John Farnsworth Stedman

John Farnsworth Stedman,age 66, passed away on Sunday, June 5, 2016 suddenly at home.

John was born on September 6, 1949 to Bruce and Ruth (Dexter) Stedman. He grew up on Long Island, NY in a family with three younger brothers. He graduated high school in NY, then onto college at Wesleyan University. He completed his undergraduate education at University of Nairobi, Kenya where his father served the United Nations. John lived in various places as an adult including Austria, Kenya, California, Hawaii, Key West, Fla., Montauk, NY, Hayward, WI and then most recently in Eau Claire WI.

While attending graduate school at UCLA he welcomed his first and only child, Malia, with his then wife, and forever friend, Madonna Machado. After pursuing his academic career, he decided to turn his attention to his love for the ocean. John was a commercial fisherman in Montauk and in Key West. It was in Key West that John achieved sobriety from alcohol. Once he no longer used alcohol, he realized that fishing was just not as enjoyable, and he moved with his first wife and daughter to Hayward, WI where John became actively involved with his community.

John owned and operated Timberlawn Pet Care Center because he loved animals, but his desire to serve others compelled him to become involved beyond his personal business interests. He ran for, and eventually became the president of the Hayward School Board, where he served with distinction for several years . He also joined and served First Lutheran Church in Hayward. After an unsuccessful run for the State legislature, he eventually moved to Eau Claire.

In Eau Claire his relationship with his first wife changed into a friendship and they divorced. John later met and fell in love with Sharon Fenske Skabroud. While John and Sharon were engaged to get married, John went for a routine medical checkup, where they found advanced prostate cancer. Sharon and John married on December 2, 2006. They, with sincere faith in the Lord, made it through the prostate cancer, even though doctors at that time did not believe John would survive the cancer.

With a new lease on life and with the partnership, love and support of Sharon, John again turned his attention to helping others. Continuing his journey of recovery, John became a leader in the Eau Claire community, supporting many others who were seeking the freedom of sobriety. John was a member of and served as an Elder on Session at the First Presbyterian Church in Eau Claire. He also completed the lay pastor training in Duluth and served in that capacity at several local Presbyterian churches.

His commitment to the Church and his desire to support the recovery community found the perfect joint venture in John’s current role as a community organizer for JONAH, Joining Our Neighbors Advancing Hope. John’s role as community organizer allowed him to advocate treatment alternatives to incarceration and other powerful social justice initiatives. John’s other interests included an obsessive interest in gardening with a stated desire to stop traffic with his flower garden at his home in Eau Claire. This goal recently came to fruition and his gardens are currently a beautiful reflection of John’s life: vibrant, diverse and extraordinary! John lived life with a belief that he could achieve Heaven on Earth, and the joy he experienced and shared daily exemplified this belief. John’s grandfather, father and mother passed onto all four of the Stedman brothers the doctrine that the only unacceptable action was to not take action. To John, if something made sense, he was going to do it.

Survivors include his wife, Sharon; daughter, Malia Malone and her daughters, Jada and Ella; former wife, Madonna Machado; brothers, Jim (Billie) Stedman and Matt (Katie) Stedman; Bruce’s (his father’s) wife, Susie Goodwillie Stedman; and several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his younger brother, Mike; mother, Ruth; father, Bruce; and grandson, Zachary Malone.

  Reverend Charles Bell

"The Rev" is a native Long Islander,having grown up in Mineola N.Y., and became a part of the Messiah family in March of 1997. He has an AA degree from Concordia Junior College Bronxville N.Y., a BA degree from Concordia Senior College Ft. Wayne, Indiana, and his Master of Divinity degree (M.Div.) from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. After serving as a vicar at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Flint Michigan and as the Assistant Pastor of Elm Grove Lutheran Church in Elm Grove, Wisconsin, he took over the pastorate at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Aquebogue, Long Island. In addition to serving as a Circuit Counselor for the Eastern Suffolk circuit of the Atlantic District, Pastor Bell also served on the Nominations Committees and the Charismatic Study Group in the District. He is married to Karyn Hawkes. They have four children Debbie, Adam, Chuck and Sarah.

 

 

  James Smith

I am working in New York City as an information technology consultant. After a few years at various banks, I am trying my hand at the media industry. Currently, I am with CBS, on 57th Street in Manhattan.

 

 

 Tim Boland, Class of '67

I remember all the good times on Robbins Drive, playing basketball and touch football, and good times near Northside School. Good times over there on the Northside playing fields too. Believe it or not, I still play basketball, in two leagues, full-court, two nights a week. Most of the guys are 20-30 years younger. I've been lucky, no significant injuries and I just love playing. That love was fostered on all those outdoor courts Still remember with the greatest joy our crazy times, playing golf at pre-dusk on the Wheatley Hills golf course, being discovered by the JEEP and running away from him across the fairways for the hole in the fence off Robbins Drive that I always slithered through. Can't say my golf game has improved since then. But at least I don't have to run from a groundskeeping jeep! I am living in Brossard, Quebec, Canada, which is a suburb just outside of Montreal. I started my family late (have a 17-year old girl named Annabelle and a 16-year old son named Zachary). I am involved in business coaching corporate employees (primarily francophones) in their English for presentations and speaking to the rest of Canada and the U.S. With young children, at 66 years I am far from retired (never bought Microsoft or Apple or Google at the outset! Damn). Still involved in writing (had a script I co-wrote 25 years ago finally shot last year and aired on cable station UPTV-crazy!) but most of my focus is on the consulting and getting these young ones raised. Right now I've got two-three feet of snow outside my door that will be on the lawn until early April. Before here, I was living in San Francisco for 13 years. Moved to this winter wonderland for love. Still love the woman, still married, but the novelty of snow outside my window for 4-5 months has definitely lost its allure.

Cynthia Shapiro Chadderon

Dear Wheatley World,

Summer of '68....4 college drop outs (me, my boyfriend and two of our guy friends) from SUNY New Paltz, purchase an old station wagon for $50 dollars and head west on Route 66.

We arrive in San Anselmo, Ca. 3 days later.....use your imagination to fill in the 3 days on the road!

Garry and I stayed in California for about 1 and 1/2 years, filled with all things '60's. This adventure included several months of living on the corner of Haight and Ashbury streets, spending every weekend at free concerts on "Hippie Hill" in Golden Gate Park, and attending concerts at Winterland and the Fillmore West. We also lived in San Rafael and Tiburon, and ended up living in Larkspur, where we lived down the street from Jerry Garcia. We were invited over to his house to hear "American Beauty" prior to it's release......again, use your imagination here

......and ultimately came back to NY and set out on a 1 and 1/2 year adventure traveling and living in the Middle and Far East, Israel, Afghanistan, India, Nepal.....

One highlight of many was living in Darhamsala, India for a month among the Tibetan people and having an audience with the Dali Lama of Tibet.

I saw Richie Havens right here in little old Delaware probably 20 years ago when he played a concert in the parking lot of our local baseball team's stadium...

Following the month in Darhmsala we spent 6 more months studying Buddhist meditation with our teacher Goenka, who eventually became a world renowned teacher of mindfulness/Vipassana meditation. I now have the honor of being a meditation facilitator at The Internationl Women's Club of Delaware.

Engoron, Arthur Fredericks –

Dear Wheatley World,

I was born in Queens and grew up on Bengeyfield Drive in East Williston.

The schools nice enough to award me a diploma are: The North Side School (1961); The Wheatley School (1967); Columbia College (1972) and NYU School of Law (1979). In between those last two I was a musician. Afterwards I was, in order, a Park Avenue litigator; a piano and drum teacher; a moderately successful bar band keyboard player; a law clerk to a judge; and, now, an elected New York State Supreme Court Justice.

Somehow I’ve managed to have four kids (the oldest of whom started Fordham Law School in 2015; the youngest of whom was born in 2008) and be married thrice.  My wife, Dawn, a psychotherapist, and I, and our relatively young brood, live in a 1920 Dutch Colonial house in Great Neck, on Long Island (obviously).

My hobbies/interests include history, photography, Old Master and Impressionist paintings, politics, chess, Italian food, soccer (as a player), football (mostly as a spectator), bicycling, fitness, movies, journalism, computers, websites (such as YouTube and Wikipedia), and philosophy. I don’t find time to play music regularly any more (much less perform it); but I’m still a huge fan and follower of Rock & Roll!

One of my biggest thrills has been to form and run The Wheatley School Alumni Association (with invaluable help from Keith Aufhauser, 1963, and Ken Distler, 1966).

If you’re reading these lines, you’ve obviously accessed our website; please e-mail me, ARTENGORON@GMAIL.COM or WHEATLEYALUMNI@AOL.COM, any comments, corrections or contributions (including to this relatively new “Whatever Happened to………” Section). Also, please help us “Find” the “Lost” graduates. I’ve been a guest (interloper?) and host at several non-1967 class reunions and other events (such as the annual Wheatley School Alumni Association NYC Lunch, every January), and I enjoy seeing both the homogeneity and the heterogeneity of Wheatley grads. We are everywhere, but we’re all connected...... which is the main goal of the TWSAA.

Yours truly,

Art Engoron