Has Wikipedia become the 21st-century version of Who’s Who, and if so, how many members of the Class are profiled there? What does having a Wikipedia biographical profile published mean anyway? Is it a fair indicator of “success?” Are classmates listed there representative of the broader Class? Curious, I investigated. Here’s the report.
Over the past month, with the help of a program, I sifted through articles in Wikipedia, looking for biographies of members of our class. The program returned 456 possible articles; manually checking that list, I found 50 biographies, linked below. Note: If you know of other Wikipedia articles referring to you or any classmate, please…
This announcement opens up an entirely new section of the Class website — a Music section. The new Music Editor, John G. O’Leary, will be presenting works created by our Classmates, as well as offering some insightful commentary on our musical heritage. After all, Yale is/was a deeply musical place, with something like 60% of undergrads involved in singing groups, bands, orchestras, or other solo or group performances. And the 1960s produced the largest explosion of great music in the century. Welcome MUSIC section. (And get ready for Books, Visual Arts and more!)
Maureen and Michael have been together since 1983, although Michael has been writing songs since 1965. And it may be more of a lucky coincidence that her voice perfectly matches his material. Listen to their CD.
Our Whiffs recorded a CD on the occasion of our 35th reunion (2004), and they played some of these songs for us on Saturday night. I kept the CD and thought you all would like to hear it.
John O’Leary has been a musical performer since his Yale days as the drummer for The Morning. He has appeared on national television three times, played top clubs and concert halls on both coasts, fronted numerous bands as a singer/pianist, and played in acoustic guitar groups. These days he mostly plays solo in coffeehouses and concert halls. READ MORE
If you have recorded any songs, albums, concerts or other musical performances, we would like to showcase your work on Yale1969.org. Please send us your recordings in whatever format you have. You can use the form below, or email the Music Editor or snailmail physical media for digital conversion and sharing.
Now, all posts have “Like” button. Please click “Like” if you find something interesting. Your upvote will add to the number of likes, and that, in turn, will create the “Most Liked Posts” on the homepage (right sidebar).
Note From ClassBook Editor Carney Mimms: My good friend, Nick Levitin, wrote this lovely tribute about Reverend Coffin. It doesn’t really fit in the ClassBook, but it’s so heartfelt that I wanted to share it. A Memory of William Sloan Coffin By Nick Levitin I arrived in New Haven for my first job during a…
When I was asked to produce an article on online resources for our class, I was concerned that I would be mostly duplicating information that is readily available. I decided that the best approach is to give an overview to what can be a confusing tangle of sites and links between them. Here they are:
Here’s an interactive map showing where all classmates live. Zoom in on your area to see 69er neighbors!
In going through my photo archive for the ClassBook entry, I came across these two pictures, which I took while an undergrad. In each case I was trying out a new camera as a reportage tool: a used Canon rangefinder at the Brewster event, and a Nikon FTn, my first single-lens reflex, for Coffin. Both subjects were indispensable Yale leaders, and …
Having no exposure to affluence of any kind, let alone the kind associated with the families with “blue arms” who year after year produced the waves of prep school kids who flooded Yale’s campus, I received a crash course in the meaning of ascriptive wealth during my college years. My first lesson occurred during my very first year at Yale, when I met my freshman roommate, Burr Nash.
Fresh off its Intercollegiate Rowing Association national championship June 2, where they knocked off the west coast powerhouse Washington Huskies for the second year in a row, the Yale heavyweight men’s crew bested Harvard in the 153rd edition of the Harvard-Yale Regatta June 9. National athletic championships have been few and far between for Yale. To win two in one week, as well as defeating traditional rowing powerhouse Harvard a week later, marks a truly significant span in Yale athletics. (See video of the win.)
This is a first in a series of “mini-reunions” that we’ll hold over the next year. Stay tuned for events coming to YOUR city! And check out this report and the copious pictures of your Boston area Classmates!
Editor’s Note: Michael Folz has written a small book on these three years, capturing the “cinematic detail” and anachronism-free dialogue that will bring you right into Cutler’s Records, roommate challenges, John Hersey’s den, Olivia’s late at night, Bingham hijinks, bursary jobs, bull sessions, mixers, Coffin’s advice, and ultimately a profound disillusionment with (and alienation from) Yale, dropping out in Sophomore year, having tuned in and turned on much earlier than others in our class. Mike returned to Yale and graduated in ’73, but this memoir covers the end of HS through the end of 1967. It’s a long read, but worth it.
