Class Notes

Summer 2003

by Tony Lee

I started my column last month longing for the spring thaw and apologizing for starting with worms and dirt. My major dirt guy, however, got cut by the YAM editors. So here he is a month late.

Bill Duesing wrote: "Our Old Solar Farm in Oxford, CT and my work for the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) have given me many wonderful opportunities to interact with Yale students in the past year. 10 members of the class of 2006 and 2 upperclass leaders lived and worked on our farm for a week last August before they moved onto campus. They camped by our stream and did a lot of work including building fences, removing invasive plants, preparing the greenhouse and harvesting onions and chickens. We shared meals, talked farming and food, and really enjoyed getting to know each other. In the snow this January, the Yale-China Association visited with 10 students from Hong Kong and two from New Haven to talk about public service.

"I've also gone to the campus to talk a number of times. I addressed the undergraduate-sponsored "Food and Farming in New England" conference and talked to graduate seminars in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (on an organic farmer's view of biotechnology) and in the School of Epidemiology and Public Health (on the holistic benefits of local organic food). The Sustainable Food Initiative at Berkeley College invited me to talk at a Master's Tea and to participate in (and help locate produce for) the Inaugural Dinner featuring local and organic food.

"Our organization is also lending its support to the plan to create a Yale organic farm and to source more dining hall produce from the region's organic and sustainable farms. It is an exciting time to be president of the seven-state NOFA Interstate Council especially with the great interest among college students.

"Suzanne and I have four grandchildren who live close by and love to visit the farm. Our collection of essays Living on the Earth: Eclectic Essays for a Sustainable and Joyful Future is still in print."

Jim (James E.) Thompson sent along some personal wedding news: "I met Holly Bugoni last winter after a phone call from my daughter, Heather, saying there was someone she thought I would like to meet and could I come to dinner Saturday night. Heather is the chair of the History Department at The Hyde School in Woodstock, CT; Holly is the Dean of Faculty. Heather also mentioned that Holly loves to hike and that she might come with us on our planned trip to Italy in the early summer, so I showed up with my laptop and all of my electronic pictures of Italy.

"After Holly got over the weirdness of that, we began to date, and she did come with us to Italy. One evening last summer on her birthday I sprang THE question at the dinner table when everyone had left to get the birthday cake ready. Holly's remark when it was suggested that she make a wish was "I think I already got it." Nevertheless, it was several weeks before we actually told anyone.

"As I write this, Holly, her sister, and my daughter are off in Providence buying things for the wedding. My son J is my best man and Holly's son Peter is giving her away. Heather's daughter is the flower girl, and her son and J's son are the ring bearers. All in the family.

"Holly intends to continue for one more year as Dean of Faculty and then take on a much less demanding role at the school. She now works 16 to 18 hours a day and is looking forward to cutting back. I retired at the end of last year (more or less), and I am finding it incredibly enabling. Can't wait for the start of golf season!"

Jon Clardy has changed jobs and locations: "After many happy years at Cornell, including season tickets to the hockey games, I decided that I needed a change and took a position at the Harvard Medical School. I'm helping direct a new institute that is trying to develop new ways to find therapeutic agents, especially anticancer agents. Both Andrea and I have enjoyed our first few months in Boston."

Some of Ed Ranney's Peruvian photographs are on exhibit this summer at the AXA Gallery, 787 7th Avenue in New York. The exhibit entitled The New World's Old World presents photographs made at archaeological sites in US Southwest, Mesoamerica and the Andes. You can also view his photographs on line at www.photoeye.com; click galleries, click Santa Fe Gallery, click page #2, then click a Ranney image — and voila! Ed's photos, bio, statement and history unfolds. He's had an interesting life's work.

Frank Basler reports that the Class of '64 Summer Fellowship has been awarded this year to a pair of students. Kent Gould and Lisa Rothman are both Architecture majors who developed an interest in the impact of extreme climates on architectural design. In their proposal they wrote, "Understanding how a building affects its physical surroundings in terms of pollution, heating, and energy efficiency are of primary concern to us. Previous analysis of different buildings in temperate climates have shown that many prominent buildings are insensitive towards energy efficiency — especially by way of heating, cooling, air circulation, and humidity. However, architecture in extreme climates is forced to make a dramatic response to its external surroundings, sometimes for survival." Kent and Lisa hope to be able to discern meta-patterns and bring back photographs and ideas to stimulate greater commitment to "green architecture." Our class is joining with two other funding sources to help them go to Iceland, Australia, and Brazil this summer to study the commonalities in the ways in which arctic, desert, and rainforest climates affect the design of common buildings such as houses and stores.

On a personal note, Andy Harris and his daughter Clay stayed with us in April, and ran the Boston Marathon along with my wife Margie. I carried the water and camera, and for the first time in many years was glad I wasn't running. Andy was like a machine knocking off the miles. We all had a great time before during and after. There's an impressive article on the father-daughter team on our web site.