















|
Wolfbook
Written
January 1966
Added
to website April 2011
Background:
Long before your friends were on Facebook, my friends were in the Wolfbook.
 |
In
1965, as part of the admission process at Oberlin College, we
incoming freshmen submitted photos of ourselves. In many cases
these were our senior portraits from high school.
The
pictures, each reduced in size to about one square inch, were then
compiled into a large-format 24-page photo directory of the Class of 1969. |
This
booklet included our names and hometowns and college dorms. It
even had our Oberlin phone numbers in the back, though there were
actually only eleven phone lines (campus extensions ranging from 2203
to 2297) for the five freshman dormitories.

Why
was it called the Wolfbook? I imagine that a campus wolf
a male student who makes amorous advances to many women
could constantly consult this catalog of cute coeds in order to put
names to faces like these:
  
Jane
Arvin, Carbondale, Ill. Dascomb
Mary
Baetz, Buffalo 22, N.Y. Dascomb
Anne
Brooks, Waipahu, Hawaii May
  
Karen
Lindgren, Palos Verdes Est., Calif. Talcott
Janet
Kidder, Troy, N.Y. Talcott
Linda
Johnson, Amherst, Mass. Dascomb
  
Sherrill
Sherman, Columbus 21, Ohio Dascomb
Mary
McDonald, Clarksburg, Calif. Talcott
Margaret
Duncan, Hartford 7, Conn. May
However,
the college also mailed a copy to my parents. They were
acquainted with very few of the 681 young men and women pictured
therein. Therefore, four months into my freshman year, I wrote
little thumbnail comments to describe 96 of my closest friends.
I
was relatively shy, but I had gotten to know a number of freshmen
from various classes that we shared. Others were students in
the Conservatory of Music (the Con). Many of the
male students lived in my dormitory, Burton Hall, and in particular
in my section, 3C (or Third Floor
Center). I met other young men and women while hanging out at
the campus radio station or dining at the womens dormitory
called Dascomb Hall, where some students had part-time jobs.
And we talked about sports and politics and the Gemini space program.
Yes,
college teaches us more than just academic subjects. We learn
about other people, and about life.
Without
further ado, then, heres a selection of the notes I typed up
for my parents. |
 |
SAL
BARBATANO is a waiter at Dascomb. Like other waiters and
waitresses, he usually works one week and sits down to meals the
next. He was elected by the dining hall to be Santa Claus at
the childrens Christmas party given at Dascomb December
12. The candidates were all assembled one evening at dinner,
and each came to the P.A. microphone to tell why you want to be
Santa Claus and sort of, uh, laugh. Sal won by using some
sort of comical Swiss-German-Italian accent, and by ho-ho-hoing sincerely.
|
 |
RAY
BROGGINI is a friendly fellow who was in my bowling and skating classes. |
 |
PAUL
BROWN is another football (starting quarterback for the varsity the
last part of the season) and basketball player, and also a waiter. |
 |
CAROL
CARTER is, in fact, laughing like that most of the time; a real
fun-loving little imp. |
 |
ROGER
CONNER is a friendly fellow with a voice you cant not
recognize: he comes from Texas. Very likable. He
was a little disappointed that it took so long this fall for snow
finally to get here hes seen snow before in Dallas, but
only once every couple of years but when it finally did
arrive, he soon was joking about the cold. [See also here,
third photo.]
|
 |
DALE
DOTEN is the ministers son who went to the Group Relations
Conference and is a member of Wesley Fellowship.
Doesnt talk too much normally. |
 |
JON
DREGER is the kind of fellow you like to talk to because hes
so entertaining. Likes to poke fun at himself, and can keep
going that way all day. |
 |
ERIC
FREDIN you know about: sectionmate, friend of Dave, from
Minnesota, plays cello in the orchestra, studies Chinese. His
hairs a good bit longer than it is in the picture.
[Dave
was my roommate Dave Wilkinson. He and our room are pictured here.] |
 |
BRUCE
FREEDMAN is going to be a government major; he seems to have some
pretty sensible liberal-Republican or moderate-Democrat views about
politics, in contrast to many of the radicals around here.
Hes one of the Reviews Student-Council reporters. |
 |
JIM
GERTMENIAN, or Gert, is in my section. He plays
the guitar and sings folk-type
songs, and doesnt do a bad job. His favorites seem to be
San Francisco Bay and We Need a Whole Lot More of
Jesus and a Lot Less Rock and Roll. I dont mind
listening to him now and then, and he doesnt sing often enough
ever to become a nuisance; actually, hes well liked.
|
 |
BIZ
GLENN is a flirtatious type. |
 |
WARD
GUTHRIE is another from the section, a fine tenor. |
 |
JEFF
HANNA is my next-door neighbor, a friendly guy with a high-pitched
voice. Hes on the freshman basketball team. [See
also here.] |
 |
JACK
HELLER is quite a character to talk to. Ive gotten into
dining-hall conversations with him about olive pluckers (some sort of
useless serving utensil, I gather), grauple (which is a cross between
sleet and snow), football teams with Italian place-kickers, and all
sorts of other fascinating subjects. Youll think the
conversation has died a natural death, and then hell come up
with another comment. And frequently these comments are
atrocious puns. But a talk with him is never boring.
Hes dissatisfied with Oberlin, by the way, and plans to leave
for somewhere else after this year.
|
 |
JOHN
HOLLIGER is a radical conservative. I may have mentioned him
to you before, though not by name: hes the one who
opposed the Thanksgiving fast because he neither asks for charity nor
gives it, among other reasons. Hes the one who believes
in complete freedom from government interference, and states his
position so strongly that he has to end up claiming we shouldnt
have any laws at all. This attitude, along with a peremptory
manner of speaking, makes him rather unpopular, and he doesnt
smile a great deal, although I can tell hed like to be able to
talk to people, even about ordinary subjects. Heres where
Miss Huysman, who shows an interest in
everyone, comes in. Lately Ive even seen John laughing.
|
 |
RANDY
HOLLINGSHEAD is our section president. Its not a
political position, but incidentally he happens to be the political
type, trying to draw out the more remote members of the section (like
me) and get them to talk about themselves and feel at home. I
feel at home, all right, but most of the time I prefer to be down
here in my private room.
|
 |
DEBBIE
HORN is the president of Dascomb, probably because none of the girls
dislike her, if I understand female politics properly. |
 |
DAVE
HOWELL may very well be the best tenor in the Conservatory.
Already this year hes had the lead in an opera, and he was one
of the four soloists for the last Musical Union production and
hes a freshman. From what I know of him, he too is a
friendly fellow, especially liking to get into a punning situation
around a dinner table; see Polly Moore.
|
 |
NANCY
HUYSMAN is probably one of the most genuinely happy and friendly
girls around. Shes a good student and enjoys working hard
in addition to a rather full schedule she sings in the Chapel
Choir and a church choir, both of which perform weekly, and shes
planning on trying out for an opera but she never seems to
get tired and always is enthusiastic about talking to people.
No wonder shes popular. And, as I mentioned before, her
optimism rubs off on the rest of us. The other day at lunch
someone said [about laboratory classes in chemistry], Remember
how easy labs were back in high school? Those were the good old
days. Nancy smiled and replied, I think these
are pretty good days, too, Steve.
|
 |
BESSEL
KOK, another from Section 3C, is a talented cartoonist. For
our open house he drew a poster showing a determined Pill A chasing a
terrified Pill B down the alimentary canal, since that was the
general idea of our sections theme.
|
 |
ELLEN
LEWIS, from here in Oberlin, is probably the best student in my
[introductory] German class with the exception of Herr
Nosbaum, whos had German before. I think shes
studying music. |
 |
RHONDA
LISS is the opera singer. Shes also a waitress and quite
a clown; people really have fun when they sit at a table shes
serving. Not that she doesnt get the job done
efficiently, but rather that she has such a lively personality.
|
 |
KAREN
LUXTON is one of the two blind freshmen. I dont see her
very often, since shes from Talcott, but she usually appears
very uncertain and acts like a normal person would if they had to
group their way around in the dark. Could be she hasnt
been blind long enough to develop the sixth sense that others seem to have.
|
 |
PETER
MARTYN is one of those types I dont particularly like. I
wouldnt exactly call him an intellectual snob,
although he mentions casually that his father is a good friend of all
the contemporary English philosophers Russell, Ayer, and that
group. But theres something about him. Maybe
its partly the fact that he wears him blond hair long and all
combed to the left front.
|
 |
JAMES
MEYERS is another from the math class. Hes big; Id
guess about six feet and 240. |
 |
POLLY
MOORE is the expert on puns. She can keep a string of them
going for several minutes, one right after the other, if she
wants: You say you went ice fishing last weekend?
That must have been a chilling experience. I cant fathom
why anyone would want to do that. You must really be hooked on
the idea. It must have really caught your fancy.
Actually, this example makes it all sound rather contrived, but she
can get off some witty ones too. The report is that her
roommate (who was dating two boys, both of whom were named Bob) and
she were just about ready to go to bed one night when the roommate
got a phone call. As she got up to answer it, Polly
looked up sleepily and said, Will you quit Bobbing around?!
|
 |
RHONDA
NAKATA is another Dascomb waitress. She looks very Japanese,
but her speech and actions are completely American maybe even
a little more American than the rest of us, if you know what I mean. |
 |
JANET
OLSON is another girl whos fun to talk to one of the
few girls Ive run into, for instance, whos interested in
the Gemini flights. But one can talk to her about almost anything. |
 |
ROY
PARTRIDGE is another from Section 3C, a soft-spoken chap. A
week before Christmas he showed us a letter from New Jersey that had
come to him in the mail. None of us could quite believe that
the Post Office had gotten it delivered, but somehow they had.
The only address on the envelope was Mr. Roy Partridge / Burton
Hall / Ob! Now if the Post Office knows that
Ob stands for Oberlin College, theyre pretty smart.
|
 |
PAT
PEARCE is one of the leaders of a section in Dascomb that has set up
a sect ostensibly to worship a cow named Gus. They have a
well-developed liturgy which includes a ritual moo. |
 |
CHIP
REARDON is the blind organist
from Philadelphia. Hes got quite a few friends among the
other Con students. He seems to be a fan of monster movies; he
was telling a couple of weeks ago how his mother [audio-] taped all
the weekly Triple Chiller Theaters on the television this fall so he
could listen to all those movies over Christmas vacation and get
caught up. And I guess he did listen to them. Probably
was his idea to tape them in the first place.
|
 |
SAM
RECHTORIS, who was on my team in bowling and also skated, won three
of the college newspapers football contests this fall by
guessing the winners correctly. |
 |
TOM
RENWICK happens to be one of my closer friends due to the fact that
were in the same German, chemistry, and math classes and eat at
the same dining hall. Hes redheaded and, from time to
time, has a beard; hes got a dry sense of humor. |
 |
JON
SHAPIRO hardly ever looks this serious; he almost always has a
toothy smile that makes him look like a happy beaver. Hes
another one of these friendly ones. Hes on the wrestling
team and always seems to be trying to gain weight or lose weight in
order to make a classification. His political views are
socialist, but not too radical.
|
 |
TOM
STALLONE is another Conservatory student, I think piano; a little
fellow, but outgoing. Unfortunately, some sort of sports
accident put his arm in a cast during October and November. |
 |
CINDY
SMITH is another girl whos easy to talk to; shes in my
chemistry class and lab. |
 |
LOIS
JEAN TABER seems like an old friend by now. She was Daves
first discovery, back during Orientation week, and the three of us
got to know each other at a barbecue. Hes long since lost
interest, but Lois has the desk next to mine in lab and also is in my
math class, so we continue to talk to each other. Shes
yet another one whos easy to get along with.
|
 |
ART
WESTNEAT, from my section, is the biggest space bug Ive run
into yet. We sort of went through the flights of Gemini 7 and 6
together. He even had trouble concentrating that Wednesday
afternoon in lab while they were rendezvousing because he would so
much rather have been back at the dorm watching it on
television. (I would have too, but by that time I was confident
enough to feel that [astronauts] Wally and Tom and Frank and Jim
could get along without me.)
|
 |
STU
WHITE looks a little pained here; I dont know why.
Hes a quiet fellow from my German class who lives directly
beneath me in Second Center. He was an end on 2Cs touch
football team, the team that won the intramural championship.
After every victory hed come back to the dorm and put on a
record of bagpipe marches, full volume, while everyone was getting
dressed for dinner.
|
 |
ANNE
WICKHAM is a girl who manages to get around on crutches pretty well
and always has a smile (I wouldnt recognize her at all from the
picture). For dashing about the campus, she has an overgrown
tricycle with a motor and a luggage rack. |
|
DAVE WILKINSON was my roommate. His picture is here. |
 |
TRACY
WOLF lives in Oberlin; if Im not mistaken, hes the son
of Professor Wolf of the Theological School, who will be moving to
Vanderbilt before too long. Tracys been having a lot of
trouble with his French, but Cindy Smith has been trying to keep his
spirits up. |
|