Stanley Wells Widger, Jr.

  • 1968
  • 1987
  • 1992
  • 1997
  • 2012
stanley widger

Stanley Wells Widger, Jr.

Rochester, New York
Gates-Chili High School
Bascom House

English and Spanish; Dean’s List; English Honors; Phi Beta Kappa; Swimming 1; lntramurals 2,3,4; Purple Key 3,4; Gargoyle 3,4; House Manager 3,4; Beta Olympics 4

Graduated with Highest Honors in English. Bachelor of Arts, Magna Cum Laude.
Elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

1987
2012

Looking Back on Fifty Years

FAVORITE MEMORIES OF WILLIAMS

Nearly all of my memories of Williams are fond ones, and although many are extracurricular, a number of classes and the professors who taught them stand out. While I started with a focus on science and particularly enjoyed chemistry courses with Professor Crampton, my side interests in English and Spanish eventually took over, fed in particular by classes with Professors Samuels and Hunt in the English Department and Professors Piper and Gonzalez in the Romance Languages Department. They had an intense and infectious interest in what they taught that left an indelible impression on me.

WILLIAMS CLUBS / ACTIVITIES

Swimming (freshman); Lecture Committee; Gargoyle

CURRENT INTERESTS, PASSIONS, AND ORGANIZATIONS

I still practice law full-time, so that tends to limit the time I devote to other activities. I enjoy spending time with Mary, our married children, and our two young grandchildren. We spend much of the year on Martha’s Vineyard, where I like to play tennis and golf, occasionally fish, and spend time with our children and grandchildren when they visit. I am on the board of a beach club that is dealing with issues involving the impact of sea level rise and more severe weather. We also support organizations devoted to purchasing and preserving undeveloped land on the island.

LIFE SINCE GRADUATION

When Williams was contemplating coeducation, I thought it would be a major distraction from noble academic pursuits. I was right. Mary Fillback, who joined our class and Bascom House, initially as a junior on exchange from Smith and later permanently, and I have been married since 1974. That is the single best thing about having attended Williams. In second place is lasting friendship with classmates like Jeff Niemitz, who put up with me as a roommate for two years before we moved into Bascom House (the old Beta Theta Pi house); the Bascom House residents or members, including but not limited to Gar Bemis, John Dier, Cas Groblewski, John Keir, Tom Kerr, Hank Maimin, Will Thorn, and David Webster; and my companions on a memorable senior year Winter Study in Spain, especially Paul Isaac and the late Phil Sullivan. The camaraderie at Bascom House, where we jokingly referred to one another as “Beta,” was such that the college administration was worried for a time that we might be secretly resurrecting a fraternity, and we did our best to keep that worry alive.

Until about four days before graduation, I had expected to be drafted into the army, since I had a low draft lottery number (34) and had already taken the physical exam for induction; but then I received a notice from the North Adams draft board informing me that I was unwanted (4-F). (Ever-helpful Betas suggested that the reason was clearly psychological.) Consequently, actually going to law school, instead of to Vietnam, after graduation was a pleasant surprise.

I went to Cornell, graduating in 1975, and went to work for what was then Nixon, Hargrave, Devans & Doyle (later Nixon Peabody LLP) in my hometown of Rochester, N.Y. In 1976, I took a leave from the law firm to clerk for a federal district judge in Vermont for a year. Mary and I returned to Rochester in 1977. When I returned, there was a need for a warm body in the utilities department, so that began what I have been doing for the last 45 years at the same firm. Over that time, I have represented local gas, electric, telephone, and water utilities, natural gas pipelines, electric generators, energy trade associations, and industrial customers of utilities before the administrative agencies that set rates and approve infrastructure projects, as well as on appeals. More recently, as the focus of energy policy shifts to efforts to limit climate change, much of my practice has involved measures to facilitate the transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy resources, as well how to pay for the transition. Overall, I have enjoyed the practice. While there are some constants, much of the subject matter changes rapidly, and that keeps it interesting. Unfortunately, decision making about energy choices and their costs has always been impacted to some degree by politics; but now that impact seems to be more intense than ever. I worry that the result will be spectacularly bad decisions that will have a long-lasting impact.

Aside from practicing law, I was a member and president of the board of trustees of the independent school our children attended and where Mary was the librarian until her retirement. Mary and I play tennis and try to stay in shape, although Covid has made that more of a challenge than it used to be.

As I move toward retirement over the next couple of years, I am looking forward to spending more time with Mary and our children and grandchildren. Our grandchildren, in particular, are a compelling reason to pull the retirement trigger sooner rather than later. Mary and I are fortunate that our daughter and her family live only a mile from our house in Rochester. We also hope to do more traveling, especially to the Los Angeles, area where our son and his wife live. We hope that, at some point in the not-too-distant future, Covid will be sufficiently under control that travel, as well as simply being out and about, will be a pleasure again and not the cause for concern that it is today. I wish everyone well in getting beyond Covid and to many more reunions.

MAJOR

English and Spanish

OCCUPATION(S)

Law

OTHER DEGREES SINCE GRADUATING

JD – Cornell Law School, 1975

CURRENT RESIDENCE

Rochester, New York

SPOUSE OR PARTNER


Mary Fillback Widger – Williams ‘72;
U. Louisville, MA; SUNY Geneseo, MLS

CHILDREN

William R. Widger (b. 1981) – Emory U, BA, 2004
Emily E. Maurer (b. 1984) – Loyola U Maryland, BA, 2006; Johns Hopkins, MS, 2011

GRANDCHILDREN

Reino William Maurer (b. 2017)
Oliver Wells Maurer (b. 2021)