“This clinic is a living embodiment of our mission as a university,” said Widener President James T. Harris III.

Joined by Chester Mayor John Linder, a 1976 Widener alumnus, and  Kwinn Tucker of CityTeam Ministries, Harris cut the ribbon to signify that the clinic was officially open to serve the public.  For more on the clinic, see this article in The Delaware County Daily Times, Widener’s What’s Up newsletter, or the university’s press release.  You also can view a photo slideshow of the opening.

But as luck would have it, the combination of that blog post and a high school project of Glover’s grandson solved the mystery. Peter DeSales Lynch, Glover’s 16-year-old grandson in Syracuse, N.Y., found my blog post while working on genealogy research for a class.  His mother and his aunt — both Glover’s daughters — contacted me.

Here’s the short version of the missing story:  He changed his name to Allen De Sailles Glover in 1957, making it difficult to for me locate him (an earlier name change may have to do with his underage enlistment).  According to his daughters, Lynn Lynch and Carrie Paskowksi, he reenlisted shortly after World War II and served more than 20 years in the Air Force, including serving in Vietnam.  He retired as a master sergeant in the late 1960s at the age of 40 and worked in packaging and management for Del Monte Foods in Northern California and then for Anheuser-Busch, relocating with the company to Upstate New York in 1982.

He retired in the early 1990s and he and his wife, Linda, moved to Foley, Ala., near Pensacola, Fla., in large part because he liked to be near military bases.  He died of colon cancer in 1998 at the age of 70, succumbing very soon after the diagnosis.  His widow, fifteen years younger, still lives in Alabama.  His daughters said he rarely talked about his war experience, except to proudly show where he had taken flak in his arm. He also sometimes mentioned that he had been in the same flight school class as movie star Clark Gable.  They recalled him as a very hard worker who loved jazz and big band music, the Pittsburgh Steelers (he was a native of Pittsburgh), and the Air Force, often taking his two daughters and son onto bases and to air shows.

His sister, Rhoda (Glover) Hamilton, is still alive and lives in Robertsdale, Ala., about 20 miles from Foley.  She moved from Florida to Alabama a number of years ago and was able to reconnect with her brother.

You can look for more about him in forthcoming issue of Widener Magazine, most likely in the fall 2012 issue.   – Sam Starnes, Editor

One early leader I’ve been trying to find out all I can about is Col. George Patten, the first professor of engineering.  Here is what I have thus far:

Patten was an 1847 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point who served as a Pennsylvania Military Academy faculty member and administrator from the 1860s through his retirement in 1881. A veteran of both the Mexican War and the Seminole Wars in Florida, he was a South Carolinian who remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War.  His appointments during the Civil War were the subject of correspondence between President Abraham Lincoln and General George McClellan in 1862 (This link will download a PDF of an article with more information and text of the letters).

Prior to the Civil War, Patten worked as an agent for patents in Washington.  In Chester, he “was responsible for the development of the civil engineering curriculum which launched PMA into the field of engineering,” historian Henry J. Buxton wrote. Patten moved with the school when it relocated in 1866 to its present campus in Chester, and later served as vice president of the academy.  He was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1875. The Daily Times newspaper in 1879 noted that he annually invited the first class of Pennsylvania Military Academy to his home for dinner. He died in 1890 at the age of 65 and is buried alongside his wife Emma in Chester’s Rural Cemetery, less than a mile from Widener’s Main Campus. Three years after his death alumni and ex-cadets from PMC erected a tombstone on his grave (see picture below).

If you have more information on him, or a photograph, please contact me by commenting on this blog, by e-mail at jsstarnes@widener.edu, or by phone at 610-499-4246.

If you’d like to learn more about the 150th anniversary — including information about the gala celebration scheduled on Nov. 3 at the Franlkin Institute  — visit the School of Engineering web page.

–Sam Starnes, Editor

We don’t have any pictures of Reagoso with Jeff Beck, but here’s a shot of Reagoso, second from left, with the members of ZZ Top.  For more about Reagoso, read the profile of him from the 2010 fall issue of Widener Magazine.

And don’t forget to e-mail photos as well (please send larger, higher resolution images — they reprint better that way.)

The deadline to be included in the spring 2012 magazine due out in April is this Friday, January 6.  You can submit your class notes and photos three ways:

1. Join or log onto the Widener Pride Network
at alumni.widener.edu/netcommunity/WPN
2. Email Patty Votta at pavotta@widener.edu
3. Mail to the Office of Alumni Engagement, One University Place
Chester, PA 19013

The Delaware Campus also adopted five families in need, providing them with food, clothing, and toys. These are just a few of the many ways the university has aimed to give back and spread cheer.

In the video below, sophomores Michelle Callaghan and Robin Lavery, both members of Widener Chorale, perform for their fellow resident assistants at a staff dinner on Dec. 9., 2010.   Best wishes for the holiday season!

Published in 1921, “Who’s Who — Thumbnail Sketches of Many Graduates and Ex-Cadets, Showing How They Have Been Engaged Since Leaving P.M.C.” is part of Henry Buxton’s Pennsylvania Military College: The Story of 100 Years, 1821-1921.  The entire article can be viewed online in the Digital Collections of the Widener University Archives.  The 34-page article has short biographies of many, certainly more than I can cover in a blog post, and I encourage you to scroll through it.

Here are three of the notes I found fascinating, and I added some information in italics with links I found elsewhere.

Russell Kelso Carter

– Russell Kelso Carter, Class of 1867: Married; author and preacher. Mr. Carter was connected with the faculty of the Pennsylvania Military College for 21 years. Critics have said that Mr. Carter’s historical novel, “Amor Victor,” is on a par with “Quo Vadis” and “Ben Hur,” “and as strong as anything of like nature in literature.” Home address, 713 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, Md.

Carter also wrote many well-known hymns.  You can read more about him in this biography or see his hymns here.

– J. Howard Lewis, Class of 1881. Widower, three children; Mr. Lewis was very prominent in college athletics, he being one of the star football and baseball players in 1880-81.  His Alma Mater takes exceeding satisfaction in his reputation as a horseman of international fame without, in the judgment of many, and equal in the world.  Home address, Elkins Park, Pa.

He was posthumously inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1969.

–Carroll A. Devol, Class of 1878, Married. Military Record-Lieutenant, Infantry, 1879; captain, Quartermaster, 1896; major, Quartermaster, 1902; lieutenant colonel, Division Quartermaster General, 1909; colonel, Assistant Quartermaster General, 1911; brigadier general, Quartermaster Corps, 1913; major general, retired, 1916. General Staff, 1906-08. World War, on active duty, June, 1917. D. S. M., 1919. Also awarded Spanish-American War and Philippine Insurrection medals. Home address, Menlo Park, Cal.

He is listed in the Military Times Hall of Valor; he also served as quartermaster for the Panama Canal Project and is listed on our Distinguished Alumni Page.

Also noted in the Who’s Who are actor Burt Mustin (class of 1903), at the time noted as an “automobile salesmen” in Pittsburgh who was “prominent in Pittsburgh amateur dramatic circles”; and Sylvanus Griswold Morley (class of 1904), cited as a “noted archaeologist” and resident of Santa Fe, N.M.  He is the subject of the 2009 book, The Archaeologist Was a Spy: Sylvanus G. Morley and the Office of Naval Intelligence.

If you do peruse the online pages, note that there is no alphabetical or chronological order to the list.  Also, the files are large and can take some time to download, but it’s well worth it!

–Sam Starnes, Editor

Those are some of the ones we know about.  Help us find others. Please send us your memories of notables visiting campus – be they politicians, military leaders, artists, entertainers, writers, scientists, or others of influence. You can send a note via the comments field of this blog post, on Facebook, or in an e-mail to jsstarnes@widener.edu. (And make sure you tell us the year of their visit. )

There is more information on the visits by DeMille, Eisenhower (pictured in 1963 with PMC cadet John Lance Geoghegan), Goldwater, and Springsteen in the Connections Timeline in the Digital Collections of the Wolfgram Memorial Library’s Widener University Archives.

In addition to Dr. Wang and medical doctors being interviewed, we want to hear the stories of alumni, their families, and others in the Widener community who have battled breast cancer.  If you would like to discuss your story, please contact Jennifer Dublisky at jadublisky@widener.edu or 610-499-1329.

Ronald Litwack in 1956

Harry Litwack distinctly remembers staying home from the second grade to watch his older cousin Ronald Litwack – a cadet at Pennsylvania Military College in the mid 1950s – appear on a television spot that aired in the Philadelphia area promoting the school.

Ronald Litwack graduated from PMC in 1956 and went on to medical school and ultimately opened a pediatric practice in Willingboro, N.J., that he maintained for 30 years.  He retired in the late nineties and died in January 2003 (Click here to see his obituary.) Since his death, a granddaughter and grandson have been born.

Harry Litwack is hoping to find the video of his cousin to share with the family.  He remembers that it aired on one of the network-affiliated Philadelphia stations.  If you remember the spot or know where video of it can be found, please post a comment on this blog or e-mail me at jsstarnes@widener.edu.

– Sam Starnes, Editor