GS Class of 1949

Obituaries

Oct, 2022

David Moldstad ’49 AM, of Wooster, Ohio; Mar. 31. He began his teaching career at the University of Tulsa, Okla., and in 1959 he and his family moved to Wooster, where he had been offered a teaching position at the College of Wooster. He taught English at the College of Wooster for the remainder of his career, retiring in 1996. In retirement, he and his wife traveled the world. He was a committed civil rights proponent and supported many social justice causes throughout his life. A U.S. Air Force World War II veteran, he is survived by his wife, Mary; three daughters; a son; two sons-in-law; and four grandchildren.

Aug, 2022

Dorothy Farley Jessen ’49 ScM, of Frederick, Md.; Feb. 22, 2021. She worked as a bacteriologist at Fort Detrick, where she met her future husband. She retired from research in 1956 to raise her family. In 1970, she returned to the workforce as a teacher’s aide in the science department of Governor Thomas Johnson High School, where she remained for 15 years. Due to her aversion to flying, she and her husband drove from Maryland to Hyder, Alaska, which was their favorite vacation destination, 13 times. She is survived by a daughter, a son, three grandchildren, a sister-in-law, and many nieces and nephews.

 

Apr, 2022

Betty House Zeaman ’49 ScM, of Yukon, Okla.; Oct. 17. She was an experimental psychologist who studied learning in people with intellectual disabilities alongside her husband, Prof. David Zeaman. Together they established a laboratory at the Mansfield Training School and for more than 27 years worked on the development of theories of intelligence and the failure to learn. She was an associate editor of the Psychological Bulletin until the passing of her husband and then was editor from 1984 to 1986. During World War II she served in the women’s branch of the U.S. Naval Reserve. She retired to Yukon in 1995. She is survived by a stepson, and four nieces and nephews. 

 

Jun, 2021

Jeffrey J. Bowe ’49 AM, of Boston; Feb. 3. He worked at Air Force Cambridge Research Center, where he served as part of the Semiconductor Advisory Group with senior representatives selected from throughout the industry and government to review and approve all government semiconductor research contracts, while also advising the President’s office on the latest industry developments. He joined Sperry (Conn.) in 1959 as director of research, specializing in silicon integrated circuits, before accepting a position with Radio Corporation of America in 1962 to oversee the development of thin film transistors. In 1966 he was offered a position with NASA overseeing its Electronic Research Center in Cambridge, where his team used newly developed mathematical statistical analyses to test the efficiency, stability, and reliability of the integrated circuits designed for use in the Apollo space program. After NASA’s Cambridge location closed in 1970, he joined the Department of Transportation Systems. He retired from the DOT in 1978 and began teaching at Bunker Hill Community College in Charlestown and was invited to spend a semester teaching physics at Technical University of Budapest in 1987. He retired from Bunker Hill in 1998. He published more than 150 articles and held a dozen patents. He is survived by his wife, Marion; six children and their spouses; 17 grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.

Nov, 2020

Marjorie Schaefer Freeman ’49 ScM, of Jersey Village, Tex.; Apr. 30. She was a research assistant at Texas A&M in the 1950s. After raising her children, she taught math and physics at South Texas Junior College, which later became the University of Houston Downtown and named her an associate professor of applied mathematical sciences. She was a longtime board member and officer of the Weather Research Center and the Weather Museum of Houston, and a member of the American Mathematics Association and the American Meteorological Society. In later years she raised Chesapeake Bay retrievers. She served as president and secretary of the South Texas Obedience Club and was a member of the board of the Southwestern Tracking Association of Metropolitan Houston. She is survived by six children and their spouses, seven grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren.

Nov, 2019

Edward W. Ross Jr. ’49 ScM, ’54 PhD, of North Eastham, Mass.; Feb. 5. He was a member of the Methodist church in both Sudbury and Orleans, Mass. He enjoyed playing bridge and was a fan of the Boston Red Sox. He is survived by his wife, Nancy G. Ross, and daughter Carolyn Francisco ’83, ’85 ScM.

 

Jan, 2019

Henry A. Wilkins ’47, ’49 ScM, of Leesburg, Va.; Aug. 21, of cancer. He was an electrical engineer for Westinghouse Electric Corp .(Md.) and retired in 1994 from Asea Brown Boveri Inc. (Md.) as an account executive. He served in the U.S. Navy during both World War II and the Korean War and was a member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the Institute of Radio Engineers, and Phi Gamma Delta. He is survived by four daughters; two sons; 15 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.

 

Send us your news! 
Help us keep your class updated.

 

Send us an obituary
Help us memorialize your departed classmates