FROM the Alumni page at WOOSTER.EDU:
’42 James R. Vitelli, Bowdoinham, Maine, Dec. 3, 2006. At Wooster Jim enjoyed swimming and writing for The Voice. He majored in chemistry. Jim and Alice “Tink” Carter ’43 especially enjoyed participating in Gum Shoe Hop events on campus. They married in 1943, and Jim served in the U.S. Navy during WWII. He earned an M.A. (1948) and a Ph.D. (1955) from the U of Pennsylvania. Jim taught American civilization and English at Lafayette College for 36 years, initiating and chairing an interdisciplinary program. Under his leadership, Lafayette became one of the first private colleges to offer African American and women’s studies courses. Jim wrote several books, one on literary critic and historian Van Wyck Brooks. Jim and Tink were regulars in Lafayette dramatic productions. From 1956-58 Jim taught on a Fulbright fellowship in Italy, and in 1964, sponsored by the U.S. State Department, was a lecturer at the University of Bombay, India. Surviving are five children, including Karen ’66, five grandchildren, and a great-grandchild. Tink died in 2002.
At Wooster in 1941, Bob Ricksecker majored in political science under professor Mary Z. Johnson. Coached by Emerson Miller (speech), he won a Fackler medal and a trip to Washington, DC, along with Dick Wallace and Stan Coates ’42, Wooster’s top three debaters. Bob also took part in the peace oration contest. Bob wrote for The Voice. Helen Merry served as aggressive editor; Jean Carroll Scott edited features. Staff writers included Bob Laubach, Dick Miller, and Beth Duffield Cook. Jim Allardice wrote "Tales Out of School," treating campus doings with what a fellow journalist described as "a light, ironic touch." The 1941 Index pictures Bob Ricksecker sitting with Jean Smeltz ’42, whom he later married (see photo above). As an undergraduate Jean was invited to join the Sphinx social club. I (Jeanne), as the Sphinx president then, admired the vivacious Jean. Other Sphinx pals were Harriet Foster Choles, Fern Anderson Diaquila, Drusilla May Gillespie, Dottie Booher Johnson, and Lois Wissman Greene.