Mar 2001
Hello, classmates. As a sometimes-grateful participant in the class listservice, I have finally dug my way out of the inauguration controversy, and have been able to separate the e-wheat from the e-chaff, as we say in cyberland. Many of you have reported in, making my job easy enough even for our new president. Therefore, with no further ado, let’s hear from you.
Tim Harris writes that he has published his first novel. Entitled In Control, the book tells the story of a wily banker’s involvement in a high-stakes real estate deal. The book is available on Amazon.com, where classmates Jim Schweitzer and Quentin Lawsonhave filed reviews. Curious classmates can search under Ethan Cooper, Tim’s pen name. TJ adds that he remains an editor in New York and that his wife Sharon is a managing director at GE Capital. Meanwhile, their son Joe is abroad for his junior year in college, “reading” at Pembroke College, Oxford. Their daughter Liz, a high school senior, is in the midst of the “college process.”
Once again testing the power of genetics, another classmate embarking on parenthood has entered our unofficial competition. “I’m sure I’m not the oldest, but I’ve probably cracked the Top 10 in the old-dad sweepstakes with the arrival almost two years ago of Claire Elizabeth Valeche on December 29, 1998,” reports Hal Valeche; home e-mail (which he prefers): (hval@gate.net).
Nick Hawkin writes (at length and from afar): “I haven’t corresponded with the Alumni Notes before, and so (imbued with a sense of the new millennium?), felt I should make up for lost time. To any of my Trumbull and other chums from that far-off student period (which we are now assured was nothing short of a new Renaissance), I should like to communicate my e-mail address (helenick@wanadoo.es) in the hope of news and renewed contacts. I have worked as a Spanish and English teacher and translator all my life. In fact, I was doing it before I even went to Yale! Yale for me was not the beginning of a career, as it was for so many others, but rather a fascinating and formative period. I think back to it a lot. The only trouble is that the Yale experience accustoms you to such an exalted pitch of existence, in scholastic and interpersonal terms, that it was hard for me to accept the sometimes less-than-exalted environment that greeted me in the world outside academe. What I recall so vividly, and what I cherish today, are the friendships I made while a student at Yale. One of the satisfactions of my life has been to keep my good friends, through contact if possible (Wayne Willis and Nathan Ganswere visitors in Montreal and New York in the ’70s), and if not, through irregular-but-in-depth missives. I am happily married to Helen, who is director of studies at International House in Malaga, an English-language teaching and teacher-training outfit. I continue to teach sporadically, but am mostly occupied with radio or magazine work. I am also, to my astonishment, a semi-professional lecturer in this area. I enjoy the outdoors and play tennis a great deal. Basically, life is good. Be in touch!”
The following handwritten note (museum piece) has arrived from Douglas Colton.“Class of ’69: Guess it’s time; I haven’t checked in for 15 or 20 years. Reside in DC with wife Roberta and two kids, now at Washington International School getting a frighteningly comprehensive education leading up to ‘International Baccalau reate’ degree. Then? Yale: Evan, Class of 2004, or Julia, 2010. I practiced large-firm law for 25 years, ending in a long stint as partner to Bob Dole, George Mitchell, and others of that ilk. Since 1998 have practiced with my wife (out of house) in what we believe is DC’s only two-person, ‘antitrust-litigation and commercial real estate,’ boutique law firm. I still litigate smallish antitrust cases around the country. Am also starting up a non-Internet, not-high-tech business with a friend, hoping for amusement in impending dotage. Alas, Charlie and June McMormack have moved to Indianapolis in pursuit of June’s most excellent career. Charlie has given up the HVAC business and baseball coaching, and we miss our dear friends. We’re in the DC phone book, pleased to hear from old friends, even acquaintances.” (Apologies to Doug if I mis-transcribed his penmanship.)
And finally, briefly noted: Gotz Schreiber writes from Washington, DC, to advise that he has been working for the World Bank for 25 years, currently helping countries of the former Soviet Union transition to market economies. He also reports he has been married to the same woman for the same 25 years. Nice combination, I guess. Stephen Rose (srose@saclant.nato.int) retired from the Navy after 30 years, and has begun a second career as civilian director of the legal office at NATO’s North American headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia.
Wayne Willis is now working in Silicon Valley as CEO of ditto.com, “the Net’s leading visual search engine,” and is a venture partner with the fund that is ditto’s primary backer.
Dr. Juan Montermoso “is still doing marketing for Hewlett-Packard in Silicon Valley. I saw Bob Sheolin (BK) in NYC last April. His son is in the Class of 2004.”
G. Warfield Hobbs is a national spokesman on U.S. energy policy, and testified before the U.S. Senate Energy Committee in July about U.S. gas supply. His speeches can be found on the Energy Forum Web page of his company’s Web site: (ammoniteresources.com).
Allen Chauvenet writes to advise that he “didn’t do much in past year” (same here), but that his son Nicholas completed his freshman year of high school as the #1 player on the golf team (same here, except mine’s a junior), and his daughter Christina was recognized for having made all “As” from 6th to 8th grades, along with another girl whom Allen treated for leukemia ten years ago. (I promise that’s the last kid’s report card I’ll write about in this column.)
Keep ’em coming.