RE Log Spring 2022

SPRING 2022 Ransom Everglades LOG 65 Michael Hood ’63 passed away on March 1, 2021. He was born on November 17, 1943, at James Archer Smith Hospital to the late Lonnie and Miriam Hood. He was a lifelong Homestead, Fla., resident and loved his little town. Michael went to school at Ransom Everglades and upon gradua- tion went to college at Stetson University where he graduated with a bachelor’s in Business Administration. He went on to serve in the U.S. Army before return- ing to his beloved Homestead. Michael had several jobs over the years includ- ing work at Community Bank and S & M Farm Supply, but he spent most of his years as the owner of Hood Groves growing Florida avocados. After he retired from avocados, he spent time volunteering at Homestead Hospital, driving the parking lot transportation cart. You may not have known his name but likely remember his smile and he always had candy on board for the riders. He is survived by his loving and patient wife, Rita; brother, Richard (Kathryn); his sons, Bradford (Kathy) and Gregg; his stepdaughter, Deborah (Thomas); his stepson, Michael (Victoria); two nephews; three grandsons; two grand- daughters; and one great-granddaughter. Michael is pictured at his 50-year RE reunion in 2013 with his wife Rita. Tim James ’79 passed away at his home in Covington, La., on April 17, 2021. Born in Farmington, Mich., he was the youngest child of William Robert Chalice and Beverly Jean (Struthers) James. Tim was an avid rugby player for years. He played rugby while attending Florida State University. He also played with the Battleship Rugby Football Club in Mobile, Ala. He had a passion for the outdoors: hiking, camping and fishing. He enjoyed time with his beloved bloodhound, Lucy. He loved being in the kitchen, creating delicious meals for his family. He is survived by his children, Brennan James (Breanne) and Kelly James. Tim is lovingly remembered by his two brothers, William James, David James (Cheri); two sisters, Teresa and Janet James; his former wife, Kathryn (Crismond) James; loving nieces, nephews and other relatives. Tim is survived by his father, William Robert Chalice James, and father’s wife, Helen Hoff. Charles “Towny” Townsend Ludington, Jr., ’53 , professor emeritus of English and American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, died of renal failure in hospice care in Pittsboro, N.C., on November 4, 2021. Born in Bryn Mawr, Pa., Ludington moved to Old Lyme, Conn. at age three. Education, both his own and that of his students, was the constant theme in his life. He was sent to boarding school at age ten, first to the Adirondack-Florida School, which after two years ceased to migrate seasonally and became the Ransom School in Miami. At age 16 he went to Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, and from there went to Yale University where he played varsity soccer, sang in the Alley Cats and majored in English. Ludington’s Exeter and college educations were made possible by extended family, fam- ily friends and work-study grants, something that made him particularly appreciative of the financial difficulties faced by many students and their families. His first stop after graduation was officer training school in Quantico, Va. Before being based at Air Station El Toro, near Irvine, Calif., Ludington married Harriet Jane Ross of Tenafly, N.J., in February 1958. They had met when he took a ski trip to Middlebury, Vt., where she was in college. After three years in the Marine Corps, Ludington returned to Ransom School in Miami, where for two years he taught English, coached school athletic teams in every season, and did anything else his uncle, the headmaster, could get him to do. Between 1962 and 1967, he attended Duke University, where he received his master’s degree and PhD, and upon completion, he took a job in the English department at the nearby University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the institution he loved from the beginning, and the town he embraced as his home. Ludington received a Fulbright Award to teach in Lyon, France, in 1971-72, held visiting lectureships at Ulster, Northern Ireland, and Tübingen, Germany, and was a visiting professor at the United States Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., in 1988-89. From 1980-82, he was the Resident Scholar in American Studies at the U.S. International Communications Agency in Washington, D.C. In this capacity, he man- aged U.S. government foreign cultural and exchange activities around the world. When he returned to Chapel Hill in 1982, he was made Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished L-R: Nick Bell ’82, Harry Anderson ’38 , Head of School Penny Townsend and Townsend Ludington ’53 . Photographed in summer 2018 at The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn.