WINSTON L. CONE
Winston L. Cone of Woodbridge, Connecicut, died on February 18, 2008. He was 93. We were
alerted to his passing by Flo Hatcher, Executive Director, CT State Conference. AAUP when she
noticed that he was listed as an active member of the EA. Winston Cone was a charter member of
the Emeritus Assembly, and, therefore, enjoyed life membership in the organization, a status in
honour of his having been a founding member and of his many contributions to the assembly.
Fred Cazel, who knew Professor Cone well, wrote the following tribute.
"News has been received of the death in February of one of the first members of the
Emeritus Assembly, Winston Cone, professor emeritus of history at Southern Connecticut State
University. He was a member of the planning group that met at Wesleyan in October 1986 as well
as the organizing meeting at Central Connecticut State University on November 3.
Win served on the Constitution Committee which prepared the constitution under which
we still operate. Elected Vice- President in 1990, he was advanced to President in 1991, an office
which he filled through 1998, longer than anyone before or since.
A big man in every way, Win Cone gave our organization excellent leadership throughout
his service. It was a matter of great regret when he had to retire because of his wife's ill health. He
was 93 years of age at the time of his death, a veteran of the Second World War, when he was
stationed in Africa and fell in love with it. Later he and his wife would teach in several African
schools and universities; they traveled widely there and even led tours there. He had taught at
Southern from 1967 to 1982."
Mary Rogers, Compton Rees, Ceil Welna, Morton Tenzer, Fred Cazel all searched their own
memory banks and other available records that provided background information for the above.
And in Mary's case, she looked through her collection of the EA newsletter for many of the details
included in the tribute. Win Cone's participation in the enterprise of founding the EA is well
documented in an article by Barbara McKillop, first secretary of the EA, "Emeritus Assembly: the
first ten years," published in the Vanguard April-May 1995 issue. .Excerpts of the article, is
available on this site as well..
Until recent years, Winston Cone continued to attend and participate in EA meetings. At the
November 18, 1996 EA meeting at the LOB in Hartford, with speaker Senator Edith Prague on
"Health, Pensions, and social security", It was reported in the "Total Schedule" that "President Win
Cone's message re social security, medicare, et al, noted that pressure would require some
reorganization and innovative planning for retirees - and the upcoming election will be most
important in how all these changes sort themselves out - the more things change, the more they
stay the same..." These concerns apply also in this election year, 2008.
Winston Cone last attended an EA meeting on April 19, 2005 for a tour of the Yale Center for
British Art in New Haven, "just to see us all".
At the May 6, 2008 meeting, with speaker Nicholas F. Ballantoni on "Burial Practices in New
England, an Archaeological Perspective" at the Connecticut Archaeology Center, Storrs, Morton
Tenzer made the motion for the EA "to make a memorial contribution to the Cone Scholarship Fund
at the SCSU Foundation as an expression of our appreciation of Professor Cone's service to the
organization." The motion was passed unanimously. To quote Fred Cazel, Win Cone was "a big
man in every way." Many thanks..
Winston L. Cone: Professor Emeritus of History at Southern Connecticut State University. (B.S.,
University of Massachusetts: M.A., University of Illinois; Ph.D., University of Chicago), taught at
Southern from 1967 to 1982. He was a charter and life member of Emeritus Assembly, CT State
Conference, AAUP (1986-2008).
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