Class Notes, Jan-Feb 2025

A long-overdue update on Paul Severtson:

“I became interested in music because “my mother was quite an accomplished cellist in her youth. She made sure that all five of her kids learned an instrument. Somehow she managed our musical training in such a way that she got a string quartet out of the first four. The youngest rebelled. He took up the oboe.”

Paul majored in music theory and composition at Yale, and then received his Master of Music in violin performance at the Yale School of Music. In his last two years in New Haven, he played electric violin and electric guitar in the rock band Hard Corps. He then returned to San Diego and played in the violin section of the San Diego Symphony for three seasons.

Paul also played in the trio Stone’s Throw for ten years. The group members were from diverse musical backgrounds. “We all played multiple acoustic instruments and sang as well. I played guitar, mandolin, and violin. The other two added the sounds of upright bass, guitar, flute, tenor sax, soprano sax, trumpet and cornet. Our repertoire encompassed popular music of the first half of the 20th century (roughly Bessie Smith to the Beatles), and we did our own arrangements and adaptations of the works.”

Paul moved to San Luis Obispo in 1992 as Development Director at KCBX Public Radio. He joined the Symphony that year, played in the Mozart Festival, Master Chorale, opera and ballet orchestras, as well as the annual Baroque concerts at Cal Poly, where he was on the faculty as violin instructor.

Although a fourth-generation American, all of his great-grandparents emigrated from Norway. He plays the Hardanger Fiddle, a uniquely Norwegian folk instrument. In 1985, he was invited to perform at the opening concert of the Troldsalen Concert Hall at Troldhaugen, the home of composer Edvard Grieg. “I performed a traditional dance tune on my fiddle, followed by Grieg’s interpretation of the same tune for piano. It was an honor, especially with King Olav V and his son Prince Harald in attendance.”

To view some old videos of Paul performing, including his mashup of the Orange Blossom Special from his Stone’s Throw days, go to YouTube and enter @paulsevertson in the search option.

Dr. Robert Michael Williams passed away on July 18, 2024.  From his obituary:

“He was one of those unsung heroes, well known in the scientific community, without whom the modern world would not exist.  He was a rare individual with laudable accomplishments who, without being pretentious, carried himself with precise dignity and professionalism with a profound knowledge of immunology and the biology of cancer….

Dr. Williams was profoundly affected by his father’s death when he was thirteen years old.  He noticed a year before his Dad’s death, his Dad changed his heavy work schedule and became a daily full time Dad, playing baseball, going fishing, becoming an assistant Little League coach, playing golf and generally devoting time and energy to his son.  When he learned of his father’s terminal illness with lung cancer, this insight forged his future work in immunology, genetics and cancer.  To quote Dr. Williams, “I would have given anything to spend more time with my father, but it was too late.  He had crossed the Rubicon”. 

He had a goal to figure out why his father died and thought of what he could have done to have a little more time with his father.  He graduated from Yale with a B.A. degree in Culture and Behavior.  In 1970 he received a Yale M.S. degree in Microbiology (Molecular Biology & Biophysics).  He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1974.  That same year, he earned a Ph.D. in immunology from Harvard.  Dr. Williams and Dr. Baruj Benacerraf collaborated on thirteen papers which became the basis for the Nobel committee to award the Nobel Prize to Dr. Benacerraf in 1980.  His experimental work was essential for the award, and in fact, it was Dr. Williams’s paper that was presented to the Nobel Committee.  Dr. Williams became an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard before he even finished his training, and later became the youngest Chief of Medical Oncology in the country.  He later became the Co-Founder of Cancer Treatment Centers of America which was sold to City of Hope in 2022.  He was the author of over 100 scientific research papers, with his most recent publication in 2019. Dr. Williams will be sadly missed by all those privileged to have known him.  The sadness is tempered by memories of his humor, joy of living, vital energy in all his endeavors and his basic decency. 

From Jason Dachman:

“Philip Garvin, Mobile TV Group Founder and live-production titan, died in September 2024. Garvin was a leader and pioneer in the regional-sports-production community. Responsible for the production of hundreds of thousands of live sports, news, and entertainment events, Garvin helped to pioneer the HD revolution of the early 2000’s and was one of the most widely respected figures in the sports-video-production industry.

In addition to his leadership of MTVG, Garvin also served as president of Colorado Studios – an audio/video manufacturing facility specializing in building mobile units and supporting live video transport – and co–founded HDNet, the first all high-definition national television network in the U.S., with Mark Cuban in 2001. “Philip was an amazing man. Smart. Honorable. And as hardworking as anyone ever,” said Cuban.

He also served on the board for various technology startups and helped to champion a variety of industry technology initiatives. Outside of the office, Garvin’s passion was spending time on his ranch with his wife, riding horses, mowing fields, and building fences. In his last months of life, he was frequently telling people, “no one has had a better life than mine.”

Full memorials with pictures are available on the Class website at yale1969.org. Unfortunately, there will be more memorials in our next issue.