Nov/Dec 2009

News from dues: Douglas Colton (douglas.colton@gmail.com) writes, tongue planted firmly in cheek: “It is an honor to be part of the first formerly prosperous 40th reunion class since the Class of ’90 (1890, that is) was similarly blessed. There appears to be a sublime synchronicity at work, as revealed by the intervals 1929 + 40 years = 1969 + 40 years = 2009.”

Scott Nelson (s4nelson7@ameritech.net) e-writes: “I haven’t written often because life seems to roll along without any exciting changes. Of course, I never have trouble finding items for our Xmas card newsletter. However, this time I do have something to communicate: Jean and I will be moving to Boulder, Colorado, from Mentor, Ohio, this July. I will be retiring in the process, having decided that a deep recession is no reason to shelve these plans. Our son Patrick is pretty excited by these plans, and he might also end up in Colorado going to occupational therapy school, if his stars align correctly. We have already bought a house in Boulder, currently being rented out. Our daughter Susan is a junior at Savannah College of Art and Design, majoring in interior design. She loves sunny places, so after she got over the idea of her carefully crafted Ohio bedroom being painted over and sold, she began to cheer the move also. She designed our interior layout, using our present stuff and a blueprint of the new house. Pretty handy!

“We ordinarily haven’t run into Yale classmates very often, but we have lately seen more of Brad Gascoigne. He threw his annual Oscar awards party, and my wife Jean came in second for Oscar predictions, winning a bottle of champagne in the process. When we move to Boulder, we will no doubt see more of Silliman classmate Macon Cowles. On the other hand, he is so busy with Boulder City Council business that I may have to make up a municipal problem to get an appointment. Whatever it takes.”

Jeff Horton (jp1horton@earthlink.net) writes: “When last I wrote I might have been an elected member of the Los Angeles School Board, after a 15-year stint as a high school English teacher in south Los Angeles. My time on the school board ended in 1999 when Mayor Riordan raised almost a million dollars to defeat me. I then served two years on the Los Angeles County Board of Education (not elected, much smaller deal) and a year as president of the California School Boards Association. After my time on the school boards I worked at the L.A. county office in teacher recruitment and now, since 2006, am back in the Los Angeles school district overseeing a special tutoring program. During all of this time I have lived in a little old hillside house in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles with my partner (since 1983) Larry Pickens. Larry and I adopted two boys, Dante (now 19) and Lorenzo (17), in 1995 and 1999, respectively. My life was tragically devastated in 2007 when Larry died suddenly of heart disease. Those who have lost life partners or spouses will know what a devastating blow that is. I’m not sure how I will recover, except that of course I still have a lot of parenting to do and that keeps me busy. I have a few more years before I can comfortably retire, but I’m looking forward to that. I have a number of writing projects that are waiting for me when I have more free time.”

Steve Bemis (stbemis@charter.net) retired after 29 years with Masco Corporation, lawyering pension, environmental, and litigation issues. He continues active in local government and with several nonprofits, including the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (www.ftcldf.org), where as a founding board member he works to defend small farmers and to change state and federal laws limiting the sale of raw (unpasteurized) milk. Summertime finds him baling hay with modern and some vintage farm equipment. His wife Judy paints (oils) and is also retired from her several years’ experience in bringing water wells and scholarships to refugees in Ghana. With more time they have increased trips up and down I-75 from their home north of Ann Arbor to visit their sons and five grandchildren in eastern Tennessee.

Paul Fasoldt (Paul_Fasoldt_69@aya.yale.edu) writes: “I worked a summer for the Track Department of New York Central (later Penn Central) while at Yale. For several years after graduation, most of my employers were in the food and beverage industry, ranging from national chain restaurants to local gin mills. In 1977, I returned to the rail industry in train service and became a locomotive engineer in 1979 (the Engineer Training School was in New Haven at that time, and we were lodged at the Judges Motel). Before AMTRAK hired its own personnel, my employer Conrail in Selkirk, New York, provided the train and engine crews for AMTRAK running out of Albany-Rensselaer station. While I did not have enough seniority to be hired by AMTRAK, I maintained my passenger qualifications and was used in emergency when AMTRAK was out of engineers or firemen. I retired after 30 years of service in August 2007 from CSX as a designated supervisor of locomotive engineers, responsible for the training and qualification of the next generation of freight engineers. Despite attempts by many to change one or more of these three adjectives, I remain as stated in my only previous contact with the alumni magazine: alive and well and free.”

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“A limit of time is fixed for thee, which if thou dost not use for clearing the clouds from thy mind, it will go and thou wilt go, and it will never return.”—Marcus Aurelius.