Announcements

Our own Harold Mancusi-Ungaro (’69 MC, ’73 MD)  has been elected as a YAA delegate at large for 3 years beginning July 1, 2020.  This is in addition to the representative for the Class of 1969, Ken Brown.

Harold is no stranger to the alumni governing body.  He served as our Class of 1969 delegate to the AYA (predecessor of the YAA) from 2014-18.

He’s also been active for many years in the Association of Yale Alumni in Medicine.

Recently I’ve attended a handful of organizational Zoom meetings for some “Shared Interest Groups” (SIGs).  Each of these SIGs needed an easy way to communicate within the group.  The answer is a group email address.

Concurrently other groups of classmates needed group email, too — the Class Council, a senior society … even my roommate and some of our friends.  🙂
Yale1969.org email now supports group email.  Any group of classmates can have a group email account on Yale1969.org. Want one?

On Wednesday, March 18, I was scheduled for a regular follow up appointment with my Primary Care Provider.  On the Monday or Tuesday prior to my appointment, her office called and asked how I was feeling. “Fine,” I said, “a mild sore throat, a little throat congestion, but I feel fine.” When I went to the appointment, initially I saw a nurse instead of my doctor. She took my vitals (temp 97.6F), and did a…

Especially in the wake of the “stay-at-home” orders in Spring 2020, many classmates are discovering how to use their computers, smartphones or tablets to join online meetings.  Several Yale 1969 groups are using Zoom conferencing now. As the Editor of Yale1969.org, I introduced many of these groups to Zoom, and I can tell you that, despite initial fears of dealing with a new technology, almost everyone finds it very easy and much better than the old, telephone-only conference calls. Here’s how YOU can join.

Yale has launched a new newsletter for the broader Yale community.  It has interesting, concise stories on faculty research, profiles of alums, interviews with prominent Yalies, media mentions, pictures of what’s happening in today’s Yale and other items of interest.  Check it out!  A sample is shown below.  Click this link to see this week’s issue of “Yale Today.” Subscribe at the bottom to get weekly email summaries of the most important stories.

As we recover from the post-partum depression induced by the passing of our 50th Reunion, we find that there are loose ends to tidy up, including the disposition of leftover ClassBooks and Class Reunion Watches (gentleman’s and lady’s versions) .  What to do?  We don’t have the heart to release these items into the environment.  We would rather distribute them to needy classmates who could make perfectly good use of them, in particular to classmates…

Tom Emmons is our Class Treasurer, and he is retiring from that role at the end of this month after many years of service.  Thank you, Tom!

This is a copy of his “annual reminder” to our Class.  If you haven’t paid your dues yet, please do so with your tax-deductible dollars using this link or the mailing instructions in this article.

In the Spring of 2018, Head of Silliman College, Dr. Laurie Santos, offered Psych 157a, Psychology and the Good Life.  It was the most popular course ever taught at Yale, necessitating it being moved to Battell Hall and having Dr. Santos scramble for another couple dozen grad students to serve as section leaders!   The course is available free on Coursera … and in now available as a limited series of podcasts.

Editor’s Note: We ran out of time at the end of the Reunion, so we didn’t have our quintennial “Class Meeting” with all members of the class.  Our Class Co-Secretaries invite all of those who have an interest in guiding Class action as part of the Class Council to raise your hand!

Had any of us been thinking 50 years ahead as we graduated, we probably would not have guessed that one of the defining issues of the next half century would be the challenging relationship between people and the planet. It turned out that 1969 marked the beginning of what is commonly thought of as the modern environmental era. Since then, many of our classmates have been directly involved in addressing environmental issues in a variety…

The ClassBook was a big hit, with the accent on big!  Over 800 pages, 8 pounds, 530 personal essays, obituaries, and 12 longer essays offering broader, deeper looks at our experiences over the past 50 years.  Yet, sadly mistakes were made.

John Waldman was one of the first classmates to submit his essay online, and yet, …

Hey, after the reunion, Yale1969.org will publish pictures, reflections and memories captured at the reunion. So, if you attend, please take pictures!   If you get some good ones, please send them to us.  (Attach a note with the names of any people in the pictures.)  See below for tips and how to send them. Even better, if you have a “memory or observation” that you think other people would enjoy hearing about, please write it…

Spouses and partners are asking, and some Classmates are asking, too:  What’s the dress code for the reunion? The Reunion Committee says: Business casual-throughout the weekend, nothing formal. For Friday Dinner- Men – coats, with or without tie, encouraged Women – cocktail dress, Capri, pants suit, or skirt/ blouse combination. My wife interprets this as “look nice but be comfortable.” For the daily events, Casual is the order of the day, even shorts if the…

Although some of us were virtual strangers, the group gelled incredibly well, and we had a great series of discussions over dinner, which lasted from 6 until just after 10.  I think we all felt we had made some new friends (yes, it is certainly possible at our age) and were enthused about reconnecting with each other and all our other friends in New Haven …

The Reunion Committee is happy to announce our equivalent of a challenge grant: The college with the largest number of attendees (as a percent of its total) will be able to spend a very long weekend in St. Croix, with free accommodation at this spectacular, private, seaside villa! Check out the pictures and details … then call your college-mates and urge them to attend.

What were we like 50 years ago? What’s happened to us since?  What’s it all meant? And where are we going from here? Those and other Big Questions will be addressed — and maybe even answered — at the Reunion opening sessions starting at 2:15 on Thursday afternoon, setting the stage for this uniquely special weekend. Classmates Tom Guterbock and Mike Baum will present and analyze the findings of the Class Survey – from the…