Charles Richard Hannum

FAVORITE MEMORIES OF WILLIAMS

Freshman entry camaraderie, and follow-on roommates/suite mates Choral Society – the music, Prof Roberts’s conducting, singing with women’s choruses.The mountains (well, their ambiance); walking on campus; skiing. Prof Victor Hill , Variety of classmates’ interests and experiences brought to campus life and classroom participation

WILLIAMS CLUBS / ACTIVITIES

Choral Society, operate movie projector for foreign language films, recreational skiing, weekend road trips to visit my girlfriend at Smith

CURRENT INTERESTS, PASSIONS, AND ORGANIZATIONS

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Glenside, Pa., Diocese of Pa.
Philadelphia Tree Tenders
Lawncrest Philadelphia Community Garden
Temple University Singing Owls Community Chorus
WHYY-FM, Philadelphia, and NPR (listen and contribute)
Philadelphia Inquirer (read and contribute)
When finally retired, will visit more national parks.
When finally retired, will take up the game of Go.

Spending time with family and friends

LIFE SINCE GRADUATION

My draft number was 35. When the navy recruiter visited campus, I interviewed. The summer after I graduated I was selling cookware in Pittsburgh (home was the Philadelphia area). When my mom said a letter had arrived from my draft board, I said, “Don’t open it!” and promptly reported to the local navy recruiter and swore in. Started Basic Officer Qualification in Newport (as did Reg Pierce) in January ‘73. When the draft ended in March, they offered us the chance to “roll out” without penalty, but we nearly all stayed the course.

Commissioned in May ‘73, I headed for Athens, Ga., to start six months of Supply Corps training with additional navy computer training. From there I had six months’ Supply System duty in Norfolk until I was assigned as the Supply & Disbursing Officer on a Reserve Training destroyer in Mayport, Fla. Bicentennial ‘76 saw me assigned to a support position in the navy training hierarchy in Millington, Tenn., near Memphis. There I met my wife, a navy nurse from Cincinnati, and her daughter. We were married, she was medically discharged and moved with me to my next assignment aboard a supply ship stationed in Yokosuka, Japan. Lots of steaming around Westpac ensued. Our son (conceived in Hong Kong) was born in Japan shortly before we moved back to the States, to my last active-duty billet in Philadelphia.

After 10 years of active duty, I joined the reserves and completed 10 more years of service in units supporting the navy supply system. My civilian work has been in the accounting department of a small engineering company doing work supporting Navy Lakehurst (aircraft launching and arresting equipment) and the Naval Ship Engineering Station Philadelphia (in-service shipboard engineering systems).

My kids were Catholic-, public-, and home-schooled. The oldest dropped out of public school, got her GED while holding a variety of jobs getting valuable experience, and has had excellent jobs ever since. The middle two attended Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) as dance majors, then joined the navy. After the navy, my son was a wind turbine tech for two years and is now a navy contractor. My daughter recruits for navy contractors. My youngest son was a student in the International Baccalaureate program in high school, then majored in Spanish at Gettysburg College (very similar to Williams,) taught English in Brazil, worked with migrant families in Adams County, Pa., and is now a law student at Temple.

I have been involved in Episcopal parish affairs for 30 years. I have been in choirs, of course, but also vestry member and parish rep to deanery and diocesan meetings and conventions. I have been rector’s warden (the senior lay member) three different times at three churches as they went through major changes. I chaired the search committee that called a new rector at the second church. When that church decided our future was best served by joining with another church, I was selected rector’s warden to shepherd us through that.

As we are all in our 70s now (sheesh—that is a striking thing to put in black and white), many of us are facing health issues, and we don’t want to bore each other with details. But I will just say I am a thyroid- and prostate-cancer survivor, and I highly recommend Fox Chase Cancer Center to anyone who needs cancer treatment. I also laud my GP, who in a routine exam, cocked her head when she was looking me over and took a closer look at my neck.

My wife, the nurse, is retired now. After getting her BSN at Thomas Jefferson University in Phila., she was director of nursing at a new NurseFinders franchise in Philly, filling local nursing shifts. After resigning that position, she filled shifts herself until retiring from nursing and opening a used-book store, which took a fair amount of my time as well, in a fun and rewarding way.

As I near retirement myself, we are planning to travel, visit the kids, visit national parks, visit classmates?