Page 50 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 94, No. 1 Fall 2013

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Mr. Montgomery was a member of the
Cadmean Literary Society, Phi Beta Kappa,
the Missionary Society, and the Glee Club.
He was president of the Library Associa-
tion and chairman of the Record Com-
mittee. “Remarkable in his relations with
Lower Schoolers as a supervisor,” he
served as a camp counselor. He also had
fond memories of playing with a student
musical group called the Rubber Band.
A gifted scholar, he earned First Testi-
monials in 1943 and 1944, Second Testi-
monials in 1942, a Second Dickey Prize
in English in 1942 and 1943, a Second
Dickey Prize in Latin in 1942, and the
Keep Prize in History in 1943. He was
awarded an SPS diploma magna cum
laude, with honors in English and history.
After serving in the Navy in World War
II, he attended Harvard University, grad-
uating with magna cum laude honors in
English in 1950. He earned his master’s
from Harvard in 1951, the same year he
married Margaret “Peggy” Kimball. He
went to France on a Fulbright Fellowship
before receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard
in 1956.
He became a professor of English and
comparative literature at the University
of Texas at Austin and at Williams College
before joining the faculty at the Univer-
sity of California-Irvine in 1967, just two
years after its founding.
Mr. Montgomery retired in 1994, al-
though he taught occasionally for a num-
ber of years afterward and continued his
research on the poetry and prose of the
16th to 18th centuries. He received a
Rockefeller Foundation grant to complete
his book on Shakespeare’s sonnets, The
Perfect Ceremony of Love’s Rite, pub-
lished in 2006.
He and his wife were avid fossil hunters
and collectors and were instrumental in
the founding of the Orange County Natural
History Foundation.
Mr. Montgomery leaves his wife, Peggy;
a daughter, Alexandra; two sons, Robert
III and Carleton; a sister, Diane Ferris; and
four grandchildren. His uncle, Grenville
D. Montgomery, was a member of the SPS
Form of 1894.
1946
John Blodgett Stebbins
a beloved lifelong educator, died peace-
fully on July 25, 2013, after a 15-month
fight against lung cancer. He was 85.
Originally from Niagara Falls, N.Y., he
was born on July 7, 1928, to Dr. Edward C.
Stebbins Jr. and Hope Blodgett Stebbins.
As a youth, he recalled having many
adventures, among them fishing coins
out of the top of the American falls,
“securely” anchored by old clothesline.
He attended Maple Ave. School and
Deveaux School in Niagara Falls before
enrolling at St. Paul’s School as a Fourth
Former in the fall of 1943, where, he told
people, he learned discipline, crew, and
Latin. While at St. Paul’s, Mr. Stebbins
was known as “Old Faithful” – a solid,
reliable, resolute, well-behaved student.
He was associate editor of the Pelican,
played of football for Isthmian, and rowed
with Shattuck.
Mr. Stebbins went on to Harvard College,
where he was a cartoonist for the Lam-
poon and a member of Hasty Pudding’s
“Hairy Leg Chorus.” He earned an English
degree in 1950 and entered the Navy,
serving in Charleston, S.C. During his
enlistment, he acted in many productions
at the Dock Street and Footlight theatres,
drew and painted their playbills, and met
and married Mary Emelie “Toby” Tobias
in 1953.
Mr. Stebbins and his wife returned to
Niagara Falls, where Mr. Stebbins embarked
on a teaching career at his old school,
Deveaux. During this time he also nearly
completed a Ph.D. program at the Univer-
sity of Buffalo. He left Deveaux to help
found Sterling School (now Sterling
College) in Craftsbury Common, Vt.,
with several faculty from the Berkshire
School. At Sterling, he served in virtually
every position, from school carpenter
and night watchman to headmaster. He
designed and built his own house near
the campus, constructed and played
three banjoes, helped to launch the local
fiddlers’ contest, served as the town’s
Republican representative, was a deacon
in his church, and continued to act in
local theatre.
He earned a master’s in school admini-
stration from Johnson State College and
served brief stints at Manlius Pebble Hill
School in New York and Lamoille Union
High School in Vermont. He traveled
across the street from Sterling to become
principal of Craftsbury Academy, the
local high school. Following the 1979
death of his wife, Toby, he moved to
Ashburnham, Mass., where he taught
English and Latin and coached shot put
and discus at Cushing Academy. There
he met and married his second wife,
Janet Elizabeth Jones.
Mr. Stebbins was passionate about
his career as a teacher. In 1981 he wrote
to Alumni Horae that he had “given up
on school administration – public and
private – I’m back to teaching and I love
it. First loves are the best.” Over the
years, he taught subjects as diverse as
astronomy, Latin, English, and history.
Despite his classical education and his
ubiquitous bow ties, Mr. Stebbins never
took himself too seriously.
DECEASED