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    When I brought Maharishi to Yale

    ByDavid Katz

    In November 1966, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, later famed as the Beatles’ guru, spoke at Yale’s Woolsey Hall. I arranged the lecture, which introduced hundreds of students and faculty to Transcendental Meditation. Within a year, TM became Yale’s largest student organization on campus.

    I went on to study at Maharishi’s ashram in India and help found Maharishi International University, later becoming a serial entrepreneur and, after that, founder of the Kauai Writers Conference.

    Nearly sixty years later, I still meditate daily—and I’m inviting all classmates to share their journeys with each other in an informal Zoom conference on September 11th at 4 PM Eastern.

    Just register here, and you’ll be sent the link.

  • Steve Dunwell’s Textile Worker Portraits Return to New England

    ByWayne Willis

    This Labor Day, the Museum of Work and Culture in Woonsocket, RI will open With These Hands: Textile Worker Portraits by Steve Dunwell. The exhibit features 21 striking black-and-white images of New England textile workers from the 1970s, part of Dunwell’s larger archive of over 140 photographs.

    On September 1, Dunwell will present a slideshow and discussion of his work, followed by a screening of the documentary Slatersville: America’s First Mill Village. The exhibit runs through October 24, offering visitors a rare chance to reflect on the human stories behind New England’s once-dominant textile industry.

  • Judge Myron H. Thompson – A Lifetime of Distinguished Service

    ByFred Morris

    Our classmate Myron H. Thompson, longtime federal judge in Alabama, was honored at a Supreme Court dinner hosted by Justices Barrett, Jackson, and Sotomayor, with a performance by Jon Batiste. His five-decade career has spanned landmark rulings on civil rights, prison reform, voting rights, and reproductive freedom, alongside national recognition from Yale, Harvard, Stanford, and the National Bar Association. Soon, the historic Frank M. Johnson Courtroom will be renamed in his honor, cementing his role as a defender of “Equal Justice Under the Law.” A remarkable journey for one of our own.

  • Class Notes, Jul-Aug, 2025

    ByDaniel Seiver

    Lives well-lived: Tom Stanko, who was in our class right up until final exams senior year, died April 7, 2025, from an extremely rare set of cancers. His son reports that he stayed active until the end, skiing with his sons in March, 2025.

    Although Tom did not keep in touch with 1969 classmates (he actually graduated with, and was affiliated with, the class of 1970) a number of us did know him during our undergraduate years, especially wrestlers. From John Weber:

    “He was in TD and frequently played bridge with Dave Bannard, another TD undergrad.  His drinking exploits were unparalleled – when he and I (and others) pledged Beta, Tom won the martini drinking contest at somewhere between 22 and 26 …

  • “Blue Notes” Reunion Musicians Reunite

    ByHarry Wise

    “The Blue Notes,” a pop-up musical group of classmates that entertained at the class dinner at the 55th reunion had their own mini-reunion on a Saturday in March. Planning began last fall, spearheaded by the indefatigable Eliot Norman. 

    If you click through and look at the full article, you’ll see pictures of the event, video recordings of some of the music we played, the full set list, and observations and reports from Eliot Norman, Tom Guterbock, Jay Castelli, Mat Kastner, John Adams, Norm Zamcheck, Dick Williams, Terry Benson and me.

  • Karlis Peter Ameriks, April 28, 2025

    ByDaniel Seiver

    Karl Ameriks was the Emeritus McMahon-Hank Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. Born in Munich, Karl graduated summa cum laude from Yale—A.B. (1969), Ph.D. (1973)—and wrote his thesis under the guidance of Karsten Harries.

    He joined the faculty at Notre Dame in 1973 and taught there for over forty years.  He was regarded as one of the leading scholars of Immanuel Kant’s philosophy and has written extensively on the history of late modern and Continental philosophy.  Ameriks co-edited the series Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy.  He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009.

  • Class Notes, May-Jun 2025

    ByDaniel Seiver

    Two more deaths to report – George Priest and Subrata Chakravarthy. See details in their In Memoriam posts — George Priest and Subrata Chakravarthy.]

    George was a long-time professor at Yale Law School. Included below are tributes from YLS Dean Heather K. Gerken and a remembrance from Alan Boles.

    Also, see more about Subrata from Walker Knight, and some “happier news” from Tom Carey and Bob Horvitz.

  • The New Listserv Gets Rolled Out

    ByWayne Willis

    As noted last month, we sought your input about our new Listserv.  (See “We Need A New Listserv. Your Input Needed.”)  Thanks for all the comments and inputs.  After trying a few commercial packages, we made a choice. See below for the rollout plan.

    We have also created a permanent “Listserv Summary” page that is linked in the masthead menu. It explains how and when to use the listserv. Please check that out for more detail, too.

  • Thomas G. Stanko, April 7, 2025

    ByWayne Willis

    Tom technically is affiliated with the Class of ’70, but he was in our class, in TD, until the spring semester of our senior year. He missed our graduation because while on spring break in Bermuda, he broke his leg when he crashed his motor bike into a stone wall. According to his son, Johnnie, Tom passed away peacefully at Johnnie’s home owing to complications of a constellation of cancers called BPDCN. Johnnie reported that…

  • Gregory Gorelik, August 4, 2014

    ByWayne Willis

    Not much is known about Greg.  He lived in a single in Ezra Stiles and had an irascible nature.  He graduated but never participated in any alumni events and had no internet presence.  We only recently learned about his death, which occurred in 2014. San Diego Union Tribune SAN DIEGO – A 66-year-old San Diego man who died when his car veered into a parked pickup Friday, was identified, the Medical Examiner’s Office said Monday….

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    Eugene Linden’s New Sci-Fi Thriller Lands Strong Reviews

    ByAdmin
    Editor’s Note: You heard from Eugene at the 55th reunion about his environmental book, Fire and Flood: A Peo­ple’s His­tory of Cli­mate Change, from 1979 to the Pre­sent.  Well, he has some novels, too — and this is his latest, complete with a very positive and informative review.

    Fol­low­ing his sci-fi novel Deep Past (2019), au­thor Eu­gene Lin­den has picked up where he left off with Res­ur­rect­ing Bart (2025). The idea for the for­mer book, he told The Hud­son In­de­pen­dent, grew out of a pon­der­ance: “If nat­ural se­lec­tion could pro­duce hu­man scale in­tel­li­gence in just sev­eral hun­dred thou­sand years – the blink of an eye on a ge­o­log­i­cal scale – who’s to say other highly in­tel­li­gent crea­tures haven’t come and gone over the past mil­lions of years.”

  • Class Notes, Mar-April 2025

    ByDaniel Seiver

    Editor’s Note: Class Notes contain a tribute to Victor Norman from James Fishkin. Also, there is some obituary information about Don Lewis and Paul Lozier. Then we move on to “happier news” from our fearless Correspondent Secretary, Dan Seiver, seiverda@miamioh.edu.

    In happier news: The Class of 1969 Scholarship Fund has a market value of $845,450 as of June 30, 2024. Annual Spending Distribution for 2024–2025: $39,651.

    Our latest scholarship recipient is David Yun, ’28, [shown above] who is just starting out at Yale. He was a soccer star in a Fort Worth high school, and he is a first-generation American.  He chose Yale ​“because I would like to learn from the best professors in the world and I wanted to meet people from various parts of the world.” David is at david.yun@yale.edu.

  • How About A Birthday Bash in 2027 for ‘Y69ers?

    ByDerry Allen and Bill Newman

    The Class Council wants your thoughts about an idea for an 80th birthday bash in 2027 for members of the class and their guests.

    We had a great time at our reunion last spring. At our age, why wait five years for our next regular reunion? Two years from now, in 2027, most of us will turn 80, two years before our 2029 reunion. How about we get together then to celebrate our birthdays?

    Leave comments below or contact the authors at …

  • We Need A New Listserv.  Your Input Needed.

    ByAdmin

    Editor’s Note: Yale retired our old system. Which of the new offerings should we use? The old system was broken and fell into disuse. It’s time to resurrect it. This article briefly discusses what a Class listserv is, what it’s good for and how it would benefit you. We share a few of the design choices we face and solicit your input.

    One of the lesser-known tools for communicating with other members of our class is the class listserv. It hasn’t been used very often over the past couple of years.

    What is a listserv, you ask? Well, it’s just a piece of software that manages a mailing list of its members. Any member of the list can send an email to a single address, and that message will be forwarded to all the other members.

    What do 69ers want from a listserv? Here are the design choices we are juggling. Your input would be helpful.

  • Ted Van Dyke is published in academic history journals

    ByAdmin

    What actions should you consider upon learning that your grandfather was like Reuben Markham—a missionary, educator, journalist, intelligence officer, and a significant American figure who played a vital role in the social and political lives of pre-war Bulgaria? What steps should you take when research reveals a wealth of historically important actions and writings associated with his life?

    Well, if you’re like Stuart (“Ted”) Van Dyke, you dust off your PhD in European History, ignite your research skills, and dive into the archives of the US State Department, the Christian Science Monitor, and several Bulgarian and other primary sources. You seek to uncover exactly what your grandfather did and how his contemporaries responded. And with a scholar’s dispassionate eye, you document that for history — maybe for a book, but for now in some academic journals.

  • Sleeper Essay on Salon.com Rankles Breitbart

    ByAdmin

    Our prolific classmate, Jim Sleeper, has been publishing political commentary on the election in The Guardian, Salon and Commonweal magazine. Most of the essays use rich historical analyses comparing the current rightward movement in our politics to prior periods of American and world history, specifically ancient Rome and Weimar Germany.

    Last week, on Presidents’ Day, Salon published an essay comparing the current Administration with the fall of the Roman Republic.  That essay, “Is Donald Trump more like Hitler or Augustus Caesar?   Honestly, it’s both” attracted a lot of eyeballs online and on social media. 

    A few hours after Salon published the article, Breitbart News took exception to the thesis of Jim’s essay in a prominent article, set forth below. Read the Breitbart critique and Jim’s original. Who’s right?