Class Notes: Mar/Apr 2018

How do we top the unalloyed joy of a magnificent upset of the Cantabs in 2016? How about a brilliant 2017 season (9-1) capped with an Ivy Championship, and a delightful drubbing of our hapless nemesis from up north? Your scribe’s white hankie waved with many others in the Bowl, as our long trek through the desert of defeat faded into “mem’ry’s haze.” The Bulldogs are BACK!

Here now the news:

David Lawrence, via our class website (www.yale1969.org): “I’ve retired after 30+ years as a commercial photographer in Dallas (did I write this last month? Who knows? Not me!). I spent my time shooting political figures (including three Presidents), movie stars, and ‘Titans of Industry’. My wife Judy and I spent three years loving living in Ajijic, Mexico, until wanting to be with grandchildren and the beheading of a Mexican boy who lived across the street from us happened. I’m up in Wisconsin now, photographing flowers in my studio. Please check out my website at ElegantFlowerPhotographs.com. Look forward to hearing from everyone and seeing posts here [on Yale1969.org] after so many years.”

From Tom Igoe: “In October, Yale Law School, at an alumni gathering in New Haven, bestowed upon our classmate, Myron Thompson, its Award of Merit for his long record of distinguished service as a United States District Court judge in the Middle District of Alabama. Since 1957, the Yale Law School Association has presented the Award of Merit annually to an esteemed graduate of Yale Law School or to a person who has served as a full-time member of the Yale Law School faculty for at least ten years. The recipients of the Award are recognized for having made a substantial contribution to public service or to the legal profession. Previous recipients include (among others): Eugene V. Rostow ’37 (1965), Potter Stuart ’41 (1968), Cyrus R. Vance ’42 (1971), Gerald R. Ford ’41 (1979), Eleanor Holmes Norton ’64 (1980), Ellen Ash Peters ’54 (1983), Benno Schmidt ’66 (1986), William J. Clinton ’73 (1993), Robert Rubin ’64 (1998), Joseph Lieberman ’67 (2001), Charles Reich ’52 (2008) and three US Supreme Court Justices (Thomas, Alito and Sotomayor) (2014).

In her remarks, Yale Law School’s Dean Gerken covered a number of highlights of Myron’s storied career as a Federal jurist and closed with the following remarks: ‘In covering just a sampling of his life and career, it makes clear that the strength of his character helped overcome adversity in his own life and the lives of others, which is an attribute in the legal community that too often finds itself overshadowed by its own stars. Myron is impressive in every single way of the world. He’s a well-respected judge with trophies and awards from dozens of law schools and legal organizations that would fill shelf after shelf. But I hope that as you leave today you remember that, for our profession, justice is equal parts brains and integrity. Myron is an example of the greatness you can achieve with both.’

Myron, throughout his life, has represented an extraordinary combination of courage and integrity.”

From Tom Emmons: “Derry Allen and Tom Emmons, both of Silliman College, were members of the organizing group of the Yale Environmental Sustainability Summit (YESS), held on campus Nov. 3-4. The Summit brought together several hundred alumni, faculty, students and non-Yale people to discuss issues such as population growth, food, farming, EV, renewable energy, climate change, impact investing, etc. YESS is a biennial event organized largely by alumni from the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, the School of Management, and Yale College, with participation from several other Yale schools and organizations. Derry recently retired after many years at the EPA. Tom has been financing wind and solar projects since 2003.” (Photo online at class website!)

From Julian Fisher: “Julian Fisher has returned to his first love, photojournalism, with an exhibit at Yale’s Whitney Humanities Center (January 13, 2018– June 6, 2018).  “Trapped in the Middle: Photographs by Julian Fisher” consists of photographs and interviews of people in the middle class (lower, middle and upper) responding to the ever-increasing stresses they face with growing income inequality – to maintain their positions in the middle class. Fisher studied with Walker Evans while at Yale and draws inspiration from Evans’s work and the role that documentary photography plays in social awareness and social change. The exhibit will provide the occasion for a number of public conversations regarding the causes and impacts of income inequality with faculty such as Beverly Gage, Jacob Hacker, Matthew Jacobson, and Robert Shiller. Fisher continues working as a neurologist in Boston on the Harvard Medical faculty. The website where the complete series can be viewed is www.vzul.com.”

Highlights from Harold Mancusi-Ungaro (Harold’s full report is online at the class website): “I had the honor and pleasure of representing the Class of 1969 as your delegate to the AYA Assembly on November 16 & 17….The theme of the Assembly was “Creating Communities at Yale.”… I came away with a positive view of the University, its courses and leadership.  President Salovey is pushing in all directions to make Yale the leader, whether it be in science, technology, medicine, the arts, or, yes, sports. While the president expressed the importance of the scholar athlete, he continues to build on other strengths, too… There are plans for a new theater for drama.  The new Tsai CITY (Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale) will be a building, faculty, and program to inspire innovation and entrepreneurial efforts thanks to Joseph Tsai, ’86, Law ’90, Executive Vice Chairman and Cofounder of Alibaba.  Most of these efforts are the result of alumni involvement and commitment… In many ways, it is too bad that reunions occur after graduation and after the students have left.  I encourage you to come back (to Yale) when they are there, perhaps for a football game.”

Classmates: The deadline for submitting essays for the 50^th Reunion Classbook is April 1, 2018.