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1955
Blaine Townsend Phillips, of Chadds Ford, Pa., and Easton, Md., died Dec. 3 at the age of 95. The son of the late Emmons Blaine and Mae Townsend Phillips, he was born in Frankford, Del. His ancestors were early settlers of the area, more than 200 years before his birth.
After attending small public schools in Sussex County, he entered the University of Virginia, where he achieved the highest academic rank in his class and, upon graduation from the College, was awarded an honors degree, the University’s highest bachelor's degree. In addition to Phi Beta Kappa and membership in TILKA and IMP Societies, he was president of the Raven Society.
At the Law School, he was a Welch Scholar and a DuPont Scholarship recipient, a member of the Virginia Law Review and president of the University-wide student governing body. There, he proposed separating its historical legislative and judicial functions, which led University officials to create the Judiciary Committee in 1954. At graduation, he received the Raven Award for outstanding achievements and manifold contributions to the University. At his death, it was revealed that he was a member of the University’s Seven Society.
Phillips joined the law firm that became Potter Anderson and spent the next 45 years there, eventually serving as both managing and senior partner. He served for years on the board of Delaware Bar Examiners (as chairman from 1984-86), and in 1991 was appointed by the governor as chairman of Delaware’s Judicial Nominating Committee. Phillips retired from active practice in 1993 and became of counsel with his firm. In 1999, the Law School established a permanent chair in his honor, the Blaine T. Phillips Distinguished Professorship in Environmental Law.
His “second” career, which commenced before his retirement, involved a heavy commitment to numerous charitable endeavors, including serving on the board of Winterthur Museum & Gardens for more than 30 years, on the board of the Hagley Museum & Library, and as trustee and president of Fair Play Foundation for more than 25 years.
He was also president of Delaware’s Mount Cuba Center for 30 years, where, in addition to leading its traditional horticultural endeavors, he initiated a parallel mission: an effort to protect carefully targeted, vital open-space properties throughout the region threatened by dense residential or commercial development.
In higher education, the governor appointed him to serve on the board of visitors of Delaware State University. Until his death, he served as a trustee of the University of Virginia Endowment Fund’s alumni board.
His contributions to the conservation of natural resources included service on the boards of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Red Clay Reservation, the Coldwater Conservation Fund of Trout Unlimited, the Council of National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Wild Earth Allies and Delaware Wild Lands.
An abiding interest of both Phillips and his wife, Susan, was deepening their knowledge of sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on its fauna and flora. Together, they took many safaris to remote areas in their quest to find, study and help conserve open spaces and endangered species. In 2013, his lifetime achievements as a conservationist were honored by his election as an officer of Fauna & Flora International, the world’s oldest international conservation organization.
His recreational interests were fishing, wingshooting, retrievers, trees (and planting them), and Chesapeake Bay boating. He was an accomplished fly fisherman who angled for trout from Patagonia to Alaska, but his favorite was the Atlantic salmon. He was an enthusiastic hunter and spent many pleasurable times at his getaway on the Chesapeake wingshooting doves and teal with his friends and Labrador retriever companions.
He is survived by his wife and best friend, Susan Simmons Phillips, and by three children: his daughter Andrea P. Salley and her husband, Thomas R. Salley III, and their children, including Lawton Phillips Salley and his wife, Anne-Sophie Mahle Salley, and their daughter, Cosima, and Charlotte Whitcomb Salley and her wife, Grace Ann Roberts; his daughter J. Riley Miller and her husband, Edgar R. Miller III, and their children, Edgar (Ted) R. Miller IV and Anna Riley Miller; and his son, Blaine T. Phillips Jr., and his wife, Eliza Vellines Phillips, and their sons, William (Witt) Townsend Phillips and John (Jack) Southerland Phillips; and by his stepdaughter Harriet Cella and her husband, Raymond White, and her children (McKay, Ellie and Ned), and by his stepsons, John and Louis and their families.
1958
by Larry Grim, Class Secretary
Here, find Barbara Dimmick’s masterpiece of age-appropriate writing. She, Henry Williams’ widow, is still the best teacher of creative writing at Dartmouth or elsewhere. This gem will reward each of us as we move on in life’s final phases. This might be our class’s Swan Song …
“I cannot now think of a better way to say: ‘Fare Well …’ Today would have been Henry’s 96th birthday. I imagine him knocking about the universe, jonesing for a slice of his traditional coconut birthday cake.
“And, after three years on a waiting list, I’m packing to move to the 100-plus-year-old Masonic Village. It’s a dream of a place: art studios, libraries, plentiful dining options, orchards and a beef herd, improv theater and almost every other imaginable pursuit. Yes, yes, as familiar as cruise ships, but no staff turnover, and a tradition of nurture, all set on 1,500 acres of spectacular Lancaster County.
“Caught between worlds, I’m moving into a bigger place (a porch! windows!) but as I sketch the floor plan for the movers, I’m suddenly longing for things I left behind when I left Henry’s and my rambling historic home a few years back: a cozy barrel chair, the world’s most comfortable and most tattered wingchair, a dropleaf table, and a hefty footstool cross-stitched by a Williams ancestor.
“It’s not actually the furniture I need. What I need is a dash of magic, magic that would parachute me back into times of my choosing. Laughing insanely with my deceased brother over a torqued bit of language. Riding through a grid of jumps, no reins or stirrups, the horse beneath me flying. Or paddling my kayak into summer mist on a Maine lake, and such a thrill emanates from my heart that when the loon sounds off, I can scarcely sit still. The early giddy years of marriage to Henry when we were so happy before I got sick.
“I pack treasures I have packed before: mouth-blown glass, photos, Henry’s bosun’s pipe, a spectacular Porsche knife in the kitchen, its balance perfect, a gift from Henry. His favorite around-the-house fleece hangs in my closet, and when it’s cold, I wear one of the six hats I kept — out of his dozens and dozens.
“Friends are helping me pack. Chaos reigns, boxes pile up and the packing tape has gone missing again. True to form, I spend half the time they’re here lying in bed. No approved treatments for my illness, but my blood’s short on oxygen, my brain is inflamed and lying flat speeds blood and oxygen to the brain. (I write this lying down.)
“Three years it took after Henry died until ‘I turned into myself again.’ Not the same self but a self once again turned loose in life, a life now shot through with the palpable absences of too many departed friends and family. Not a complaint but a protest against the frangibility of life.
“Sometimes a cold question crosses my mind: Is this the last move of my lifetime? Or should I say, ‘Oh, lucky me, I never have to move again’?
“Balderdash.
“Questions come not by legions but battalions.
“What has my life meant? Have I contributed? Have I loved? Been loved? Done more good than harm? All those years teaching, summed up in a course eval with a peculiarly undergraduate logic: ‘Best course I took at Dartmouth. Hated the professor.’ But the last 15 years have often found me no longer able to write, too ill to sail with Henry, tolerate heat or loud noises. After his death, Henry’s doctor confided he would have died some years earlier if not for my watchfulness and care. So there’s that.
“If I were on a ship right this minute, would I lie on my deck chair, drifting in the elation of sea air, at ease on the rhythm of the waves? I have spent weeks on multiple small ship Atlantic crossings, on deck all day, drenching my soul with these sensations.
“Or in fact, soul be damned, would I be leaning greedily over the rail, straining for a glimpse of land?
“I break out in worries. Will I find a helpful doctor? Will I find some cool, irreverent friends? How long until I feel settled? Will I ever stop asking questions?
“As I write this, stark refreshing cold is cascading off my bedroom window directly onto my head. Heaven! Cool your brain by 1 degree Fahrenheit; sleep is more restorative. (Apparently, my brain runs hot — a source of secret amusement.) Outside, snow sifts steadily through the light of streetlamps. The roads are impassable, and all is quiet. I am utterly cocooned in my duvet. Seven days until the move and only one question truly matters: Will I find joy up ahead?”
1960
Richard A. Silver celebrated his 90th birthday with family and friends in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, in January. In attendance were colleagues from Silver Golub & Teitell, the Stamford, Conn., law firm he co-founded in 1978, where he still actively practices. Silver uses artificial intelligence every day in medical and legal matters to stay up to date with his practice.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal read a tribute to Silver on the floor of the Senate, celebrating his six-decade legal career and the impact he has had on Connecticut’s legal landscape. The tribute was entered into the Congressional Record on Jan. 6.
1961
Robert L. Montague III’s grandson, Andrew Jackson Montague, graduated from UVA’s College of Arts & Sciences with a Bachelor of Arts in history in May.
1962
Richard Herbert Jackson, 88, of Williamsburg, Va., died peacefully on Feb. 8.
Jackson was born in Avoca, N.Y., and grew up in nearby Bath, where he enjoyed a quiet, small-town life with his younger brother, Gary, and their hard-working parents, Wendall and Vinnie, who were local restaurant owners. He went on to attend Hamilton College in New York and later UVA Law — an experience that sparked a lifelong devotion to UVA athletics. A proud Cavalier through and through, according to his family, Jackson rarely missed a chance to cheer on the football team, unless they were losing, and then he would turn off the television.
Jackson built and thrived in his 35-year career as a lawyer in Fairfax, Va., and later continued as a law consultant in Richmond. It was a profession he approached with integrity and pride, family said.
Outside of work, he knew how to enjoy life with wide-ranging hobbies over the years, including golf, sailing, chess, bowling, NASCAR and Indy Car racing, Civil War history, wine drinking and collecting, and feeding the birds that visited his yard. He took particular pride in his cars and kept them in pristine condition.
After retiring from the law firm, Jackson and his wife, Linda, moved to their beloved Williamsburg and enjoyed a wonderful life there for 30 years, with many friends and rounds of golf.
He was preceded in death by his wife of 40 years, Linda J. Jackson; his mother, Vinnie Ackley Jackson Davis; his father, Wendall Robert Jackson; and his son, Richard H. Jackson Jr.
Jackson is survived by his daughter, Suzanne Edelbach, and son-in-law, Doug; stepdaughter, Jennifer Schultheis, and son-in-law, Paul; his grandchildren, Ryan, Kyle, Taylor and Tucker; and his brother, Gary, and sister-in-law, Esperanza, all of whom he loved deeply and was very proud of.
1963
William T. “Bill” Wilson was presented the David Marion Award for Legal Excellence by the Hampden-Sydney College Bar Association in September. The award recognizes an attorney who is part of the Hampden-Sydney College family who has made a substantial contribution to the law, be it through the practice of law, service to the law or teaching of the law.
The award presentation was made by Virginia Beach attorney John Basilone, who said, “[Wilson] has made a tremendous positive difference in his community and in the practice of law, especially so in the Virginia State Bar.” Wilson served in the Virginia Air National Guard for six years. He served as a delegate in the Virginia General Assembly for 16 years and has had extensive involvement in the Virginia State Bar, including as a past chair of the Conference of Local Bar Associations of the VSB and of the Senior Lawyers Conference of the VSB, in addition to having served on numerous other VSB committees. Wilson has served as a substitute judge in Alleghany County and is a past president of the Alleghany-Bath-Highland Bar Association. He is a past member of the Boyd Graves Conference. In 2016, he received the “Champion of Justice Trophy” from the Virginia Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates. In 2022, he received the Edward L. Chambers Jr. Award from the Virginia State Bar in recognition of his significant time devoted to the VSB.
He has served on many civic boards in his community, including the United Way, the Salvation Army, the Alleghany County Chamber of Commerce, the Jackson River Scenic Trail Commission, the Valley Conservation Council, the Jackson River Preservation Association, the Rotary Club and the Izaak Walton League. He is a past president of the Hampden-Sydney College Alumni Association.
He is married to Langhorne “Lang” Clarke Wilson, and together they received the Chancellor’s Award from Dabney S. Lancaster Community College, now known as Mountain Gateway Community College, in 2017 for their leadership in philanthropy.
1966
John William Brennan retired from the Virginia Bar in 2025 after 59 years of practice. Brennan’s wide-ranging career spanned positions from Washington, D.C., to Portsmouth, Va., including four years with the Federal Trade Commission; eight as assistant general counsel with the U.S. Savings and Loan League; four as president, CEO and board member of Mount Vernon Savings and Loan in Alexandria, Va.; and a 30-year law practice in Portsmouth.
1967
Howard L. Bull sent a note, “We have a new grandson, Benji Daniel, born Oct. 8, 2024. We also have a granddaughter, Evelyn Corbin, born Aug. 9, 2018.”
Edward James White, age 87, died Dec. 3 at his home in Kinsale, Va.
White was born in Normandy, Mo., the son of the late Victor Lee and Ira Lindeman White. He lived in Nashville, Tenn., from 1943 to 1960, and later in several Virginia cities.
White was a graduate of Montgomery Bell Academy and Vanderbilt University. After college, he served as an active-duty officer in the Navy on the carrier USS Forrestal and the destroyer USS Borie. He was a member of the Naval Reserve from 1963 to 1973 and attained the rank of lieutenant commander. After graduating from the Law School, he was an assistant attorney general of Virginia from 1967-70, specializing in criminal appellate work and civil rights defense litigation. He was a special assistant to U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. in 1970-72 and was in private practice in Alexandria from 1972-1997.
White moved to Kinsale in 1997 and served as a member of the vestry, warden and treasurer of Cople Episcopal Parish. He was a former board member of the Kinsale Foundation, Hospice of the Northern Neck and the Northern Neck of Virginia Historical Society, and served as president of Preservation Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula Inc. for four years.
An ardent sailor of the Chesapeake Bay for 32 years, White also engaged in woodworking, genealogy and photography. He was the author of “Kinsale — The Middle Period,” “The War Between the States in the Northern Neck of Virginia and the Waters Bounding It,” “Lands and Lesser Gentry of Eastern Westmoreland County, 1650-1840s,” “Nicholas Spencer (1633-1689) of Cople Parishes, Secretary of Virginia,” and “Colonial Lands and Roads of Westmoreland County, Virginia,” and a major contributor of text and photos to historic sites in Virginia, the Northern Neck and Essex County.
He is survived by his nieces, Karen Duvier Holcomb of Nashville, Emily Duvier Zimmerman of Florida and Susan Duvier Bass of College Grove, Tenn.; nephew Henry A. Duvier Ill of Cookeville, Tenn.; 10 great-nieces and -nephews; and two great-great nephews and a great-great niece.
1968
After 55 years of trying cases, William Norman wrote that he “finally retired from the field of battle” this year.
