Roy Ira Niedermayer – 50th Reunion Essay

Roy Ira Niedermayer

6128 Durbin Road

Bethesda, MD 20817

rniedermayer@gmail.com

301-229-7005

Spouse(s): Gail H. Ross (1977)

Child(ren): Aaron Niedermayer (1981), Seth Niedermayer (1984)

Grandchild(ren): Maya Lily Niedermayer (2015); Talia Eve Niedermayer (2017); Lilah Joan Niedermayer (2017)

Education: Yale BA 1969; Harvard Law School 1972

College: Saybrook

Yale rejected my application in 1965. I didn’t give up. In 1966, I transferred to Yale as a sophomore. Inky Clark later apologized to me. A late but very good start. But, I missed the Old Campus freshman friend-making and bonding experience. I was a public school kid. Saybrook Master Henning roomed me with two “connected” private school sophisticates to catch up. We quickly parted company. But by junior year, I had met my closest lifelong friends: Sean, another transfer student, while driving to a Vassar mixer, and Jim, a second-generation married to a Mayflower descendent. A senior society rounded out in my friend network.

After graduation, tired of New Haven, I attended Harvard Law. Always wanted to be a lawyer. Later experience taught me I should pursue a JD-MBA degree and become a client. So, I became a trial lawyer. My first senior partner warned me being a litigator was crazy. But I liked it. I was young and liked competition. He was right. Long hours, high stress, nights and weekends at the office. My wife complained she was a single parent. Lesson learned. I attended all my kids’ events after that. No one looks back and regrets not spending more time in the office.

Along the way, I married Gail Ross 41 years ago. Our two sons are the best decisions we ever made. Aaron, who would not attend Yale (“too Gothic”), is a VP at a national real estate company (he followed my “don’t be a lawyer” advice) and married to Keren, an MBA. Seth, Saybrook ’06, ignored my admonition (typical second son) and became a real estate lawyer in New York BigLaw. Batting .500. His wife, Samantha, is a cybersecurity lawyer at a French bank. They gave me granddaughters Maya, Talia, and Lilah. Life lessons: grandchildren are much better than children, and girls are different.

Somehow, I managed to serve on the Washington, DC, Anti-Defamation League Regional Board and Lawyers Civil Rights Committee (where I was honored for civil rights advocacy). I even had an early post-Roe v. Wade abortion case to the Supreme Court with five minutes of media celebrity and death threats. Since 2000, I have been very active in alumni activities as president of the Yale Club of DC, the Alumni Schools administrator, member of the Yale Global Alumni Leadership Exchange, member of the AYA Board of Governors, and and Yale Travel tour producer. The gratitude of a public school kid for my Yale experience remains.

For entrepreneurial, risk-taking fun along the way, I was a defense contractor in St. Croix, serial real estate venturer, biotech investor now developing spider silk with genetically modified silkworms, and current patent inventor of a medical device. Aren’t all Yalies Renaissance men?

My Yale friends and alumni involvement remain a part of my life, although Gail says, “Enough with all the Yalie stuff and Yalies already. Get a life.” I thought I had a checkered but pretty good one so far with mistakes overcome and big lessons learned.