Nov/Dec 2015
Greg Montes writes: “I learned earlier this year that Richard Griest died on December 21, 2011, at Pleasant Hill, California. I often ate lunch and dinner with Richard in Morse College in 1966–69 and we lived on the same floor of Morse Tower in 1967–68. We had many discussions about politics, history, Yale, and other subjects. I and others who knew Richard over the years found him to be very intelligent and good-humored. My parents enjoyed meeting and talking with Richard when he stayed overnight with them in Omaha, Nebraska, while driving from Yale to San Diego in June 1969.
“Richard grew up in San Diego in a typical suburban, two-income family. Richard’s father, Hadley, was a US Navy lieutenant commander and commanding officer of the submarine rescue vessel, USS Chanticleer. Richard attended public schools in San Diego, graduating from Crawford High School. After his freshman year at Caltech, Richard transferred to Yale in 1966. After graduation, Richard worked in various jobs in California, mainly as a database developer and software engineer for various firms, including French firm Schneider Electric, and Systron Donner, and on contract basis for the US Homeland Security department. Richard is survived by an uncle, cousins, and friends who miss his good company.”
Mike Baum writes: “I’m living proof that the idea of reinventing yourself multiple times during a career did not start with the Gen-Xers or whatever they call themselves. I’m on my fourth or fifth iteration myself. I’ve surfed the waves of the past 40 years of business, through catalog merchandising, franchise consulting, educational software, an IPO, a dot-com selling art and fine craft, and, since 2008, independent consultant on development and marketing of technology and curriculum to K–12 schools and early childhood programs. My Yale degrees splendidly prepared me for almost none of that, but I never expected them to. Hoping to retire before our 50th, though as I tell people who ask, I can’t retire—I’m not finished being tired yet. Can hardly wait to do my bio for50 Years Out, assuming Yale still does those books in 2019. With my long-suffering wife of 38 years (who likes Yale reunions, too) we have three grown children and five grandchildren. We live just outside Madison, Wisconsin, surrounded by lakes, rivers, marshes, suburban homes, and a short-haul railroad a couple miles away that rolls through around 2 every morning.
“Counting up the ‘In memoriam’ names at the 45th, something like 12 percent of our class has ‘shuffled off.’ In the next four years, based on the actuarial tables, that will go up to about 20 percent. Sure, the odds of living till the 50th are in your favor, but the odds favored each one of the 12 percent, until they didn’t. So write to the magazine and make Dan happy, guys, and come to the 50th, dammit! For anyone who thinks reunions would be boring, or anyone who’s mad at Yale for some reason—you’re wrong, and so what? I never came to a reunion till our 25th, when I figured what the hell, and I was astonished what a joy it was to resume conversations with the most stimulating single group of people I’ve ever been associated with, as if it had been only yesterday since we last talked instead of 9,125 yesterdays. And as to being mad at Yale, so am I, much of the time, but I don’t come to support the policies, I come for the people. So to my class friends who haven’t attended: Come for the people. This may be your last chance.”
Harold R. Mancusi-Ungaro Jr. (hmumd@aya.yale.edu) writes: “This letter is much overdue for a number of reasons, not the least of which is my report as your AYA new delegate. I attended the AYA assembly last November, entitled ‘The Entrepreneurial Spirit at Yale.’ The keynote speaker was Kevin Ryan ’85 of GILT and Doubleclick fame, among others. There are several ‘take-aways’ I want to share with you. One, entrepreneurship is not new at Yale, beginning with Eli Whitney, and including names like Samuel F. B. Morse. Second, Yale is truly investing and vesting in the projects of students through its Center for Engineering Innovation and Design and the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute. Check out yei.yale.edu. These are combined efforts through the schools of engineering and management, but it calls upon the talents of any and all of the other schools, such as medicine and forestry. The effort whenever possible seeks the support of alumni. The final point is that the AYA is a means through which we can all become involved supporting student efforts through our interests and talents. Beyond local Yale Clubs, there are shared identity/interest groups (SIGs). Go to yale.edu and enter SIG in ‘search’.
“The assembly this coming November 19–21 is entitled ‘Public Health at Yale in the Twenty-first Century.’ For me, it should be reflective. On a personal note, I retired January 31 from my practice in plastic surgery at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa: 12-plus years there, 12 in private practice in Beaumont, Texas, and 8-plus years in academic roles. It was a good career with much satisfaction, but it was time to enjoy other things in life. I cannot believe how busy I am now finding time to have fun. Bicycling 20 miles a day cuts into my routine. And, we have had time to travel and set aside time for my son and grandchildren in New York and daughter in Chicago. Like many of you, I have my high school 50th reunion this fall. I keep singing the words of Garth Brooks: ‘I’m much too young to be this damned old.’”
“And indeed there will be time / To wonder, ‘Do I dare?’ and, ‘Do I dare?’ / Time to turn back and descend the stair, / With a bald spot in the middle of my hair— / (They will say: ‘How his hair is growing thin!’)”—T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”