Class Notes

March 2000

by Tony Lee

Well, here it is March and on the 21st Spring officially begins. Most of us in the northern latitudes have endured another winter and are looking forward to the warmer weather. Golf nuts are dusting off their clubs and looking forward to the annual ritual of chasing a white ball around. On that note, Dave Lindsay is coordinating a class outing on the Yale Golf Course. We plan to play the course, have dinner, hand out some awards, and head home. Golfing spouses are certainly welcome. Contact Dave (DaveLindsayEli64@aol.com) if you are interested.

John Judson writes from North Carolina that he has been married for 33 years to Charmaine (congratulations!) and he is selling his building business to six employees. With no grandchildren, his future plans are unlimited. Neil Hoffmann reports he's the President of the Yale Club of Philadelphia. He missed the reunion because he was playing golf in Scotland. It appears we have two candidates for the "traveled furthest award" at the golf outing.

Lory Knoblauch now lives in Grosse Point Farms, Michigan and is CEO of a worldwide corporation making machinery for food processing businesses. Lory and Carol have been married for 35 years and welcomed their first grandchild last Thanksgiving. Bob Reum has recently left the corporate world and is enjoying being on several corporate and non-profit boards, and working with a large arboretum. He has two sons at Columbia and a daughter at home, who he hopes will teach him how to use email.

I recently had a nice telephone conversation with Steven Feinstein who's been living in Pittsburgh for 15 years managing a family business in floor coverings. The market has been flat in the old rust belt area, and it's been a challenge to maintain or increase market share. He enjoys being his own boss and setting his own hours. Steve was unable to attend the winter hockey game because he had been invited to his son's bachelor party. We laughed and said how we never invited our fathers to our bachelor parties. It is a new era.

Tim Breen has been elected the Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford University for the academic year 2000 - 2001. Afterwards he will return to Northwestern University where he is a professor in Early American History. He is currently writing a book on the boycott movement and popular mobilization on the eve of American independence. Susan and Tim spend as much time as possible in Greensboro, Vermont. Professor Syd Lea is teaching at Dartmouth College again after a 20-year absence. His seventh collection of poems, Pursuit of a Wound, is due in late summer.

David Almquist lives in Framingham, MA. Over the past 35 years he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Malaysia, a social worker in Albany, an English teacher at Thayer Academy, a playwright, and for the last 15 years a marketing writer. He's currently producing material for Compaq's Web site.

Pat Caviness, who lives in Hong Kong, made a trip to the US last fall and posted many pictures on a web page [now defunct, as of 9/2002]. Part of his trip included a visit with an old friend and neighbor from Little Rock, currently in the White House, and an introduction to the First Pets, Buddy and Socks. Pat also attended a Book and Snake reunion on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Pat's trip. It's a terrific demonstration of how the internet can be used. I again encourage all classmates to review our Web site for Pat's trip and the news in the next 3 paragraphs.

Wedding bells rang in England on January 1 for Jim Rogers and Paige Parker. They interrupted their 3-year, worldwide tour in a custom-made daisy-yellow Mercedes to tie the knot. Their trip started in January, 1999 in Iceland. They drove through Europe to China, and looped back through Russia to Scandinavia. The next leg takes them to Africa. Jim commented that they've stayed in everything from five-star hotels to five-roach hotels, and they carry their own toilet seat. You can follow their trip via a link on our Web site and also read the New York Times wedding announcement on our Web site. I found Jim's observations on Russia, the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, and the economic impact of not enough women in Korea to be fascinating.

Last Thanksgiving the New Haven Register reminisced about one of the greatest local high-school football rivalries of all time. Forty-one years ago Branford High at 8-0 squared off against East Haven High 9-0. Branford won 13-6. Jack Cirie scored Branford's first touchdown on a gutsy fourth-down six-yard run. East Haven guard Terry Holcombe was quoted, "I just remember tremendous frustration." Terry and Jack were roommates at Yale. Terry is now retired as Yale's vice president for development. Jack joined the Marines, won the Silver Star in Vietnam, retired as a lieutenant colonel, and died of a brain aneurysm in 1992. Excerpts of the article are on our class Web site.

An Associated Press release contained tragic news. Russell Byers was stabbed to death last summer in Philadelphia. Russell and his wife were shopping at a convenience store when they were accosted by a robber. Russell was a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News and was known for his hard-hitting commentaries on urban issues. The paper's editor said, "Russell was not a journalist first, he was a citizen of Philadelphia first. He cared about the future of Philadelphia and did more to try to influence it in a positive way, than anyone else I knew." The full press release is on our Web site.