Class Notes

March 2001

by Tony Lee

There's still time to sign up for our Mini Reunion in Washington, DC from May 4 through 6. Check our web site for the latest plans and to see who's coming. This should be a terrific event. Bob Hilgendorf has proposed a future reunion in Santa Fe. Other possibilities include London, Chicago, Boston, and Banff. We hope to have at least one mini every year, and are looking for possibilities.

Clark Harvey wrote "I am enjoying my second career (after 30 years of corporate law practice) as Development Director of the Cuyahoga Valley Environmental Education Center. Fundraising for this nonprofit is more fun than I ever would have imagined because it is such a great organization that teaches elementary and middle-school students about nature, the environment, science, and the importance of national parks. We have two campuses that will sleep a total of 128 people and we have students in residence for four days and three nights of intense, field-based learning.

Larry Speidell is a partner at Nicholas Applegate and invests in stock markets around the world. He travels extensively and commented after a recent trip "Actually, the most fascinating of all was a trip to Viet Nam last week with a group of emerging market investors. It is not a place for the faint of heart, but it's heartwarming nonetheless. Everyone in Hanoi has just bought $700 motorbikes from China ... and they're learning how to ride them! Every building with frontage on a street has a shop within ... small shops, mostly, and pretty specialized the neighborhood welder, dress merchant, motorbike garage, TV shop (94% of homes have a TV versus only 48% with a fridge). We may not have won in 1975, but capitalism is winning today, slowly but surely. Meanwhile, it's one of the last places where the dollar goes a long way."

In 1998, after spending thirty years in a traditional corporate business world, Bill Cuff retired from Diamond (a nut processing company located in Stockton, CA where he was President/CEO) to pursue his entrepreneurial interests in an Internet company. He became President of GreatFood.com, an Internet start-up in Seattle, WA, and sold the company just before the Internet bubble burst in early 2000. He and his wife, Erin, have "retired" to Palm Desert, CA, until the next business opportunity presents itself. He plans to spend more time with his 5 grandchildren and to play more golf.

Van Lanckton sends the following news "My wife, Alice, is Assistant Head of the Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter School in Franklin, MA. My older son, Ben, '90, is married with two children and lives in Brookline, MA. He is Associate Rabbi of the Boston University Hillel. My younger son, Sam, after two years in the US Army Infantry, completed Columbia this May and is now a news clerk at the New York Times. I continue to practice law with a 25-member Boston firm, Craig and Macauley. I used to describe my role as a trial lawyer. These days I tell people, accurately, that I resolve disputes. The new emphasis on alternative dispute resolution, and particularly mediation, have brought profound changes to litigation, mostly for the good (though I do still love it when I can try a case)."

Chip Levengood: "I elected early retirement from JP Morgan in the spring, and Katharine and I relocated from Madrid to the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The most significant event of the year, however, was the birth of a second grandchild, Alexander Levengood, in Richmond." John Heintz has retired from Raytheon and is now President and CEO of Photon Research Associates. His daughter Kelly is a Yale freshman.

Jim Turchik, Butch Hetherington, Gerry Shea, and John Nathan attended Nancy and Peter Rice's daughter's wedding in Lake Sunapee, NH. The bride and groom were Yale '95 grads. Neil Hoffmann just completed a 2-year term as the president of the Yale Club of Philadelphia, and has assumed the lead position in his architectural firm.

Bob Varnum wrote "I've been retired for 8 years and love living in Florida. My wife, Mary, works for First Union, and my daughter, Susan, is a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame. I spend most of my free time in volunteer activities. For about 6 years I was quite active in the local Yale Club, but my attention is on Notre Dame for now."

Wole Odundun emailed from Nigeria: "I had a wonderful eighteen months in Lesotho and South Africa. However, I am happy now that I am back home with my wife and children. Lesotho is quite a picturesque mountain kingdom. The natives like to call it the Switzerland of Africa. I think it is a justifiable name since every piece of land in the mountain kingdom is way above sea level. People who like horseback riding and hiking will surely enjoy the place."

Mike Price has published a book, Boston's Immigrants, 1840-1925. It's a book of prints and photographs which he assembled over time from various sources, with appropriate captions and chapter introductions, and is available in most book stores. On a tougher note, Mike just had a hip replacement. We wish him well.

John Boardman has returned to Arlington, VA after 13 years at various Foreign Service posts around the world. He is now the State Dept. advisor to the Commandant of the Marine Corps and enjoys being re-attached to the Corps 30 years after leaving active service. Carol and Tom Barnard relocated to Skidaway Island off Savannah, Georgia.

Sam Low is spending the winter in Hawaii working on a book about Polynesian voyaging. Bob Kuehn visited him for a week. Bob Stilson's son graduated from the Maine Maritime Academy with a BS in Small Vessel Operations, and is currently on a tug boat. Francis Snyder is a fellow this year at the Wissenschaftskolleg Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin.