Class Notes

  • Jan/Feb 2008

    January with Simon and Garfunkel: “Hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to speak with you again. . . . ” Another year quickly passes into memory, never to return. And still we sing, “time and change shall nought avail, to break the friendships formed at Yale.” Raise a glass, my friend, for dear Old Yale. Now the news. Our New York head doctors are getting the kudos: Stephen Billick

  • Nov/Dec 2007

    Once again a titanic battle looms between our stouthearted men in blue and the nefarious visitors slouching in from the north. Once again Yale Bowl will throb with the joyous cheers of the victors and the bitter lamentations of the vanquished. Once again your scribe will be in (muted) attendance, and he has but one fond hope: that “Harvard’s team may fight to the end, but Yale will win.” I haven’t…

  • Sep/Oct 2007

    After steady nagging by your scribe, Nick Putnam (dr.putnam@cox.net) has spilled these beans: “Like most of us I turned 60 this year and life continues good to me and mine, although I had four stents placed in my coronary arteries last year. My older daughter, Ariane, is in Hollywood doing star-quality sketch comedy and improv, happily married, and the mother of my new grandson, Roan. My younger…

  • Jul/Aug 2007

    Hal Valeche (hal@halvaleche.com) e-mails: “Please add me to the list of class members running for Congress. To shake things up a little, I was not in Stiles but JE. I was elected to the city council of Palm Beach Gardens (pop. 50,000) in November 2004 after being elected to and serving on the board of a special taxing district from 2002 to 2004. I am running in Florida District 16, which is the seat formerly held by…

  • May/Jun 2007

    News from dues: Steve Millner (Stephen.millner.tc.69@aya.yale.edu) writes: “Steve has been working as an independent legal consultant to financial services professionals. He is also active as a professional artist, and his work is shown in several galleries in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He is just beginning his third term as president of Artists of Yardley, a Bucks County, Pennsylvania, artists’…

  • Mar/Apr 2007

    Mike Folz has helped bring Charles Apel (Capel@mail.arc.nasa.gov) back into the fold. Here is Charles’s story: “I look back at my time at Yale with a great deal of fondness and often wonder what would have happened if I had continued there instead of dropping out of the physics program. In the summer of 1966 I enrolled in Harvard summer school to make up for my D in German at Yale. There I met Timothy Leary…

  • Jan/Feb 2007

    Mike Pfeiffer (MGP@Capdale.com) has taken the midlife marital plunge. Mike writes: “Robin Taub (who accompanied me at the reunion) and I were married in October 2005 in Washington, D.C. Robin is a lawyer with her own family law firm in Bethesda, Maryland, and we reside at my former residence in D.C., which was enlarged and renovated last year to accommodate our five children (her two and my three)…

  • Nov/Dec 2006

    This column, although submitted before the start of the football season, should reach you shortly before the annual gridiron confrontation with our arch nemesis. (Last year’s titanic struggle caused damage to your scribe’s vocal cords, and in one of life’s minor ironies, the damage was repaired last spring by an ENT surgeon, who was a 1979 graduate of — yup.) For those who intend to watch this year’s Game in Cambridge…

  • Sep/Oct 2006

    Bob (Moose) Pollack (rwpollack@earthlink.net) writes: “In 1997 I walked away from all aspects of medicine and began an interesting journey that took me through technology (developing and CEO-ing), through consulting, and into the world of mergers and acquisitions. (Details can be made available and boredom will be rewarded with dinner.) I am now a tenured partner and executive vice president of…
  • Jul/Aug 2006

    Classmates may still have time to arrange to attend the mini-reunion July 28-30 in Santa Rosa, California, at the Vintner’s Inn. Contact John Gazzoli (JGazzoli@aol.com) for more information. Peter Rodgers (Peter.Rodgers@sablaw.com) brings good news: “I have taken up a periodic correspondence with Jim Grew, who continues to ply his trade as water skiing guru for the able and disabled from his perch…

  • May/Jun 2006

    Changing of the Guard: John Yarmuth (JYarmuth@aol.com) has graciously bequeathed his job to me, so that he can pursue full-time his bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky’s 3rd district (Louisville). We all appreciate his service as corresponding secretary. John’s first political test is a primary on May 16. We all wish him the best of luck. My only real qualification for this job is…

  • Mar/Apr 2006

    Three rather long letters this time, so I’ll dispense with any preliminaries. Eric Muirhead(muirrindu@sbcglobal.net) published his first book, Cab Tales, an episodic novel in 15 stories that tells the experiences of a young college grad driving the night shift for Houston’s Yellow Cab back in the early 1970s. Published by Panther Creek Press (www.panthercreekpress.com), the book is available over…

  • Jan/Feb 2006

    Classmates: Sorry to have been missing in action the past few months. Correspondence has been sparse, to say the least, except for the occasional obituary. Until the death of John O’Leary, I had followed tradition (as I perceive it) and avoided talking about the passing of classmates. Obviously, as time goes, this type of news could fill up the allocated space, not to speak of being a real downer. On the…

  • Sep/Oct 2005

    Unfortunately, the mailbag has been pretty empty for the past few months, and even more unfortunately, the balance of the news has been sad. At our 35th, we learned that about 60 of our classmates have passed away since graduation, but several more have been lost since, and this column will be largely devoted to two of them. As most of you know by now, one of our most prominent classmates, both nationally and in…

  • May/Jun 2005

    Greetings, classmates. As usual, the end of winter is accompanied by numerous, and lengthy, submissions from those who are forced inside by the weather. This edition’s letters come from Chicago, New York, Boston, and Dallas, which can get volatile conditions. But, as you will see, our Dallas writer apparently has been skiing in Sun Valley, which leaves plenty of time for thought. Let’s get to it. Richard…

  • Jan/Feb 2005

    My mission this month is to provide a respite from the past year’s intense political debate, fully manifest in the seemingly endless e-mail letters circulated through the class listserv. While the nation ponders which Yalie to elect in 2008, here is some truly momentous news regarding your classmates. Ralph Sando has notified us that he has suffered the ultimate humiliation: witnessing his wife score an…