Charles Leighton Medd ’49

CHARLIE FOUGHT a valiant battle against leukemia for nine years but succumbed on June 21, 1989, at his home in Gorham, Me. Born on Apr. 4, 1928, in N.Y.C., Charlie prepared for Princeton at the Stony Brook School, where he played football, basketball, and baseball. He transferred to Wesleyan after our freshman year and, after he graduated, did postgraduate work at Brown.

During the Korean War, Charlie spent three years in the Air Force and military intelligence, sandwiched between, as he put it, "short stabs in Wall Street, football coaching, fundraising, and weekly newspapers." In Mar. 1955, he married Iola Munroe Lyttle, and they had four children. That same year, Charlie began work at the U.S. Information Service in Thailand, and in 1957, he was assigned to Japan, where he served for ten years. In 1967, he joined Voice of America. Working as a reporter and analyst until he retired in 1988, his assignments included the civil-rights movement, Watergate, and the presidential campaigns of George McGovern and Jimmy Carter.

Charlie's first marriage ended in divorce. In 1971, he married Tonia Nadzo. After he retired, they moved from Washington to Gorham. Survivors include his widow, Tonia, of Gorham; his children, Willet Howe, of Washington, D.C., Christopher, of Gaithersburg, Md., Michael, of Rye, N.Y., and David, of Ossining, N.Y.; two stepsons, Sean and Marc Mencher, of Austin, Tex.; and a brother, John S. Jr., of Deerfield, Ill. To all of them we extend our heartfelt sympathy.

The Class of 1949