Class Notes, May-Jun 2023
From the Erie (PA) Times-News: “The Rev. John Randolph Elliott (“Randy”) was an extraordinary, ordinary man. Randy will be long remembered as a man of prayer with deep faith, warm spirit, unwavering integrity, rigorous self-discipline, large intellect, and contagious laughter most often heard with a big family that he loved and gave him great joy—a family eternally grateful for his presence in their lives. Indeed, he lived with eternity in his heart, and entered his heavenly home triumphant on Monday, August 31, 2020…His favorite childhood memories included neighborhood baseball, long games of Monopoly, and summer afternoons listening to Phillies games on the car radio while parked in the driveway.
His Yale advisor commended Randy as “my first student that came to Yale wanting to enter the Ministry and left Yale still wanting to enter the Ministry.” He married Esther Lee Van Sice. in May 1970 in a service officiated by her father, the Rev. Howard Van Sice. Randy graduated summa cum laude from Princeton Seminary in 1972. Randy faithfully served as the Senior Pastor at First Baptist Church of North East for 25 years. While touching the lives of thousands through ministries of pastoral care and counseling, he distinguished himself as a scholarly preacher and teacher of God’s Word. Weekly church attendance swelled five-fold and WCTL radio broadcast his sermons weekly for over fifteen years. Yet his greatest satisfaction came through teaching small groups of men, teens, and college students the principles of Christian life and faith, a practice he continued well into “retirement,” which included preaching throughout the region….”
From Peter Malamud Smith: “Paul Francis Malamud passed away from complications in heart surgery on October 26, 2022. Though he would go on to live in Vermont, in Cambridge, and eventually in Washington, D.C., thoughts of Corvallis, Oregon inspired wistfulness in him until the end of his life. He received a Ph.D. in English literature from Columbia University, then served the U.S. Department of State for over thirty years. Throughout that time, he traveled widely and read more widely still, maintaining a fascination with 18th century philosophy, ancient currency, and most of all with poetry; he translated poems from Latin and Old French, and wrote many of his own to accompany them.”
Richard Butcher, a model of concision, writes “1) completely retired. 2) still painting, employing ‘water-based oil paint.’ 3) still messing with farm implements.”
Thomas C Carey writes “I am continuing to practice law while my wife Iris basks in semi-retirement from her years as a clinical psychologist. We see Bruce and Doreen Bolnick from time to time and they are well.”
From Bill (Doc) Hall: “I am saddened to learn of the passing of Dave Raish. Dave certainly did have perfect pitch. While driving the SOBs between concerts during the 1968 spring break, I—the record seller, never allowed to utter a peep—was driving my venerable Chrysler full of SOBs, Dave among them. He informed me exactly in what note some failing part was complaining (it was the generator, as we subsequently learned). He was a great guy and a wonderful singer.”
From Kent Bicknell (‘69/’70) with input from Mike Folz: “The class lost a brilliant creative force with the death of Chuck Apel from prostate cancer in mid-November, 2022. Chuck came to Yale from Columbus OH. Accepted with scholarships to MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Yale and Colgate, Chuck chose Yale owing to the beauty of the campus. By the end of freshman year he had turned on and tuned in with a small number of classmates who were destined to drop out in the middle of sophomore year. Leaving behind – but inspired by – courses such as Chinese Literature in translation, with its mystical poems of Han-shan from Cold Mountain, Chuck headed to the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco where he soon became a legendary presence among counter-culture folk heroes. After all, which other classmate can say he made the white-fringed leather jacket that Jimi Hendrix wore at Woodstock? In his late forties Chuck returned to college – a journey which culminated a few years later with a Ph.D. in Astrobiology from UC Santa Cruz. He worked at the Astrochemistry Lab in the Space Science Division at NASA, researched the origins of cellular life, published a number of scientific articles and was a professor of chemistry at San Jose State.
While Chuck was at Yale a relatively short time (Sept 1965 – March 1967) he deeply impressed those he met. As his J.E. hallmate, Jon Rubin, shared, “He was such a smart and sympathetic person; incredibly intense at the same time he was detached. The last words he wrote me were, ‘I live in a 250 sq ft. house with a composting toilet in another shed. I have to boil water to wash dishes etc., but, hey – I pay no rent!’”
More information about Chuck, if any, will be available on the class website at yale1969.org.