Your Turn
We want to hear from you! Please share thoughts, insights, discrepancies, recollections, photos - and how’s your Tom’s Trivia win-loss percentage coming? Post to our website at magazine.uconn.edu, email the editor at lisa.stiepock@uconn.edu, or send by regular mail to UConn Magazine Letters, 34 N. Eagleville Rd., Storrs, CT 06268-3144. Here’s a sampling of web, social media, mailed, and emailed comments on our last issue, edited for clarity and length.
Thanks so much for UConn Magazine, Fall 2023. I always look forward to the publications. UConn was a great experience when I received my MA. Great professors – what an experience! I was so lucky to find UConn.Stanley R. Howe ’67 MA, Bethel, Maine
Baby’s Firsts
➼ Dark October morning in Connecticut with sad news all around. This story brought me smiles and joy. Just wonderful to have a new member of Husky Nation with a terrific mentor to show him the way. Thank you!Beth Grenham, West Hartford, Connecticut ➼ Will the school logo now be changed to include XV’s “bandit eyes”?
Arthur Bartolomeo ’68 (ENG), Wesley Chapel, Florida ➼ I love that face! He will be a great representative for the fierce Huskies. During my days at UConn Jonathan was all white, but lovable also.
Reid Crawshaw ’62 (BUS), Jacksonville, Florida ➼ We are just so lucky to have a University that’s given its state a reason to smile every time Jonathan the Husky is around. I personally want to thank all the kids at the fraternity who have made our mascots (XIV and XV) stars – training them, and taking exceptional care of them.
Donna Tillbrook
The Moments That Made Sue Bird
➼ Sue, thank you so much for what you have done. Unknown to you, I worked at UConn when you were a student athlete there. I remember all the times your team won. It was wonderful. When I retired, I moved back to Seattle and found you again. I am so glad to have seen you play and to have known what you brought to your teams. I wish you all the best in life.Sharon Alexander, Tumwater, Washington ➼ I really enjoyed reading this article. And seeing the pictures … especially the one of Sue as a little girl with a basketball she seems to be whirling around. 😍😍😍
Helen Beaty ➼ As a lifelong Husky hoops fan, I have always loved watching Sue Bird on the court and off the court. She created joy both ways and will always be remembered as “the greatest”!
Brian Koches ’79 (ENG), Baltimore, Maryland
Unmasked
➼ Great article on a very talented man. I had the pleasure of working with Rob [Saunders] in Los Angeles and almost immediately I knew the production could not have chosen a more driven and talented leader than Rob. It’s so great to read that he is still pushing the art of puppetry and that he’s still fueled by his hunger for art! Bravo!Ross Shuman, Los Angeles, California
Love Stories
➼ My husband, Ben ’66 (CLAS), and I met at UConn in the fall of 1963. I was a sophomore from Cheshire and he, who had returned after dropping out the previous year to study in France, was from Stonington. He had been assigned to Tau Kappa Epsilon as a freshman and he subsequently joined that fraternity. I knew who he was since he was dating the roommate of a girl in my sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, who was from his hometown, but we did not get to know each other until one night in October at A’s and I’s when we shared a dance. After that, we began dating and it soon became obvious that we were meant to be together.
We got pinned in February 1964, engaged in the fall of 1964, and married in August 1965, two weeks after I turned 21 and before the start of my senior year, and when he was 23 1/2, at a time when “living together” was not yet a thing. We lived in Clubhouse Apartments, which was brand new, before graduating in 1966. Ben’s graduation year had been 1964 and he only needed to attend half-time the year that we married so that we could graduate at the same time.
We moved to Chicago so that Ben could pursue a Ph.D. in French at Northwestern. After spending a year in France, we moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where we have resided ever since, with time outs for sabbaticals in Korea and California. He taught French at Eastern Michigan University and I taught ESL for Ann Arbor Public Schools. We have five grown daughters, three adopted from Korea (one of whom is now deceased) and two from China, and three grandchildren. We have many fond memories from our time at UConn where it all began for us so many years ago.Phoebe (Leavenworth) Palmer ’66 (Home Ec.), Ann Arbor, Michigan
A Good Life
➼ I am in tears just finding my special friend from my years in the fine arts program studying side by side with Peter and Janet at UConn. He and Janet were my dear friends. I am just learning about Peter’s passing through UConn Magazine. Noemi described Peter exactly. He had a huge heart, was so well liked and always took time when I stopped into Chester at his business. Please send my heartbroken thoughts at his loss to Janet and hope I will hear from her soon. UConn has always brought forth such gifted individuals such as Peter. He should be recognized in a huge way by the fine arts department. All my best to Peter’s family.Ann (Molday) Williams ’65 (SFA), Mansfield Center, Connecticut
➼ When I was an undergrad at UConn I spent 1976-77 at the University of Lisbon and, for Christmas, my parents sent over a box that had treats from home, including a Whalers T-shirt (which I still have). Later, as a grad student, I worked as a photographer for the University. One of the magazines or newsletters was doing a piece on Peter Good as he was getting some kind of award. I was assigned to get the pictures for the story. While there I listened to his explanation of how he came up with the Whalers design, including defining the “H” in negative space with the other two elements. In its simplicity, it is truly a genius design.
Proof of its genius is in its ability to serve more purposes. While the Whalers had a farm team in Binghamton, New York, they used the logo but it was rotated so that the “W” was now a “B”. The other night here in Maryland I played a game for the Killer Whales in a local hockey league and their logo included a version of the Hartford logo but with the “H” reworked to a “K”. (Who knows if anyone gets royalties from that one!) Pretty much every league across America has a team that uses a version of the Whalers logo.
Also, a few years ago my daughter and her husband, who both grew up in Connecticut, had a Whalers-themed wedding (in Vermont), complete with an intro by Chuck Kaiton, the Voice of the Whalers. (By the way, I sometimes play now with some guys who played for the Whalers then.)
So somewhere in the archives (circa 1985) there are the photos that I took of Peter Good that evening. Who knows? I may even have been shooting in color that night (a rarity).Doug Baker ’78 (CLAS), ’82 MA, ’86 MA, Rockville, Maryland
In follow-up correspondence, Baker shared that he; his wife, Mary Turner Baker ’81, ’82 MA, ’86 Ph.D.; and their siblings and step-siblings count at least 16 UConn degrees among them! – Ed.
Be Kind
➼ Great article and reminder to start the year and always lead with kindness!Kathy L. Harrison, Events & Conference Services Coordinator, UConn Stamford
Feedback
➼ I was pleasantly surprised and delighted by my name mentioned in Guy Caruso’s letter in the Fall 2023 issue.
I truly remember those days/years at UConn serving on the Connecticut Daily Campus for my four years. I followed Guy as sports editor, had a column titled “Right From The Lip,” and was promoted to managing editor and interim editor-in-chief in subsequent years. Those memories and other extracurricular activities will remain with me forever!Charlie Lipson ’67 (BUS), Palm Desert, California
