan, Area Fellow, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, and a Lew served as chair of the Biology Department, Guggenheim Fellow. He was a Senior Advisor on the Committee on Graduate Instruction, and of the ILO World Employment Programme in as program director of the Biomedical Research Geneva, a member of the Ciskei Commission Support Grant. In his retirement, he served in South Africa, and served as a consultant for on the advisory board of the Wasch Center for the governments of Malaysia and Tanzania, Retired Faculty. the World Bank in Kenya and Nigeria, USAID, “Lew was a productive, incisive scientist whose the U.S.