May/Jun 2012

Chris Hoffman writes: “I’m happy to report that my second book of poetry, Realization Point, has just been published. About a year ago I launched a pro-bono sustainability website: www.earth-dashboard.org, showing key indicators about how we are doing as a planet. I’m still working as an organization development consultant, focusing on organizations that are committed to sustainability, and have also been involved in pro-bono work related to renewable energy. My wife, Susan Secord, teaches in fourth grade, and we have a son who is a junior at Lewis and Clark. Approaching my 65th birthday, I spent some time reviewing old letters dating back to 1965, which brought back many memories. Thank you. I send best wishes to all my classmates.”

Bill Newman (newmanwil@gmail.com) writes: “Last October I moved my corporate law practice to a new firm here in New York City, Barton LLP (www.bartonesq.com). Barton is a boutique firm that addresses the legal needs of small and mid-sized businesses and investment funds. I was attracted because I saw significant advantages in being focused on what I believe is an underserved market segment for legal services, in a market filled with providers whose internal financial structures are their biggest challenges. I am the eighth of nine partners, one having joined us just last week. About half of the firm’s clients are US operations of offshore businesses. Among US clients, smaller-sized private equity and hedge funds predominate. My new partners are very bright, work hard, and are very engaging. What more could I want? I am very pleased with my move. I also see this as a great opportunity to take what I have learned during my last 12 years with three larger law firms and apply it to help build a legal services provider that is refreshingly effective. Day-to-day, I work with companies in the fashion, marketing/advertising, media, telecom software, and investment management industries. I enjoy the great variety of matters that I am privileged to consider. I have found that the practice of law allows me to contribute to others in a meaningful way and am happy that I have been in private practice for almost 40 years.”

Your scribe’s own efforts have uncovered the substantial achievements of Ron Rivest. From the MIT website: “Professor Rivest is the Viterbi Professor of Computer Science in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He is a member of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), a member of the lab’s theory of computation group, and a leader of its cryptography and information security group. Professor Rivest has current research interests in cryptography, computer and network security, voting systems, and algorithms. In the past he has also worked extensively in the area of machine learning. Professor Rivest is a coauthor (with Professors Cormen, Leiserson, and Stein) of the well-known text Introduction to Algorithms, published by MIT Press. Over 500,000 copies of this text have been sold. It has been translated into 12 languages. Professor Rivest is an inventor of the RSA public-key cryptosystem. He has extensive experience in cryptographic design and cryptanalysis, and has published numerous papers in these areas. He has served as a director of the International Association for Cryptologic Research, the organizing body for the Eurocrypt and Crypto conferences, and as a director of the Financial Cryptography Association. He is a founder of RSA Data Security (RSA was bought by Security Dynamics; the combined company was renamed to RSA Security, and later purchased by EMC), and is also a cofounder of Verisign and of Peppercoin.” In our class book, Ron listed teaching as his future occupation and computer science as his future field. Badda bing, badda boom.

The mailbag is now completely empty. Your scribe needs to hear from those of you who read the column, but never write. Many of you have stories, dreams, disappointments, deep thoughts, and achievements the rest of us would like to ponder and admire before you pass on. I ain’t too proud to beg.

“The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it”
—Jean-Paul Sartre, writer and philosopher (1905–1980).