Nov 1998

Well, here we are in another dizzying round of class notes. By the time you see this, it will be getting reasonably close to the Harvard game, and with luck Lang Wheeler will have issued instructions to one and all on how to enjoy his fiesta for class members at his Cambridge abode.

Before we get to the mail, a little something for all you “90s-kind-of guys”: several classmates have let me know about a cute e-mail facility run by Yale called “listserv,” which forwards on to all subscribing class members an e-mail sent by any subscriber. To get on the list, simply send an e-mail to the following address: (AYA@yale.edu), request to be put on the list, and specify in the body of the message your name, Yale affiliations, and undergraduate residential college. You will eventually get a long message back confirming your enrollment and giving you a long series of other instructions, tips, etc. (including instructions on how to get a list of subscribers). Currently, about 70 classmates are signed up. The service is free. If all else fails, try the following website: (http://www.yale.edu/ aya/listserv.html).

Speaking of e-mail, a couple of items in, via that medium: Harold Mancusi-Ungarowrites (That surely isn’t the right e-mail verb, is it? Any suggestions?) that he is the proud father of a member of the Class of ’02, son Temy, who is assigned to Lawrence Hall and Stiles. (I believe that M-U the younger is third-generation Yale and perhaps fourth-generation with the name.) Harold is still in the plastic surgery game in Beaumont, Texas — he emphasizes that this is “by choice”! Jim Grew avers electronically that he was married “finally, on January 31, 1998, in Las Vegas . . . to Dyana Lynn Wilson. The marriage was not pre-planned. It was actually her idea after she turned me down twice. . . . And next week, we will close adoption proceedings for her (our) son. . . . ” Guess the odds improved. And our own irrepressible Herb Wright beams in from the Santa Clarita valley in California; he’s about to continue his exploration of our outer and inner spaces with a TV series in Vancouver entitled Mission to Mars. He also sends regards to all of us who still cling to the Atlantic coast.

More sad news from the backlog: I understand that Clinton Sheerr died in 1997. He was founder (with his wife) of a small architectural firm in New Hampshire which had won numerous awards; he had previously (while at I.M. Pei) had a major hand in design of the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington. For those of you who missed it, Louis Popp died in 1996, survived by his wife and three children. He lived in Somers, New York, and was a senior executive with the McCann-Erickson advertising agency in New York.

Numerous communications from the backlog: From David Peach in Anchorage, Alaska: “Would you believe — two kids at Princeton? The first was a shock, but now I’m almost getting used to it.” From Norm Resnicow in New York: he and Barbara (known as “BJ” to those acquainted) have an annual visit in Florida with David Click and his wife Lainie (known as Lainie, apparently to all). Between the four of them, there are about six Yale degrees, so the atmosphere is almost overwhelmingly Eli. Norm refers to his boys Joel and Daniel, and their enjoyment of December tennis, but the rest trails off into illegibility. Hope you’ll write in again, Norm (type?).

A nice note from Dick Senechal, on letterhead boasting Mickey Mouse in a wizard’s costume. Dick is now “responsible for mixed-use development with Walt Disney Imagineering — a dream job for an aging Mouseketeer,” with an added benefit of allowing him to move from Las Vegas where he lived for five years (funny things happen in Las Vegas, vide Jim Grew, supra). Dick watched his daughter Ann graduate from Yale in the Class of 1998. He notes (as have others over the years) that “Yale never really changes. It’s only we who have aged nearly 30 years. Some may see that as a sobering thought. I’m more inclined to take the contrary view and use it as an excuse to raise a glass to absent friends.” Terry Landers wrote in (from Moraga, California, a long time ago, now) that he has continued to contribute big time to Yale, with Heather ’97 and Michelle ’00. He says he’s still working at the same desk, having survived acquisitions, mergers, and other corporate “dilutions” in the pharmaceutical game. He says he’d supply his business e-mail address, but it would probably be obsolete on delivery.

Paul Malamud from Washington writes of a fish lunch with David Johnson. The latter, president of the Yale Dramat in 1969, became general counsel of Sony Music with an office high up in the Manhattan skyline, in contrast to Paul’s windowless cubicle in the civil service. Paul asks, “Is God just?” Don’t know, but God sure has a sense of humor. The lunch, anyway, was good, and old times at Dramat were the subject. Kenneth Loveday warns fellow physics majors from Brookline, Massachusetts, that he’s now a kidney expert and conducting research experiments on that favorite of all organs, thereby proving that watching all those brine shrimp hatch under a microscope at age 12 ultimately has paid dividends of sorts. He mentions being reunited with his old Yale golf buddy, Lou Casagrande, after the latter’s move to Boston. His best news is that his “poker-playing spouse equivalent [parse that phrase, grammarians], Ellen Hoffman, has written the ultimate theme book, Rock the Casbah, featuring a nerd party attended by classmates David Friend and Dan Moore, so check it out and keep partying.” He also celebrated his 50th birthday at Suffolk Downs race track, where the sixth race was named for him and simulcast over the country. Some guys know how to live — but did the exacta come home for him? What are friends for?

Adventures in re-invention and re-inventing adventures: From Simon Whitney: “Yes, I am a family physician and yes, I am now a law student at Stanford. My wife, 9-year-old daughter, 5-year-old son, and I are living on campus (and loving it).” Hmm. FromTheodore Robinson: ”Got arrested for surfing . . . in the Atlantic off New Jersey on a surfboard. Surfrider Foundation is taking up the cudgels on my behalf, suing the town that ticketed me. Shades of the ’60s.“

And my favorite communication, in pith and meaning. From Gregory Coleman (Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania), quoted in its entirety: “Have been married 25 yrs. to Marcia L. Coleman.”

The backlog shrinks. More next issue. And look for more communications on special class events.