Class Notes

April 2000

by Tony Lee

In January, 28 classmates and guests attended an open house at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, dinner at the School of Management, and the RPI-Yale hockey game. Gus Speth shared his vision for the school and introduced 5 students. It was a wonderful day.

The Class Council consisting of Jim Baxter, Larry Capodilupo, Jay Huffard, Ed Massey, Jon McBride, Pete Putzel and myself met earlier in the day. We discussed the increasing role of email in communicating about class activities. We hope you will get on line, bookmark our Web site, and visit it at least once a month. Social activities including a golf outing, tailgates and dinners at the Princeton-Yale football game in New Haven, Harvard-Yale football game in Cambridge, and annual hockey game will be communicated via email and our Web site. The Class Council discussed the idea of our class "adopting" the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the possibility of funding a summer service fellowship. We also set in motion our first mini-reunion.

Mini-reunions are very popular with Yale classes after their 35th Reunion. One class has a mini-reunion every Spring and Fall. Another went to China for several weeks. A mini-reunion is coordinated by classmates in a city. They make all arrangements for meals, outings and discussion groups. Attendees make their own travel and hotel arrangements. John Morrison, Jon McBride, and Mike Mazer have agreed to coordinate our first mini-reunion in Washington, DC in the Spring, 2001. The class of 1963's mini-reunion in Washington, DC attracted over 100 classmates and guests.

Giles Crane attended the hockey game with his daughter, Gillian. Giles lives in Princeton and does statistical computing for the state health dept. Gillian is the Assistant Dean of Students at the Master's School in Dobb's Ferry, NY. Kirk and Jay Huffard also attended the game with son Ben and his spouse. Ben is at Yale Med School.

Jim Baxter has moved from Brooklyn to Madison, CT. He's putting together an equity draw-down fund to finance public companies with a minimum of $75 million of capital. He encourages all classmates to contact him if their company needs money. His first grandchild, Will, was born last year and is keeping his mother Kathryn (Yale '88) very busy. His son, James A. Baxter (Yale '95) is an electronic music composer of jazz, rap, hip hop, techno and trance and is looking for a job in the techie-engineering side of a film or general music company.

Nick Baskey attended a debate at Cambridge University where Karl Ziegler argued the negative side of the question, whether debts of the developing world should be forgiven. Nick thought Karl clearly won the debate on a substantive basis, but the judges ruled otherwise because it was an emotive issue. Nick is now the Bursar and Treasurer of Pembroke College, after serving almost 30 years in the Foreign Service. He had lunch recently with 6 other classmates who he describes as follows: "the peripathetic Dave Sherman, Blaine Krickl, Mike Nagel, who just got married for the first time to a lovely young lady from Romania, Sheldon Leader, who is a professor of law at the University of Essex, Bill Kridel and Karl. Missing were Peter Giblin, who goes off on weekends to his ski chalet in Switzerland, and Bill Dorsey, who is a gentleman farmer in Norfolk." Nick Danforth was in London recently and hooked up with this group for a meal.

Todd Mueller is actively retired. Last summer he lived in a waterfront apartment in Camden, Maine overlooking his sailboat in the harbor. In the Fall he took a 5-week trip to Tanzania, complete with safari trips to the Ngorongoro Crater, the Serengeti, and Lake Manayra. Winter finds him skiing at Sugarloaf with possible side trips to Vail and Whistler. He no longer yearns for the good old days of being awakened at 3 am to stitch up another drunken ER patient.

Mowry Connelly wrote that he, Ward Cates, Pat Caviness, Ed Massey, Chuck Mokriski, and Paul Ruden had such a good time at our 35th Reunion that they met again last Fall on the eastern shore of Maryland. They stayed in a fabulous old inn and enjoyed themselves tremendously touring some of the local sites and Lou's bar. They were joined by Ward's wife, Joan, Pat's best friend, Yukari Tokiwa, and Mowry's wife, Diane. Peter A. Anderson and Tom Barnard also connected again after the reunion by taking a ride on Tom's boat out of Noank, CT and having dinner with their wives.

A press release from Revlon announced that Chip Nichols was promoted to executive vice president, chief administrative officer of the company. Chip has been with Revlon since 1978 and lives in New York. An accompanying photo reveals one or more of three things: 1. Chip has aged very well; 2. Revlon products really work and we should all rush to buy them; and/or 3. As in most obituary columns, the photo was taken 15 years ago. Congratulations, Chip.