Deceased September 7, 2017
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In Memory
Al: Rusty was my freshman roommate. For hazing I was driven blindfolded and dumped in the Athol woods. I called Rusty. He came in a “borrowed” car. I doubt the owner knew his car had been borrowed! Rusty knew my wife before I did. He was fetching Sunday dates from Smith, and I suggested Willa, whom I’d spied among the freshmen. When we got married, Rusty couldn’t make it because of an accident, but he did visit us in Canada for our 25th. I am daily reminded of Rusty: he once rescued a “French gravure” entitled Naissance de la Voile, a gull morphing into a wind surfer, from a dump. This “garbage” hangs over my fireplace today.
Toni: Rusty loved cars, “borrowed” or not. In Borger, Texas (working at the JM Huber Carbon Black plant), Huck Finn Rusty “borrowed” a dump truck for a ride home from a bar one evening. “Home” was the JMH guesthouse. I told him he’d better disappear it fast!
His first car was a 1945 Ford woody. He sold to it me, then he bought a monstrous green Buick—which he traded to me for his original Ford woody! His prize car was a 1937 Ford phaeton, which he charmed out of an older lady in Lakeville, Conn.
Rusty and I used to watch Al play lacrosse, Rusty always in his brown-and-white saddle shoes and khaki raincoat. Then on to Barselotti’s for beer and pickled eggs. In the army one day, I was watching new guys arrive—among them, Rusty! We drank a lot of 3.2 beer, Rusty’s theory being that a waft of stale beer would convince the inspecting captain to move on. Rusty, with his placid nature, was a modern Good Soldier Schweik. Looked like him too!
We miss Rusty, a wonderful character and friend.
Al McLellan ’56
Toni Huber ’56