Oct 1998

Another issue of class notes, in our continuing effort to serve you better. Your class council continues with its work, in particular the efforts to promote the social side of things through the aegis of our events czar, John Gazzoli. You should have received a letter from him outlining upcoming social events, including a trip in the California wine country (October 23-25), a fiesta at the Yale-Harvard game courtesy of Lang Wheeler(November 21), and a winter ski session in Colorado hosted by Michael Schonbrun(February 4-7, 1999). If you want more quick info and have been tardy in replying, send me a line at fax: 703-846-1200 or to my e-mail address given above.

A number of us took advantage of the first of our revitalized class social events, a weekend at the Blue Ridge Arts Festival in Charlottesville, sponsored by Mac Thompsonin August. Attendance was very good, both for the picnic dinner and rendition of Camelot at Ash Lawn Plantation, and for the Sunday brunch the next day. I won’t list all the names, with exception of Lloyd Suttle, as he and his wife had the distinction of traveling the greatest distance for the event. Lloyd has also volunteered to be the “New Haven liaison” for Cummings and Collins in their work as co-heads of our upcoming reunion (May 27-30, 1999). Many thanks to Mac and Elsie for their hospitality. At the session, we had a brief class council meeting, and will have further meetings starting again in the fall.

One further item of class business: there is, I am told, a web site at which class members exchange greetings, ideas, and general bonhomie. It is at least familiarly referred to as “listserv.” I would be grateful if one of the frequent and skilled users could provide me with a non-geek-esque set of instructions on how to tune in, so that I can publish same here for the benefit of those who are interested but unwashed. Now some news from our considerable backlog:

Time sensitive news: From Kevin McKeown in Santa Monica: He’s switched from broadcasting into telecommunications, as a computer and networking expert for the local district. This bit of homecoming back to his roots is matched by his candidacy for the Santa Monica City Council, with elections November 3. He invites you to his campaign website at www.mckeown.net. If elected he’ll be the second green out of seven on the council.

Sad news: We’ve received news that Bill Robertson died in July, after a four-year bout with lung cancer. I have no other details. We have confirmed news that Lawrence Bergand Michael Dunn (Tarzana, California) died in 1995, but have no further information. We received a long letter from Myron Thompson (chief judge of the United States District Court for Middle District of Alabama, and President Carter’s last judicial appointment), noting sadly the 1997 death in Tiburon, California, of his college roommate, Geoffrey Kemp Booth. Myron writes that Geoff graduated from Georgetown Medical after leaving Yale, and had a distinguished career at the VA Medical Center in San Francisco, since 1986 as chief of psychiatric outpatient services. Myron says that Geoff’s most satisfying work was teaching students at the University of California, San Francisco. Myron and Geoff had just reconnected after years of not being in contact, and the irony was that Geoff expressed the wish to get back in touch with his Yale friends after all these years. Catherine Lofgren Carr sent a brief note from Deland, Florida, that (her husband?) Robert Carr died of a heart attack in July 1997. She writes that he was always proud of having attended Yale. He worked for 25 years as a piano technician in central Florida and was “respected by his peers and clients” as one of the best. Anita Weinraub has written from Norcross, Georgia, that her husband, William Weinraub, died in 1997. He is also survived by daughter Stephanie.

Finally (for this edition), Robert Danley died of a brain tumor in 1997. He was professor of Japanese literature at the University of Michigan, but achieved immediate fame among translators and scholars of Japanese literature with his Yale PhD dissertation on the writings of a woman of letters in Meiji, Japan. At the time of his death, he had just signed a contract for an important new translation of The Tale of Genji. He was also a popular teacher, and will be remembered for his brilliant wit, dry humor, and wide range of interests.

More, I regret to say, under this heading in future issues.

Life and times: Jim Amoss writes from New Orleans, where he is (if I recall correctly) the editor of that city’s Times-Picayune, that the newspaper won two (count ’em, two) Pulitzer prizes, the first in its 160-year history. Time also named it the country’s “most improved” newspaper (a mixed blessing?). Jim broke years of un-American deprivation by taking his two teenagers on their first trip to Disney World, retching his way through a trip in an Air Force F16 Thunderbird. From Geoff Walker (Houston): “Active! New Hope Housing (SRO housing for otherwise homeless) is my main nonprofit effort. Finally undertaking to learn to read music, having played poorly many instruments for years. I’m in love with a 1918 Steinway birthday gift. The 50th is eased by the Indian summer of two kids’ childhoods . . . but above all by Ann Kennedy ’74, with whom I have a date tonight, despite having been married (to each other) for years! Cheers!”

From Richard Platt, writing from Michigan: “In June ’97 married . . . Diane Graham Wilberding, whom some will remember from our 25th. Son Booth at St. Lawrence ’00, and daughter Anne at Yale ’01. Travel to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China, where we have operations manufacturing auto parts . . . and precision electronic weighing scales. Spend time in St. Croix, northern Michigan, and Temagami, Ontario.” From RobertVestewig, Houston: “My daughter Lauren [is] a member of the Yale Class of 2000. After being a single parent all these years, my biggest challenge is filling up my new-found free time and flexible schedule.” From Ron Mills (long thought lost to invading space aliens): “Thirty-one years after moving to New Haven (to go to Yale), I’ve moved away (to Bloomington, Indiana).” Robert Beach has written from Glastonbury, Connecticut, that he has been appointed to the Superior Court of Connecticut. He says that wife Susan and three teenage daughters are fine and that “the integer vitae is, generally, wholesome.”

I must close with an interesting missive from William Owens, Saint Simons Island, Georgia: “I work principally at [my] local bar, Ziggy Mahoney’s, as singer-guitarist-entertainer.” His wife Elizabeth is bar manager. Her academic pedigree runs toward early childhood education, including a stint at the Yale Child Study Center in the early ’70s. “She taught emotionally disturbed preschoolers — perfect training for running yuppie drunks out of a bar at 2 am. I am also a local realtor, selling swampland and thousand-year-old Indian burial sites to local rednecks and Yankee tourists.” A Renaissance man!

More of the backlog next issue.