In Memoriam

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22025
Donnica Dunkley, Class of 2010, June 6. 2025, Tribute
Lisa Marie Engel Brunson, Class of 1992, May 22, 2025, Obituary
Steve Taylor, Professor of History, May 22, 2025 Obituary (Faculty Tribute at bottom of this page)
Deborah Guptill, Age 82, April 3, 2025, Obituary
Katherine S. Johns, Class of 1950, March 3, 2025, Obituary
Jennifer Comeau, Class of 1997, March 19, 2025, Obituary
Lisa Ann LaBeef Richards, Class of 1978, February 22, 2025, Obituary
Jane Marsh Dieckman, Class of 1955, February 21, 1955, Obituary
Alice L. Jordan, Class of 1971, February 11, 2025, Obituary
Lucy Wachter Freeman, Class of 1970, January 25, 2025, Obituary
Shirley Cooper Osborn, Class of 1953, January 22, 2005, Obituary
Priscilla Hoopes “Bifff” Andre, Class of 1956, January 3, 2025, Obituary

2024
Luther Van Ummerson, Admin / Faculty, December 13, 2024, Obituary
Mary “Molly” Harding Nye, Class of 1965, December 1, 2024. Obituary
Donald W. “Donnie” Radcliff, Member of Staff, September 24, 2024, Obituary
Barbara June Apt Hickling, Class of 1949, September 9, 2024, Obituary

2023
Kevin R. VanOrman, Member of Staff, December 6, 2023, Obituary
Attilio Rezzonico, Member of Staff, July 21, 2023, Obituary

2022
G. Alan Clugston, Professor of English, October 12, 2022, Obituary
Dollena “Joy” Humes, Professor of Government, October 3, 2022, Obituary

2021
Rosemary Dugan Stevens, Class of 1981, December 10, 2021, Obituary
Olive P. Moochler (“Ollie” Parsons), Class of 1967, September 13, 2021, Obituary
Debra Dahn, Class of 1978, January 5, 2021, Obituary
Lindsey Kozecke (Lindsey Eldred), Class of 2001, June 5, 2021

2020

2019
Kathryn “Kay” Maloney, Professor of Physical Education, December 24, 2019, Obituary
Kathleen Mabel Maxson, Class of 2019, August 8, 2019, Obituary
Ann Harden Babcock, Class of 1945, August 15, 2019, Obituary
Deborah Cotter, Class of 1990, June 17, 2019, Obituary
Krista Hartman, Class of 1979, August 9, 2019, Obituary

2017
Aurelio Torres, Profesor of Psychology, February 16, 2017, Obituary

In Memoriam listing of WCAA, May 2008–June 2013

2010
Ariel Grace Lawson. Class of 2008, January 15, 2010, Obituary

2007
William “Will” Nicholas Liberi, Class of 2005, September 14, 2007, Memorial

2006
Shelby Harris, Professor of Psychology, January 1, 2006, Obituary

1947
Frances Clara Folsom Cleveland, Class of 1885, October 29, 1947, Bio

Beloved History professor Steve Taylor passed away yesterday, May 22 (2025), at age 89. He taught at Wells from 1966 to 1993. Steve was born in Ohio, earned his B.A. from Northwestern and then studied at the London School of Economics. He did his M.A. at Georgetown and his Ph.D. at Stanford. His scholarly books and articles focused on England in the eighteenth and early nineteenth-centuries, particularly on poverty and social welfare. But he is remembered at Wells as a brilliant teacher—demanding, but generous in his commitment to his students. His friends remember him as an engaging conversationalist, witty, knowledgeable on all subjects, and dogged in his defense of ideas to benefit the College.

Among Steve’s many talents generally unknown even to his colleagues was that, besides his scholarly writing, he was also a novelist. Most of his (unpublished) novels are comic, but one is quite serious: it is about a retired professor in the final days of hospice who is visited over the course of three nights by a trio of guests: Death, her parish priest, and her snarky teenage self. The three sit at her bedside and talk with her about life and death, sometimes transporting her to faraway places where she can observe close up examples of human joy and misery, kindness and cruelty. By the end of the third night, with the wisdom she had gained from these conversations, she is ready. So was Steve.

Posted on Facebook by Ken Larson, May 23, 2025