Mar 2004
Hello, classmates. As you read this we are only about two months from reunion (unless you are way behind in your reading and it’s now June). Fortunately, a few of you communicated in advance, or I would have had to treat this submission like most of my term papers (i.e., puffing them up with gibberish).
Mike Baum wrote with the following personal update and financial advice: “Seems reunion years coincide with other milestones for some reason. Attended the 25th just as I was changing jobs, and the 30th shortly after the IPO of the firm I had joined five years previous (Renaissance Learning, Nasdaq: RLRN). Now, as the 35th approaches I have left that firm and am in process of assuming presidency of a ‘dot-com survivor,’ Guild.com, a marketer of handcrafted art and furnishings. (Look it up on the Web and buy stuff; we need the business.) Perhaps by the 40th we’ll have done another IPO, who knows? No Yalies or Yalees among my offspring: older girl graduated from North Park University last year; boy (middle) is at Bible college in Canada and undecided about his four-year college goals other than that he couldn’t get into Yale if he wanted to; and younger girl is high school sophomore. Wife Ruth of (now) 26 years’ standing and I got started later than most of the class of ’69, so no grandchildren yet, expressed or implied. In touch with few classmates other than Jay Castelli, who like myself was somewhat tempest-tossed by the turmoil in the K-12 education industry the past few years, but unlike me managed to stay on the deck and not get washed overboard. If we miss seeing everyone in May it will mostly be because I’ll be up to my ears in my new career assignment and unable in good conscience to take the time off. If we don’t make it, whatever you choose to print of this message can enlighten whoever is still interested in what Mike Baum has been up to since 1998.”
Ned Seligman referred us to the Web site of his new venture, STeP UP, which is an organization working in Sao Tome and Principe with grassroots-level organizations that are legally recognized by the local authorities, promoting the principles of self-help development, and focusing on projects dealing with education, agriculture, the environment, health, and income generation. Sao Tome is a formerly Portuguese island that became independent in 1975. STeP UP’s Web site is http://www.stepup.st, and it features a picture of Ned, in case you want to see him. An alternative is to visit him in Washington, D.C., where he lives.
William Dahl filed the following update from his home in California: “Effective August 1, 2003, I retired from the practice of law (after 31 years) and am now a full-time student at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California, hoping to eventually do campus chaplaincy work. Fortunately, my wife Barbara continues to enjoy her work (running clinical trials at Valley Children’s Hospital), so insolvency is not an immediate threat. My older daughter, Julia ’99, and I look forward to sharing reunions (35th and 5th) next spring.” Interesting that so many of you are taking new paths at this stage of life. An exception, of course, is Jim Schweitzer, whose idea of a job change is switching ends of the couch.
Finally, my son and I played in a father-son golf tournament in Carmel, California, over the holidays and ran into John Beinecke and son. Unfortunately we were not paired together, but John assured me he will be contacting me (and other Yale golfers, no doubt) for more support for the Yale Golf Course, which remains one of his passions.
Hope to see you all in late May.