Class News
David Elliott ’64 writes his memoirs for his grandchildren
June 16, 2021
David Elliott wrote:
I found Rick Salomon’s memoirs very interesting and informative and quite well done in every respect. I suspect a few other classmates have also penned similar retrospectives.
[Editor’s Note: The Search button on our Class website found eighteen other classmates who have published memoirs: Dick Ainsworth, John Ashcroft, Gordon Davis, Bill Drennen, John Friedberg, Len Gaffga, Harvey Geiger, Syd Lea, Joe Lieberman, Jim Rogers, Bill Roth, Rick Salomon, Gerry Shea, Gus Speth, Russell Sunshine, Tony Thomson, Dennis Upper, and John Wilbur.]
When I “published” my memoirs a year ago, I wanted to leave a record of my life and lessons learned for the benefit of my grandchildren and future generations. I always wished I had the benefit of a similar narrative from an ancestor who, for example, lived during the Revolutionary War or Civil War periods. Reading Denny Lynch’s obituary, I found myself wondering whether he undertook such a project. We had an exceptionally talented class and as is obvious from reading all the submissions in the 50th reunion book, an extremely accomplished one. I hope many of them felt inspired to leave their own memoirs for posterity. I try to encourage all those I encounter to consider the idea. Not sure why I have gone off on this theme, but guess I just felt like promulgating it.
After Tony Lavely told David that he had inspired him, David wrote:
That’s great that you have been inspired to write your memoirs. Not only will the end product be worthwhile, I suspect you will find the process fun as well. Among other tasks I sorted through thousands of photos dating from 1911. Pete Putzel put me in touch with a firm that was good with layouts and production techniques, which I am not, and that was a big help, along with very helpful editing. The firm produced his father’s biography which, like Rick Salomon’s was very interesting, highly engaging, and in a nutshell professionally done.
Not to unduly belabor this theme, but I thought I would attach my introduction, which spells out the various motivations for undertaking the project.
