Mar/Apr 2007

Mike Folz has helped bring Charles Apel (Capel@mail.arc.nasa.gov) back into the fold. Here is Charles’s story: “I look back at my time at Yale with a great deal of fondness and often wonder what would have happened if I had continued there instead of dropping out of the physics program. In the summer of 1966 I enrolled in Harvard summer school to make up for my D in German at Yale. There I met Timothy Leary who introduced me to LSD. By the following summer I was a longhaired hippie living with the Jefferson Airplane in San Francisco and having the time of my life. These were happy and magical times, hanging out and partying with Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and the Grateful Dead. However, I was on the run for draft evasion and eventually had to leave the country to avoid the FBI. They were hot on my trail and wanted to put me in prison for four years without a trial. I took what money I had and my pregnant wife and went to Colombia to live in the mountainous rainforest with the indigenous people there until the war was over.

”President Carter gave me a pardon and I returned to the San Francisco Bay Area to raise my growing family. I have seven children (now 14 grandchildren) and supported them by learning to be a florist in an affluent neighborhood in Marin County. When our nest was finally empty my wife and I decided to go back to school. I received my AA (biology) from Santa Rosa Junior College in 1996, my BA (molecular, cellular and developmental biology) from University of California Santa Cruz in 1999, and then went on to get my PhD in biochemistry, also at UCSC, in 2003.

“Since then I have worked at the astrochemistry branch of the space science division at NASA/Ames, for two years as a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow, and for the past year as a Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute Research Scientist, also here at Ames. My work has focused on issues concerning the origins of life and astrobiology. I am presently teaching biochemistry at San Jose State University and am considering a tenure-track position there. My wife is now teaching English at three local community colleges after receiving her MFA from Mills College.

”For fun I do a lot of hiking, kayaking, and camping. I also have a band called the Guru Daddies, which plays at local clubs. Our sound has been described as ‘hypno trance, world beat, rock and roll’ and we’re getting pretty good for a bunch of old-timers, if I must say so myself. The best way to contact me is by the e-mail above. My home address here in Silicon Valley is 118 Walnut Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94085.“ Great to have you back, Charles.

Congratulations to John Yarmuth, who was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for his district in Kentucky! John defeated a five-term incumbent in a hard-fought campaign. John joins Lamar Smith, who has represented his district in San Antonio for almost 20 years. Both John and Lamar were in Ezra Stiles, and rumor has it (via Claes Nilsson) that Paul Abrams, also of Stiles, may run for Congress. This has gotta be some kind of record.

News from class dues: Geoff Anderson writes: ”The Whiffenpoofs of 1969 held their first West Coast reunion in Los Angeles October 13–15, which included a concert, led by pitchpipe Bob Brush, at USC. Notable was the very first return to the group since graduation of West Coaster baritone Bob Barton. Participants included former Alley CatsKen Knight (Santa Fe), John Lehr (Toronto), and Geoff Anderson (Chicago). Arrangements were made by popocatapetl Jerry Sprole (Darien).“ Your scribe is already looking forward to hearing our Whiffs again at the 40th in 2009!

Albee Budnitz writes in to report his daughter Hannah’s ”latest marriage to Guy Williams at Queen’s College, Oxford, UK. It was Harry Potter all over again! And followed by a Welsh/Jewish celebration.“ Frank Aronson’s dues news: ”I became a grandfather this past February 6 [2006], with the birth of granddaughter Hallie Pellish, daughter of Randall and my daughter Elyssa (TD ’95). Otherwise I continue to be very active, at senior leadership level, at our synagogue, and continue to hone my bicycling skills (often with TD roommate Carney Mimms). Am also involved with Columbia Law School alumni affairs and continue to practice law full-time, and Paula and I are enjoying late middle age. Daughter Jessica runs an educational program for Puget Sound Energy in Seattle; daughter Emily does production for the Martha Stewart show in NYC.“

More ”missing“ (55 total) classmates: Leon Hanson, Stanley Heller, William Herbert, Saul Hopper. Any information is welcome.

”My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule.”—Gerald R. Ford ’41LLB, August 1974.