Daniel Alan Seiver – 50th Reunion Essay

Daniel Alan Seiver

117 Florin St.

Pismo Beach, CA 93449

seiverda@miamioh.edu

Spouse(s): Sharon (Cherie) Seiver (2003)

Child(ren): Elizabeth (1981), Robert (1985)

Education: Yale PhD, Economics 1974

National Service: US Army Reserve/National Guard, SSG, ’70–’76 (5 months active duty for training)

Career: College Professor

Avocations: basketball, track and field, gardening, reading, writing

College: Saybrook

As I enter the autumn of my years, I have found a modicum of contentment. This concept was not even on my radar screen when I graduated, and I certainly had not found it by the time of our 25th. Contentment for me does not mean inertia, or golf. For me, it means productive activity I find meaningful, rewarding, and challenging. I have been guided in part by the wisdom of Seneca: “The duty of a man is to be useful to his fellow-men; if possible, to be useful to many of them; failing this, to be useful to a few; failing this, to be useful to his neighbors, and, failing them, to himself: for when he helps others, he advances the general interests of mankind.”

I have found contentment in work, recording small but satisfying victories in the never-ending battle against human ignorance. I have been a college professor all my adult life, at Miami (Ohio), San Diego State, and now, my last stop, at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. I have taught over 11,000 students in my career so far, and I believe some have truly become enlightened about economics and finance. I have also made modest contributions in economic research. I have always gotten a special pleasure from small discoveries: the ineffable joy when looking at a research result no one has even seen or documented before. Even though my research powers have waned with age, I do believe I have one more small discovery in progress. After that, time to close up shop and concentrate solely on teaching the huddled masses.

I have found contentment in the joyful struggle against the slings and arrows of inevitable physical and mental decline. I still play full-court basketball against 20-year-olds; for me, time stops when I step on the court, and there is an indescribable joy that suffuses my psyche for days after making a game-winning basket. In addition, I have recently decided to match my athletic ability against geezers my (and your) age. My first foray was the 2017 California Senior Olympics state championships in track and field and basketball shooting. Medals: yes. Gold: no. Next: Nationals in 2019.

I have found contentment in quiet contemplation while tending my garden, as Voltaire suggested. Almost everything grows in Central Coast, and there is a simple pleasure in planting, weeding, trimming, and observing the fruits of your labor. It has given me a new reverence for life.

The story is not complete without the contentment of a lifelong loving companionship with Cherie. Although I am eternally grateful for my two children from my first marriage, I got it right the second time.

And Corresponding Secretary? The ghosts of Kingman Brewster and T.A.D. Jones came to me in a dream years ago. They said, “You are about to begin the chronicle of the lives and deaths of your Yale 1969 classmates. Never again may you do something so important.”

“God have mercy on such as we; Baa. Baa. Baa-aa.”