Jan/Feb 2012
This sad news was reported in the New York Times: “Derek Huntington, longtime Manhattan resident and former president of ZZZ Carpentry, died on September 19 in the West Village. At Yale he was a nationally ranked lacrosse player, and a member of Fence Club and Scroll & Key Senior Society. Music was always a vital part of Derek’s life. Throughout the 1970s he was a professional singer, songwriter, music producer, and sound engineer, living and performing in Los Angeles, Boston, and across New England. In 1980, Derek moved to Manhattan and, in 1982, he founded ZZZ Carpentry, a high-end residential construction firm, collaborating closely with a number of notable architects on both traditional and modern renovations. Derek was an avid fresh- and saltwater fly fisherman, an enthusiastic tennis player, and an all-around athlete. He was a summer resident of Saltaire on Fire Island. Derek had many friends whom he loved and who loved him. He is survived by his wife and partner of 21 years, Caroline Northcote Sidnam.” If you have stories or reminiscences you wish to share, please send them to me at the above address and I will include them in a future issue.
On a happier note, Ned Seligman (ned_stepup@yahoo.com) writes: “I am the director of STeP UP (www.stepup.st), a community development organization in São Tomé and Príncipe. I have had more than 35 years of experience working with grassroots development in Africa and was the Peace Corps director in São Tomé and Príncipe for three years in the mid-1990s. Before setting up STeP UP, I worked for the World Wildlife Fund, World Learning, Catholic Relief Services, the American Friends Service Committee, and the Peace Corps. There’s no retirement foreseen; just keep plugging away at this.”
Greg Montes (greg2_2008@yahoo.com) reports in for the first time since graduation. After earning a MArch at Yale in 1972, Greg arrived in San Francisco and “got work as a neighborhood planner with a nonprofit community housing and planning organization. Later I worked as an urban and regional planner, successively for three counties in northern and southern California. Now I am retired. I wish all the best for our classmates in all their endeavors, before and after retiring.” Greg is writing a piece for a future issue of these notes about Richard Griest, who was in our class from 1966 to 1969, in Morse College.
Congratulations to Len Hill (LHill@hillfilms.com), whose indie feature Dorfman won Best Picture at the Hollywood Film Festival!
“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for anyone else”—Charles Dickens.