in memoriam
Fall 2024

Robert (Bob) T. Patterson ’50 of Sonoma, Calif., died March 9, 2021.

Allan R. Klumpp ’53 of Philadelphia, Pa., died May 3, 2023. After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in mechanical and electrical engineering, respectively, he spent his career as an aerospace engineer working on non-military space exploration projects for NASA. He was based at the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory and at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and retired in 2004. He was predeceased by his wife, Susan, and is survived by four children, nine grandchildren, one granddaughter, and two great-grandchildren.

Thomas (Tom) L. Lowe ’56 GP’08 of Elk Grove, Calif., died Feb. 29, 2024. He was a Business Administration major.

Frederic (Fritz) C. Delbrueck ’57 of Portland, Ore., died March 16, 2024. In 1957, he earned a bachelor’s in Business Administration focused on international business. At Claremont McKenna, he joined the U.S. Army ROTC program and afterwards served in the Army Reserve and the Oregon National Guard, retiring at the rank of captain. His early career centered on building material exports for companies such as Boise Cascade and Niedermeyer-Martin. In 1983, Delbrueck formed Scarfell Inc., a firm specializing in exporting Pacific Northwest products to the Far East and beyond, which he ran for nearly 40 years. He and his college sweetheart, Nancy McCorison, were married for 65 years and raised three sons.

Gary D. Neuhoff ’57 of Lake Oswego, Ore., died May 4, 2024. He was a Government major.

John (Jack) H. Spillane ’58 of Santa Clara, Calif., died Dec. 22, 2021. He was a Business Administration major.

Leonard Wain ’58 of Scottsdale, Ariz., died Sept. 15, 2022. Born in Johnstown, Pa., he was later adopted by Chicagoans Philip and Emma Wain. The family relocated to California where he graduated from Beverly Hills High School and majored in Accounting at CMC. A competitive swimmer, he was California All State during high school and college. Wain began as a CPA and later worked as a stockbroker for several financial institutions. He is survived by his wife, Susan (Feola), four children, and six grandchildren.

William (Bill) C. Edic ’59 of Alamo, Calif., died April 28, 2022. He was a Business Administration major.

Donald H. Holman Jr. ’59 of Lake Oswego, Ore., died Jan. 17, 2024. He studied Business Administration at CMC and attended the University of Oregon. He earned an MBA and served in the U.S. Army before a career in loans, construction supplies, and residential homebuilding. He was predeceased by his wife, Rosemary, and is survived by three children and five grandchildren.

Ronald W. Pusey ’59 of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., died May 15, 2024. He served in the U.S. Army near the end of the Korean War and was stationed in Augsburg, Germany. After graduating, he practiced accounting, eventually establishing his own tax and accounting business in Claremont. He was predeceased by his wife of 68 years, Carole, and is survived by two children, nine grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren.

Michael (Mike) S. Blanding ’61 P’94 of Decatur, Ala., died May 10, 2024. He was an Economics major.

Richard W. Metcalf ’61 of San Clemente, Calif., died Aug. 26, 2019. He was a Business Administration major.

Kenneth (Ken) P. Henderson ’64 of Florence, Ore., died July 10, 2024. Born in Los Angeles, he was raised in Denver, Colo., and then Fullerton, Calif. After graduating with a degree in Business Administration and Economics, he was a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Artillery in Korea from 1964 to 1966. In 1968, he earned an MBA at USC. His career in the food services industry included leading the Keeler Foods Division of Distribuco Inc. and expanded to mergers and acquisitions and executive coaching. He was committed to volunteer work and enjoyed spending time with his CMC classmates, aka TTS. He is survived by his wife, Suzanne, two children, and two grandchildren.

Stephen D. Silbert ’64 of Los Angeles, Calif., died Feb. 25, 2024. He studied Economics at CMC, and he earned an MBA from Claremont Graduate University in 1965. He earned his JD at UC Berkeley in 1967 and began practicing at Wyman, Bautzer, Rothman & Kuchel. He became managing partner in 1980, overseeing the Corporate and Transaction Department. He left in 1985 to work full-time for one of the firm’s biggest clients, Kirk Kerkorian, and was elected president and COO of MGM/UA Communications Co. In 1991, he returned to practice with a group of former Wyman Bautzer partners at Christensen White Miller Fink and Jacobs (now Glaser Weil Fink Howard Jordan & Shapiro) until he retired in 2018. He is survived by his wife, Jeanne, a daughter, and two granddaughters.

Michael (Mike) Stone ’67 of Queenstown, New Zealand, died in March 2024. Stone served in the Navy during the Vietnam War and then became a financial adviser in California before moving to New Zealand in the 1990s. There, he led a consortium that opened the Wharf Casino in 1999, as well as a group of investors who purchased the Gibbston Valley Winery, winning major international accolades under his watch. He is survived by his wife, Anna (Hunt), his sister, four children, two stepchildren, and six grandchildren.

John Wentworth ’67 of Las Cruces, N.M., died May 13, 2024. He was a Political Science major.

David L. Austen ’73 of Vancouver, Wash., died July 25, 2024. He played football for the Stags and was a Psychology major.

Charles (Chuck) M. Wettergreen ’74 of Asheville, N.C., died March 24, 2024. He was born in Schenectady, N.Y. and after serving in the Navy for six years, he studied Accounting at Claremont McKenna and then worked for Bridgestone Firestone, where he spent his entire career. He and his wife, Susan (Leach), were married in 1972 and later settled in Geneva, Ill., where they lived for 25 years and raised their children. He is survived by his wife, two children, and three grandchildren.

Glen A. Glazar ’83 of Redding, Calif., died June 9, 2024. He was a Literature and Philosophy major. Glazar is survived by his wife, Christina, his brother, Jim, and his best friend, Chuck.

Byron J. Santangelo ’84 of Columbus, Ind., died March 10, 2024. He earned a BA in English at CMC and in 1993, he earned a Ph.D. at UC Irvine. He taught at DePaul University in Chicago, the University of Kansas, and then Indiana University, Bloomington. His scholarship focused on environmental issues and decolonial studies, and he earned multiple teaching and mentorship awards. In his second semester at Indiana, he was diagnosed with a rare cancer. He was married to Sara Gregg and had four children.

Dr. Joseph (Joe) C. Spagna ’95 of Stockholm, N.J., died June 17, 2024. Born in Fontana, Calif., he was raised in Riverside. He earned a bachelor’s in Biology and Philosophy, played football, participated in throwing events on the track team, and spent a semester abroad in Ireland. After graduation, he worked for Teach for America in Baltimore. Spagna returned to the Claremont Colleges’ Joint Science Center as a lab assistant, where he started his lifelong study of spiders and met his future wife, Tascha Funk, with whom he had two children. Spagna earned his Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley in 2006. He worked as a postdoc at the University of Illinois and then became a professor of biology at William Paterson University in New Jersey.

Elizabeth (Biff) L. (Jones) Hollis ’99 of Leesburg, Va., died March 20, 2024. She was born in Chicago, Ill. After earning a degree in Government and History at CMC, she earned graduate degrees from George Washington University and George Mason University. She worked as a writer and editor at various organizations, most recently with Brillient Corporation under contract to the FDA. She is survived by her husband of 13 years, Darrell.