In Memoriam
Walter Ristow Ph.D. '37, chief emeritus of the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress, died April 3, just 17 days shy of his 98th birthday.
Born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Dr. Ristow earned a bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Wisconsin and Oberlin College, respectively, before earning his doctorate at Clark. He went on to become one of Clark's most distinguished geography alumni. He was chief of the Map Division of the New York Public Library from 1937 to 1946, and served as a wartime map analyst for the U.S. military from 1941 to 1944. Dr. Ristow then took on leadership positions in the Map Division at the Library of Congress from 1946 to his retirement in 1978. He served as chief of the Geography and Map Division from 1967 to 1978 and is credited with shaping the position of the modern-day map librarian.
Among his other professional activities, Dr. Ristow served as chairman of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names in 1965 and was a member of the board for more than 20 years. He was active in many professional organizations, including the Association of American Geographers, the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping and the Special Libraries Association. He was also co-founder and first president of the Washington Map Society. During his life, Dr. Ristow wrote many scholarly papers and books on maps, mapmakers and map librarianship.
Dr. Ristow was known for his passionate belief that maps should be in the hands of the people, whether in public map libraries‹which were rare when he began his career‹or in general circulation. One of his greatest disappointments came when petroleum companies ended the practice of distributing free road maps at service stations. An advocate for the study of American maps and mapmakers, Dr. Ristow wrote many scholarly papers about the subject and also mounted several popular exhibits on the subject at the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress.
Dr. Ristow was also active in his community in McLean, Va., where he worked with the school system and local scouting organizations and also served on the Board of Trustees of the Fairfax Public Library.
Dr. Ristow is survived by: his three sons, Richard of Providence, R.I., Bill of Seattle, and Steve of Falls Church, Va.; and three grandchildren.
Wasily "Wes" Shepeluk '55, a longtime, avid supporter of Clark, died April 17.
Mr. Shepeluk graduated from Belmont Preparatory School in Worcester in 1948 and graduated from North High in 1951. The only one of the 10 children in his family to go to college, he majored in geography at Clark and went on to earn a master's degree in education from Worcester Teachers College in 1957.
While a student at Clark, Mr. Shepeluk was active in sports, playing varsity soccer and rowing crew. After graduating from the University, he remained an active alumnus, participating in alumni programming. He was a strong supporter of Clark athletics, attending many athletic events on campus throughout his life. Mr. Shepeluk spoke so highly of his Clark experience that his sister, the late Sophie Shepeluk, established the Sophie and Wasily '55 Shepeluk Scholarship for graduates of Worcester high schools at the University, in honor of her youngest brother, Wasily, and the education he received at Clark.
³Wes stood among a very small group of alumni in terms of his devotion to Clark from the day of his graduation in 1955 and in terms of his lifelong love of learning,² says Tom Dolan '62, retired senior vice president at Clark and friend of Mr. Shepeluk.
In his long career as an educator, Mr. Shepeluk taught at Sutton High School in Sutton, Mass., Major Beal High School in Shrewsbury, Mass., Chandler Street Junior High School in Worcester and finally at Worcester's Burncoat Senior High School, where he taught for 30 years. He retired from Burncoat in 1994.
Mr. Shepeluk was also an active member of the Worcester community. He was a lifetime member of the Greendale YMCA and an active member of his fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha, the Wachusett Greenways, the Greendale Men's Retirement Club, the Blackstone Canal Conservancy and the Worcester Senior Center, where he enjoyed playing pool with the ³Over-the-Hill Gang.²
Mr. Shepeluk is survived by his wife Shirley Mae (Gailey) Shepeluk, whom he married in 1957. He is also survived by his brother, Joseph Shepeluk, of Minnesota; his sister Ann Bisceglia of Shrewsbury, Mass.; three children; five grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.
Former Clark University Trustee Thomas Anton '56 died June 6. He will be remembered in an upcoming issue of Clarknews.
Deaths
Donald Blanchard '58, Worcester, Mass., April 14, 2006
William Craig '39, Hightstown, N.J., Feb. 28, 2006
Ernest Cuccaro '50, Lewisville, Texas, March 22, 2006
Henry Dufresne '73, Worcester, Mass., March 9, 2006
Alan Firestone '80, Montclair, N.J., April 13, 2006
Ina Gordon, Palm Beach, Fla., Jan. 26, 2006
Vivian Grozen, Shrewsbury, Mass., March 15, 2006
Alice (Crowe) Hallahan M.A. '43, Portsmouth, Va., May 13, 2006
Alan Jones, North Brookfield, Mass., May 23, 2006 See page 5.
Alice Kruger Ph.D. '54, Natick, Mass., March 6, 2006
Marilynn (Orosz) Loin '70, Wallingford, Conn., April 15, 2006
Pehr Pearson '52, Greenland, N.H., Feb. 26, 2006
Mark Petraglia '77, Henderson, Nev., March 6, 2006
Vincent Powers Ph.D. '77, Worcester, Mass., April 13, 2006
Walter Ristow Ph.D. '37, Mitchellville, Md., April 3, 2006 See In Memoriam.
Allan Scott '29, Waterville, Maine, March 20, 2006
Miriam Segal '48, Miami Beach, Fla., April 19, 2006
Louis Shapiro '31, M.A. '32, Springfield, Mass., March 21, 2006
Wasily Shepeluk '55, Worcester, Mass., April 17, 2006 See In Memoriam.
James Sullivan '73, Shrewsbury, Mass., March 6, 2006
Richard Thomas '71, Worcester, Mass., April 23, 2006
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Clarknews Summer 2006
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