Olivia DrakeElisabeth Young-Bruehl, philosopher, psychoanalyst and public intellectual, died suddenly on Dec. 1 at the age of 65. She served on the Wesleyan faculty for nearly two decades, joining the College of Letters in 1974, after earning her Ph.D. in Philosophy at the New School, where she studied closely with Hannah Arendt. In 1982, Young-Bruehl published what is still considered the definitive biography of Arendt, Hannah Arendt: For Love of the World (Yale University Press, 1982; Second Edition, 2004), a text for which she received the Harcourt Literary Prize in Biography and Memoirs. Six years later, in 1988, she published an intellectual…
Dr. Philippa Coughlan, 75, director of Wesleyan’s Office of Behavioral Health for Students (OBHS), died March 17 after a brief illness. Dr. Coughlan founded OBHS in the early 1970s, and she coordinated and directed psychotherapeutic and counseling services at Wesleyan for nearly 40 years. Many generations of Wesleyan students benefited from her professional skills, diligent work, and caring support. Under her guidance, the office expanded to meet the substantial increases in both the number of students seeking assistance and the complexity of the issues those students present. Dr. Coughlan received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she worked…
Bill HolderWilliam Ward, professor of theater and design emeritus, died June 14, 2010. He was 79 years old. Ward came to Wesleyan in 1956, as an instructor in art, and he taught at Wesleyan for 42 years, becoming professor of theater and design in 1969. He retired in 1998. Ward designed sets for more than 100 plays and concerts at Wesleyan, and he also created graphical and other design work for more than 25 exhibitions and publications. Ward was one of the principal faculty involved in proposing the Center for the Arts complex, for which he served as design consultant. In…
Janette Boothby, 89, formerly of Middletown, died Feb. 16 at the Seabury Retirement Community in Bloomfield, Conn. where she had been a resident for 17 years. She was employed for more than 30 years by the Art Department and the Davison Art Center at Wesleyan as librarian and registrar of the Davison Art Center Print Collection. She pursued other forms of artistic expression in her life, including drawing, painting, graphic design and calligraphy. She won many prizes for her watercolor paintings and was a member of several area arts organizations. After her retirement from Wesleyan, she volunteered with The Middlesex…
Carl Viggiani, professor of romance languages and literatures, emeritus, died suddenly on Jan. 16, 2010. He was 87 years old. He joined the Wesleyan faculty in 1954, teaching French language and literature. He was active in the Center for the Humanities in its early years, offered numerous colloquia for the College of Letters, founded the Wesleyan program in Paris which he directed or served as resident director in Paris over seven and a half years, and served frequently as chair of the Romance Languages and Literatures Department. Viggiani earned his bachelor’s degree from Columbia College, master’s degree from Harvard University,…
Ramnad V. Raghavan, a widely respected performer of the Karnatak mrdangam and long-time member of Wesleyan's music faculty, died in Chennai, India, Nov. 21 after a long illness. Raghavan came from a distinguished family of musicians that produced, among others, his brother Ramnad V. Krishnan and internationally known violinists L. Subramaniam and L. Shankar. Sri Raghavan learned mrdangam from his brother Ramnad Easwaran. He served as artist in residence in music at Wesleyan from 1970 to 1975, and again from 1987 to 2000, teaching South Indian drumming. In the years between his Wesleyan appointments he lived in Cleveland, Ohio where…
Eileen Day, 74, of Middlefield, Conn. died Nov. 22. Day was born in Rockfall, Conn. June 17, 1935. She worked at Wesleyan for 23 years, and also served on the board of Middlefield Cemetery. Day worked as an administrative assistant in the Office of Events Scheduling for first part of her career and in Physical Plant in the Student Life Facilities office at the latter end. She retired in 2003 to spend time with her family and to travel. She loved to visit family that live in different areas of the country. "Eileen was a trusted and loyal employee as well…
A service in tribute to Stanley Lebergott, the Chester D. Hubbard Professor of Economics and Social Sciences, Emeritus, who passed away on July 24, will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 18. The service will be in the Daniel Family Commons in the Usdan University Center and will be followed by a reception. The Lebergott family invites friends and colleagues who may have photographs or remembrances of Stan to bring them to the service. Lebergott began his career as a public servant, working for 20 years in the U.S. Department of Labor, the International Labor Office, and the U.S.…
Tadd Gero ’08 died Aug. 17 from a resistant strain of pneumonia. Gero graduated as a theater major after transferring from Simon's Rock College. While on campus he was involved in campus activities including reporting for The Wesleyan Argus. Upon graduation, Gero worked as a reporter for The Independent Newspaper in Hudson, N.Y. and continued his involvement with theater. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Oct. 3 at Time & Space Limited, 434 Columbia Street, in Hudson, N.Y. The family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to TSL, P.O. Box 343, Hudson, NY…
David PesciStanley Lebergott, the Chester D. Hubbard Professor of Economics and Social Sciences, Emeritus, died July 24 after a long illness. He was 91 years old. Lebergott began his career as a public servant, working for 20 years in the U.S. Department of Labor, the International Labor Office, and the U.S. Bureau of the Budget. He joined the Wesleyan faculty in 1962 as a professor of economics, becoming University Professor in 1970. He was a pivotal scholar in his field, and a prolific author. In addition to more than 50 articles, his books include: Manpower in Economic Growth: The American Record…
Willard B. Walker, professor of anthropology emeritus, died May 23 in Skowhegan, Maine. He was 82 years old. Walker was one of the mainstays of the Anthropology Department for more than two decades. He came to Wesleyan in 1966 as an assistant professor, where he and Dave McAllester established anthropology as a department. A specialist in Native American languages and cultures, Walker taught courses on the ethnography of the southwest, the southeast, and the northeast and he also single-handedly maintained a curricular focus on linguistic anthropology. His research interests ranged from Zuni phonology and semantics to the cryptographic use of…
Ellen "Puffin" D'Oench, curator emerita of the Davison Art Center, adjunct professor of art history emerita, and former trustee of Wesleyan University died May 22 in Middletown. She was 78 years old and had been ill for some time. D'Oench interrupted her education at Vassar College to marry Russell "Derry" D'Oench and raise their family. She completed her undergraduate education at Wesleyan in 1973, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in the same class as her son Peter. She received a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1979. D'Oench was Curator of the Davison Art Center from 1979 until…