410 Curtis Whitfield Tong and Wavalene Kumler Tong
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
CURT TONG 8/26/1934 – 1/16/2017JINX TONG 12/23/1937 – 9/21/2022
Curt Tong was a beloved teacher and coach, devoted family man, fiercely competitive athlete, and lover of the outdoors, woodworking and international travel. Wavalene Tong was a resourceful educator, inquisitive scientist, savvy outdoorswoman, active church member, and loving wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. Exploring Japan via International Christian University was one of their shared adventures.
Wavalene Florence Kumler was born in Lancaster, Ohio, on December 23, 1937. As a child, she enjoyed visiting her family’s farms. At Bexley High School, she played clarinet in the high school band and acted in school plays. At Otterbein College, she played field hockey and was a serious student, majoring in biology and graduating in 1959.
Curtis Whitfield Tong was born in Davao in the southern Philippines, on August 26, 1934. His parents were American Board missionaries. During World War II, the Tong family lived as prisoners of war in Japanese internment camps in the Philippines, a story detailed in Curt’s book “Child of War,” which reflects his views about the power of reconciliation. Curt played baseball for Newton High School, near Boston, then majored in physical education and captained the football, baseball and tennis teams at Otterbein College, graduating in 1956.
Curt and Wavalene met at Otterbein, where Wavalene acquired her lifelong nickname “Jinx.” They married in 1958 and lived in South Dakota during Curt’s service in the U.S. Air Force. Returning to Ohio, Curt completed a doctoral degree at Ohio State University, writing a dissertation on the importance of physical education. Curt thereafter coached basketball and taught at Otterbein, while Jinx taught biology at Westerville High School.
In the early 1970s, Curt and Jinx moved to New England where Curt coached basketball and tennis at Williams College and Jinx taught biology at Buxton School in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Their children Karinne (6-15-1959), Kyle (4-28-1961) and Kurt (12-11-1962) were raised in Ohio and Massachusetts. In 1983, they moved to California where Jinx became dean of the Vivian Webb School and Curt was athletic director at Pomona College.
In 1981, Curt and Jinx went on sabbatical to International Christian University, where Curt taught physical education and both Curt and Jinx studied Japanese language and tried cultural activities like tea ceremony and taiko drumming. Curt and Jinx returned two more times to ICU to teach and study, in 1990 and 1996. Curt also served on the board of the Japan ICU Foundation.
The couple returned to Williamstown in 1998 for their retirement years, which were filled with travel, sports and community service.
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