Yale University

Class Notes

July/August 2007

by Tony Lavely

As I write these notes in mid-May, I just heard from Chris Getman that Strachan Donnelley and he attended the ground-breaking ceremonies for Kroon Hall on May 3rd." It was a wonderful event. The building received a ‘platinum' designation, which means it will be the ‘greenest' large building in the country." Both Gus Speth and Rick Kroon (for whose family the building is named) spoke at the ceremony. Rick said: "Our children, four of whom graduated from Yale, gave us an awareness of the pressing need to change the pattern of human endeavor and human priorities in order to save this wonderful world of ours for future generations." Please go to our class Web site to read more about this wonderful new resource on the campus that has such close connections to our class.

Make your plans now to attend the class dinner on October 19, 2007, at the Yale Club of New York. Ed Massey is chairing this event, and he has announced that Paul Steiger (Managing Editor of the Wall Street Journal) will be our speaker. Additional details were sent in an e-mail to the 619 members of our class (out of 863) who have an e-mail address on record with Yale (more about this later).

All classmates should have received a letter in early May about the golf outing in Bermuda on October 26 — November 1, 2008. Ed Trippe and Tony Lee are organizing this event with rounds planned at Tucker's Point and Mid Ocean. Although the outing isn't for seventeen months, you have to be registered no later than June 30th of this year (so this reminder will only help those of you who read the class notes online).

Looking out even further, the planning for our class reunion in June 2009 has begun, under the leadership of Waldo Johnston. Waldo has even been sending e-mails while under sail with Candy aboard the Natty Bumppo on the Chesapeake Bay! You should have received Waldo's letter in early May, in which he asked for suggestions and planning committee participation. Sam Francis has set up a special link on our class Web site for this, our 45th reunion. John Evans is chairing the program committee, so feel free to contact him, too. Joe Wishcamper, who has done such a fine job at previous reunions, will again chair the memorial service program. Ron Sipherd and Peter Hutchings have already weighed in with strong ideas in communications technology, an interest that I share.

John More wrote: "I have discovered an additional benefit of working from home … a suburban-Maryland lunch with fellow home-based classmates, Jon McBride and Bob Musil." Bob Hetherington — a class council member and golf outing organizer — wrote: "Very proud of our son, Alex, who graduated in May, summa cum laude, and is now working in the Yale Investments office." Karl Ziegler e-mailed from London that that he organized a get-together at Christie's with Michael Nagel and David Sherman. Paul Manchester e-mailed to ask whether any classmate has broken Jim Rogers record from our 40th reunion of having the youngest child? Dean Vanderbilt and Missy are living in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and "both enjoyed volunteering for the first ever PGA Tour event in Mexico last February." Jonathan Auerbach was featured in the April issue of Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car with his 1952 Lazzarino: "It looks like the Ferrari 212 Spyder Vignale that I owned back in 1966 and could no longer afford to buy!" David Cohen has retired and relocated to San Diego. I had a nice conversation with Jay Huffard recently, who continues to advance his new business, Consor Capital. Next week, I'll be getting together with Dan Pollack at the National Restaurant Show in Chicago. Dan sent me an old picture of our pledge class at Beta Theta Pi. Wow! Bob Sexton, who continues to do great work at the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, recently hosted a forum on education with nine Kentucky gubernatorial candidates.

Regrettably, I was unable to attend a gathering of former Association of Yale Alumni board members on May 12th, but I was provided with a comprehensive and impressive plan: "Ambassadors for Yale: The AYA Strategic Plan." I want to thank our class AYA representative, Will Elting, for correcting something I wrote in a earlier column: "President Levin announced that a committee has been formed to study a plan to construct two new residential colleges north of the Grove Street Cemetery. The university will make its decision by December 2007."

Recently, I returned to New Orleans, one of many visits since Hurricane Katrina. Unfortunately, my timing fell just between visits by two other classmates, so we did not connect. I took a professionally guided tour of the devastated areas, riding, by sheer coincidence with same person who guided Joe Lieberman in April. I hope Joe shares my belief that the Stafford Act should be waived to provide much-needed relief to this area. And I also hope he supports the closure of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet    ("Mr. Go Must Go!"). Only a day after I left JazzFest, Pat Caviness arrived for his annual visit to New Orleans via Little Rock from Koh Samui, Thailand. Believe it of not, I just received mail that arrived in New Orleans the week after the hurricane. So news from the summer of 2005 was that Sam Low had his first photographic exhibit in West Tisbury, Martha's Vineyard. Sadly, Sam had his last visit there with Bob Kuehn, who died in 2006. A similarly delayed letter from Dean Vanderbilt came from Playa del Carmen telling about his hurricane experiences there.

I close this column with my regular appeal for news and stories from classmates. Even a couple of lines would be appreciated. Please send to me via e-mail. If you have your e-mail address listed in the Yale Directory, please be aware that we cannot access it. So if you would like your e-mail address listed on our Class Web site, please send it to me directly. Enjoy the rest of the summer!