Jul/Aug 2010

Tom Cosgrove has lots to report: “I retired after 28 years running my own executive search company in the Hartford area when my robotic prostate cancer operation laid me low. In September I was able to buy a fly-all-you-can pass on Jet Blue. I visited 11 cities and two foreign countries, and a lot of Yalies.

“I started in San Francisco where my daughter, Vicky ’98, is a postdoc in psychology at Stanford. I saw Peter Choy, my roommate, and Duane Selander. Peter retired from Sun Micro as an assistant general counsel and has two children who graduated from YC and now are in grad school and law school at Yale, respectively—quite impressive! Duane retired from a successful entrepreneurship in Phoenix to convalesce from emphysema in the Napa Valley. I also visited, in the area, Mike Drilling ’68, who has retired from a career in air freight and is presently selling and, from what I saw, drinking a lot of fine wine.

“I caught up with Dan Peters ’70 in Phoenix, who played varsity basketball. He was married to his beautiful wife, Annette Kolodny, by William Sloane Coffin—a memorable occasion. Annette was dean of faculty at University of Arizona in Tucson for years. Dan has been a successful author.

“Next came Costa Rica where Karen and Bob Arras entertained me royally, allowing me to use their guest house. They live in heaven—a rainforest at 5,000 feet. Their youngest, Sam, started Wesleyan this year where he will be the starting kicker on the football team.

“After The Villages, an Orlando senior citizens enclave with a reportedly very high VD rate and a whole lot of golf courses and carts, I headed to Nassau for a couple of days of relaxation and it was the easiest way to get to Palm Beach. I met up with Dick Hussey ’68 who runs a legal chop shop for Cadillac Allantes. He and his partner own most of the used parts for these vehicles and 70 real ones. Anyone wanting a great Allante should call him. He is still a riot.

“Next I flew to Washington and Congress where I ‘hung out’ with high school buddy Eddie Markey (D-MA) for a couple of hours. We ‘took’ a couple of meetings and did some ad spots. Then I caught up with Lamar Smith (R-TX) and John Yarmuth (D-KY), both Ezra Stiles friends. It turns out that Lamar and John lived across the hall from each other in Vanderbilt. John’s room was famous for housing a pet monkey. No more needs to be said. The monkey stories abound at the Capitol. While both are political opposites they remain good friends, what we want Washington to be.”

From Tom Emmons: “Five classmates participated in the Yale Alumni in Energy conference held March 5 on the new West Campus conference center. Ken Brown, Rich Mattas, Tom Emmons, Howard Newman, and Skip Hobbs participated in the second annual gathering bringing together 150 players in petroleum, cleantech, private equity, nuclear, policy, government, and academic sectors of the energy economy, representing many Yale College classes and several graduate schools.” Howard Newman adds a tidbit on recently resurfaced classmate Mattas: “Rich Mattas led a discussion on the Current Future of Nuclear Power, with a special focus on fusion power. Rich led the Fusion Power Program at Argonne National Labs until his recent retirement.” Howard also notes that Skip Hobbs is president-elect of the American Geological Institute.

News from dues: the irrepressible Albee Budnitz (albee.budnitz@snhmc.org) writes, “Picked ‘Top Doc’ in NH Magazine 2010 poll for internal medicine.” The reclusive Brian Ibsen (bibsen@aya.yale.edu) writes: “Still working at the University of Chicago. Married Clementine Zavelle on October 31, 2009.” Congratulations, Brian! Doug Colton(douglas.colton@sbgenomics.com) writes: “Inspired by 40th to seek third act, I cofounded start-up in computational genomics with 20-somethings in need of adult supervision. Advice on survival welcome!” This sounds really cool, Doug, but your scribe’s advice would still be to not take all of your compensation in stock. I’m just sayin’.

“One is happy as a result of one’s own efforts once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness: simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self denial to a point, love of work, and above all, a clear conscience.”—George Sand.