Page 51 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 94, No. 3 Spring 2014

1945
Edwin Richards “Dick”
Bigelow
a successful ven-
ture capitalist and
adventurer, died
peacefully on
January 15, 2014,
at his home in
Denver, Colo. He
was 86.
Born on April 6,
1927, he was the
son of Alice Blum and Edwin Hicks Bigelow
of New York City. Mr. Bigelow prepared
for St. Paul’s at St. Bernard’s School on
Manhattan’s Upper East Side. He entered
SPS as a Second Former in the fall of 1940
and quickly became a dedicated student.
He was a member of the Acolyte Guild,
the Cadmean/Concordian Literary Society,
the Missionary Society, and the Scientific
Society. Mr. Bigelow enjoyed boxing, foot-
ball, ice hockey, tennis, and track.
Mr. Bigelow attended Yale University,
graduating with the Class of 1949 after
serving as a radioman with the Navy Air
Corps toward the end of WWII. In 1950,
he married Melissa Weston and moved
to Midland, Texas, to learn about the oil
business. He served as a roughneck for
a drilling company and as a landman for
an independent exploration company. In
1952, Mr. Bigelow moved to Denver with a
small independent oil company and soon
after founded the exploration company
Whittaker, Bigelow and Company. He later
became a founding partner of Mountain
States Securities and Bigelow Investment
Company, which raised money in the East
for ventures in the West.
Mr. Bigelow enjoyed being outdoors
and living an active life through polo,
golf, tennis, squash, skiing, upland game
and waterfowl shooting, and freshwater
and deep-sea fishing. He was a member
of the Denver Country Club, University
Club, Denver Athletic Club, Garden of the
Gods Club, Vallejo Gun Club, Roundup
Riders of the Rockies, Arapahoe Hunt Club,
and Plum Creek Polo Club. He served as
president of Club Limited, a nationwide
hunting and fishing organization. In New
York he was a member of Knickerbocker
Greys, the Brook, the Racquet and Tennis
Club, Piping Rock, and New York Yacht Club.
recalled the thrill of playing at Madison
Square Garden for SPS and beating Deer-
field, 6-1, on December 20, 1945. Mr.
Harmer scored a goal and added two
assists in the game. He also participated
in track and rowed for Shattuck. Mr.
Harmer was a member of the Missionary
Society and the Library Association and
served as an acolyte.
Having helped with the testing of some
of his father’s medical inventions early
on, Mr. Harmer developed a keen interest
in medicine from a young age, and so it
was with a “burning desire to be a doctor,”
that he headed to Princeton after graduat-
ing St. Paul’s. There he majored in biology
and belonged to Key and Seal, graduating
with the Class of 1950.
After Princeton, Mr. Harmer planned to
attend medical school in the fall of 1950,
but the renewal of the draft prompted his
consideration of becoming a pilot and, after
being recruited and “catching the flying
bug,” he enlisted in the Air Force as an
aviation cadet. In January 1953, he went to
Korea, where he flew F-80 Shooting Stars
and F-86 Sabres with the 36th Fighter
Bomber Squadron of the 8th Fighter
Bomber Wing. Following Korea, he was an
instructor pilot at Air Force Bases in Texas,
Alabama, Cape Cod, and South Carolina.
In 1959, he married Elizabeth (Betty)
Morrow of Chestnut Hill, Pa., and the
couple had a daughter. He earned his M.B.A.
from George Washington University in
1966. Mr. Harmer returned to action in
1967 as an F-4 Phantom fighter-bomber
pilot in Da Nang, Vietnam. Next came Italy
as a NATO staff officer and then service
at Westover AFB in Massachusetts and at
Loring AFB in Maine, where he served as
chief of security, and, finally, deputy base
commander at Loring.
After retirement as a Lieutenant Colonel
in 1980, Mr. Harmer took up residence
on a farm in northeastern Maine, where
he was active in town government, the
Episcopal Church and Rotary, and served
as a district governor of Kiwanis. He was
predeceased in 2008 by his wife, Betty.
Mr. Harmer was diagnosed with leukemia
in 2011, at which time he went to live with
his daughter, Libby Millar, of West New-
bury, Mass. She survives him.
Mr. Bigelow was a proud SPS alumnus
and served the School as a form agent,
form director, and regional representa-
tive. He generously supported St. Paul’s
as a member of the John Hargate Society.
His infectious laugh and gregarious
spirit will be missed by all who knew him,
particularly his daughter, Bettina Alice
Bigelow, who was the light of his life. He
was predeceased by Bettina’s mother, Joan
Turnburke Bigelow.
1946
Torr Wagner Harmer Jr.
a decorated military veteran, of West New-
bury, Mass., died of cancer on January 13,
2014, at the V.A. Medical Center in Man-
chester, N.H. He was 85.
Mr. Harmer served his country as a
Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force.
During his 30-year military career, he
saw combat in two wars and was decor-
ated with the Legion of Merit, two Dis-
tinguished Flying Crosses, and numerous
air medals.
Mr. Harmer was born on May 14, 1928,
in Boston, Mass., the son of Torr W. Harmer
and Thirza (Hallett) Harmer. His father, an
inventor and a prominent and pioneering
hand surgeon at Massachusetts General
Hospital, died when Mr. Harmer was just
12 years old. He attended Winchester
High School in Massachusetts, but, a few
years after his father’s death, Mr. Harmer’s
mother thought her son was not getting
enough out of his education, and was
eager to have him apply to St. Paul’s for
more structure and male camaraderie.
He entered the Fourth Form at St. Paul’s
School in 1943.
Mr. Harmer had many friends at the
School, including Sidney Fox, his formmate
and lifelong best friend. Small and wiry,
he was an ardent athlete. He played foot-
ball and hockey for Old Hundred. A left
winger on the SPS hockey team, he often
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