Mar/Apr 2013

Recent columns have been dominated by memorials to classmates who have run their life course. While this is the most important (and sadly growing) function of these notes, a brief respite from my lugubrious duties means there is room this month for a few of the living.

Dailey Swan Press recently published Matt Flynn’s Pryme Knumber, a CIA thriller set in Milwaukee. Matt sent reviews from Milwaukee that praise the book profusely. Matt’s bio, included with the press release, has these tidbits: Matt is a commercial litigation partner in the firm of Quarles and Brady (Matthew.Flynn@quarles.com); he served on Hillary Clinton’s finance committee in 2008; he cochaired John Kerry’s primary campaign in Wisconsin in 2004.

News from dues: Kenneth Knight (kknight@aya.yale.edu) reports: “Class of 1969 Whiffenpoofs met for an off-year reunion in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in October. Warmth, mirth, and rejuvenation were there in abundance. Attendees: Raish, Mackoff, Henderson, Lehr, Knight,Brush, Sprole, and Riehle. Also Brush’s wife Mel and Knight’s partner Morehead (Yale ’64, ’68MD).” Your scribe is looking forward to hearing the dulcet tones of the aforementioned group in 2014 in New Haven.

Dr. Marc Cooperman (marccoops@aol.com) writes: “Currently chief of staff at the Columbus VA Ambulatory Care Center. Happily married to my wife Janet and raising our 10-year-old future Yalie, David.”

Bruce Weinstein (weinsteinb@yahoo.com) writes: “I have been very disappointed by President Levin’s unilateral ‘withdrawal’ from Ivy sports. Until the sports’ recruiting numbers are restored, I will not be making contributions/dues payments of any sort.”

Kenneth Loveday (Ken.Loveday@Biogenidec.com) writes: “I joined Biogen Idec in 2011 and am about to turn 65. I’ve been fortunate to work on several drugs that have been approved by the FDA, and I am eager to work on a few more before I retire. After 34 years together, Ellen Hoffman and I married in 2006. (The ’60s are over, romance, pension plans, health care proxy—you make the call!)”

Frank Aronson (faronson@pbl.com), who writes like a doctor even though he is a lawyer, says (I think): “I continue to practice law full time (more or less) in the business transactional area (mostly commercial real estate). … My daughter, Palyssa ’95 (TD), an emergency physician, and her husband, Randy, have three children. Daughter Jessica, Princeton ’98, is director of outreach education at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, and daughter Emily is an associate producer at the TV program Inside Edition. Wife Paula continues to work as a medical technologist at the VA Hospital. Mother Minna remains with us, doing well, with her next birthday her 102nd!”

Hal Valeche (halrv@comcast.net) was elected to the Palm Beach County Commission, representing approximately 200,000 constituents in the northern end of the county. John Yarmuth (D) and Lamar Smith (R) were both reelected to Congress. Congratulations to all.

Your scribe was saddened to read in the New York Times that the New Orleans Times-Picayune will no longer be published every day. Jim Amoss has been the paper’s editor for many years, during which time the paper won four Pulitzer Prizes. As David Carr wrote, “Newsprint sentimentalists are part of a shrinking club. Plenty of people care about news, but the fetishists who want it to be imprisoned on paper? We are like Shriners, once a proud, powerful bunch who now meet in little rooms and exchange secret handshakes.”

And to (sigh) close on a sad note: John Garrett Gittzus, MD died October 15, 2012. I have only a brief obit from the Hartford Courant: After Yale, John went to University of Connecticut Medical School. He served in the Air Force, had a private practice in Enfield, Connecticut, and was an associate professor of medicine at the University of Connecticut. He had recently retired to spend more time with his family, and was looking forward to the imminent birth of his grandson, Gage. He leaves his wife of 42 years, Carol, two daughters, and a granddaughter. Classmates are welcome to send me memories or stories.

“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity.”—Gilda Radner