Calvin Wolcott G’71 died on April 2, 2022, in Boca Raton, Florida

(The following was provided by the Dignity Memorial on April 2, 2022)

Calvin Wolcott G’71

Calvin was a beloved husband, father and grandfather, a man of prayer, and a lifelong teacher with a kind, thoughtful, and intellectually curious manner. He loved his family, his wife of sixty-one years, and engaged in two distinct professions—first teaching and then actuarial science. Calvin had a great fondness for books, singing, and bicycling. Calvin retired after eleven years as an associate actuary with NCCI. In retirement, he sang in the church choir, volunteered with the homeless ministry, and bicycled to the beach and beyond. He passed away peacefully from metastatic stomach cancer.

Calvin was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, on April 6, 1933, to Anna Marie Daum and Raymond George Wolcott. He grew up in Caldwell, New Jersey, playing basketball and baseball and maintained an avid interest in both sports throughout his life. Following graduation from Grover Cleveland High School in Caldwell, New Jersey, he matriculated at Colgate University, completing his bachelor of arts in mathematics and physics, graduating magna cum laude in 1954. During his summers at Colgate, Calvin participated in service projects for the American Friends Service Committee (Quakers) in Ohio, Georgia, and Germany. He then completed an MBA at MIT (Sloan) School of Industrial Management in 1956. During a tour as an air intelligence officer in the Navy (1956-9), he met Berit Røe in Norway, and after traveling by car from Egypt to South Africa, he returned to marry Berit in Namsos, Norway in 1960. He returned first to New Jersey where he was the business manager for Biodynamics, Inc., and in 1962, with his wife and newborn son, he moved to New Hampshire as a financial analyst for New Hampshire Ball Bearings, Inc. In the summer of 1965 he attended a course sponsored by the National Science Foundation for instructors of the natural sciences and began teaching mathematics, physics, and chemistry at a Quaker boarding school, The Meeting School, in Rindge, New Hampshire, remaining at the school until 1970. He then went on to receive his masters degree in mathematics from Bowdoin College in 1971 and settled in Portland, Maine, while teaching mathematics at Falmouth High School for thirteen years. Calvin and his family attended Camps Farthest Out (CFO) on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire every summer for nearly fifteen years where he was elected to a three-year chair position. Following an inner calling for change, he and Berit moved to the San Francisco Bay area in 1984 after Calvin accepted a job as a senior analyst at Life Insurance Rx. While working subsequently as an analyst at the California Workers Compensation Rating Bureau, Calvin began a multi-year undertaking of actuarial studies and exams, culminating in passing the requirements for associate actuary while working at Industrial Indemnity in San Francisco, CA, in 1993. Following a new inner calling for change, Calvin moved in 1996 to Florida to work as an associate actuary at National Council for Compensation Insurance (NCCI) in Boca Raton where he was responsible for preparing workers compensation filings for the states of Colorado, Tennessee, and Texas until his retirement in 2007. In his retirement, Calvin became increasingly involved in the Methodist Church and volunteered to head up its homeless ministry. His life-long love of basketball was manifested when he started a youth program with Ebenezer Baptist Church in Boca Raton. An avid cyclist, Calvin bicycled with his son Peter from Oregon to Maine during the summer of 1978, and he continued bicycling until months before his death.

Calvin is survived by and will be dearly missed by his wife, A.M. Berit Wolcott; his brother, Andrew Wolcott; his three children, Peter (Ellie), Cathrine, and Kristin (Scott); and six grandchildren, Elisa, Dylan, Lena (Eric), Erik, Clara, and Annika and two nieces, Susan Charron and Janet Charron, and he is predeceased by his sister, Lillian Charron.