Jul/Aug 2013
Your scribe has received a short note from Peter Burr. I have edited it slightly for clarity, and I apologize if I have introduced any confusion. Peter writes: “I am currently living at Blaire House of Tewksbury, Massachusetts. I have received 100 percent military pension for service in Vietnam.” I suspect the left-out word in the last sentence is disability. We all hope for your speedy recovery, Peter.
News from dues: Bob Pollack writes: “In February of 2012 I started all over again and opened a psychiatric outpatient office as a solo practitioner. We are using new genomic technology, and treating patients is different from what it used to be. In addition, just was blessed with my daughter’s wedding and it was truly grand. I currently live in southwest Florida year-round and welcome all fellow DKE brothers and other alums.”
Richard Henrich: “I am still running a small professional theater company in Washington, DC—Spooky Action Theater (name courtesy of Einstein). Our recent East Coast premiere of Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami was sold out for most of the run, and our intimate theater is building a following. I am working with our regional alumni rep on a service opportunity next summer for alums in the DC area. Partnering with the church where our theater is based, we will offer free theater workshops for underserved DC high school students. We invite alumni with practical experience and/or a love of theater to lend a hand. To learn more about our theater, I’m glad to offer classmates half-price tickets to our next production, Optimism! or Voltaire’s Candide adapted by Helen Hayes Award winner TJ Edwards, running April 25–May 19. Just e-mail rhenrich@spookyaction.org.” Alas, the delay in publication means that it is now too late for half-price tickets.
Steve Bemis: “Here’s some grist, assuming I don’t flunk your too-often-contributes test: Now four years into retirement but still consulting a day or so a week for former employer Masco (“you can check out but you can never leave”). Active in church work and a couple of nonprofit boards. Advocate and litigate for freedom of food choice (raw milk, etc.) with Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF.org). Admire wife Judy’s painting and help her with shows and competitions www.judithbemisstudio.com. Ride tractors on 60–70 acres, baling hay—which I sell for cattle, llama, sheep, horses, goats, and of course milk cows. Keep up with six grandkids. Retired after ten years as ASC director for SE Michigan and continue to interview Yale applicants. Exercise (Pilates) as much as seems reasonable in the circumstances of advancing decrepitude and try to eat healthy food in the American processed-food desert. Further, affiant saith not.”
Thomas Moore (trmoore@ucsd.edu): “Still working despite Medicare; chair of Ob/Gyn at UCSD School of Medicine; not jaded or cynical yet but checking in the mirror every day. Working on grandchildren #10 and 11, makes it all worth it. Spouse and high school sweetheart Peggy and I still enjoy travel, cooking, wine, and children. What’s not to like!”
Susan Muirhead, widow of Eric Muirhead, announces the publication of Eric’s second novel, RINDU. It should be available at Amazon and on Kindle by the time you read this.
From Brad Davenport (brad.davenport@troutmansanders.com): “The members of the celebrated Roll & Pin Society of the Class of 1969 in the Baker’s Dozen, Wayne Henderson(Mary), Bo Riehle (Nancy), Charlie Peck, Bob Brush (Mel), Scott Howard (Janet), Brad Davenport (Suzanne), and Bob Wheeler (in celestial absentia) had one of their periodic reunions the weekend of April 19–20 in New York City. Jim Hallett had two trials going on in California and an unsympathetic trial judge, so he couldn’t make it. HQ was chez Brush. Activities included eating, drinking, a play, MOMA; telling old stories, fabricating lies; praising ourselves for ushering the lean years in BD history out and the fat years in; picking 48-year-old bones; discussing marriages, divorces, children, grandchildren, careers, triumphs, failures, and retirement; congratulating the wives on their good judgment in marrying us; couldas, wouldas, shouldas, and health. And, of course, singing. The shortest, gladdest years are still 1965–69.”
“A sound mind in a sound body, is a short but full description of a happy state in this world.”—John Locke, philosopher (1632–1704).