Nov/Dec 2008
It’s not too late to plan to go to Lang Wheeler’s (lbw@numeric.com) pre-game brunch on Saturday, November 21, at Lang’s house, 48 Lakeview Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Start time is 9:30 am. All 1969 classmates and their fellow travelers are welcome. Catch up with old friends, meet new friends, enjoy tasty comestibles in abundance, and listen to live Yale music. And then, presumably, witness a Yale victory over the forces of darkness.
John Joseph Ricotta, professor and chair of the Department of Surgery and program director of general surgery at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, has been elected to the Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars. According to the JHU press release, John “is an internationally known . . . vascular surgeon,” and is “considered a world authority on the treatment of combined carotid and coronary disease and is a leader in the area of carotid stent trials.” Wow. Many of us may need these services in the future. Either that, or get back on the stairmaster and cut out the blue cheese bacon burgers!
News from dues: Frank Aronson (faronson@pbl.com) writes, “I am the proud grandfather of two grandchildren, Hallie Tora, born February 3, 2006, and Gabriel Aron, born July 14, 2007, both children of my daughter Elyssa ’95 and her husband, Randy Pollish. Daughter Jessica (Princeton ’98) continues to direct an education program for Puget Sound Energy in Seattle, and daughter Emily (Northwestern ’03) is a producer for the Montel Williams Show in NYC. I continue to practice business and real estate law at a mid-size firm in Boston, and wife Paula continues as a medical technologist with the Department of Veterans Affairs.”
Online submission from Lee Bachman: “For those interested, the Bachman who was killed at the Beijing Olympics was my cousin, Todd Bachman, age 62. His wife Barbara survived the attack. They were there in support of the U.S. men’s and women’s volleyball teams. I will be retiring soon and hope to see a number of you at our 40th reunion next year. I have five grandchildren. Hope one of them makes it to Yale.”
David Richard Whelan died in 2007. Here is what your scribe has learned: Richard Whelan was, according to the editors of American Photo magazine, “one of the great writers on photography in the twentieth century.” He published many books and articles, the most famous being his studies of Robert Capa and Alfred Stieglitz. Whelan entered Yale (from the Taft School) in September 1964, and was a resident of Trumbull College. He was an intensive history of art major. He clearly used his Yale education well.
More missing classmates: David Wickersham, James Worcester, Thomas Bermingham, Donald Galbraith. Any information is welcome.
“It is in the power of everybody, with a little courage, to hold out a hand to someone different, to listen, and to attempt to increase, even by a tiny amount, the quantity of kindness and humanity in the world.” — Theodore Zeldin (quoted in the New York Times).