Class Notes
July/August 2012
by Tony Lavely
The Yale Daily News published a follow-on story – "Recruitment Comes at a Cost" (3/26/12) – to Chris Getman's speech about Yale athletics at the Yale Leadership Ball last November. You can find the article in "Class News" on our Website. A reported 20 letters to the editor supported Chris' stand. Dick Berk emailed about the publicity surrounding his most recent book: "I've had lots of recent publicity around this stuff which is a little silly. I started on this line of work 20 years ago, and no one cared except the criminal justice agencies I was helping." Timothy Breen received a research fellowship this spring from the American Society in Rome. His most recent piece (posted on our Website under "Publications/Articles") in the New York Review of Books is about the Revolutionary history of Vermont.
David Sherman and Blaine Krickl led an email effort to encourage attendance at a memorial service for Marie Colvin, '78," the CNN reporter killed in Syria. You can read details on our Class Website under "News." In the course of exchanging information about this event, David met my sister, Kim Lavely, another American expatriate in London. David will be traveling to the US in June: "I will be met in Newark by Campie, the Eigen's yellow Lab, and his driver. Maybe you have seen the story about Getman and Sherman (aka 'Handsome Dan XVII'), which appeared in the Yale Daily News?"
Dan Pollack spent most of the winter in Scottsdale, where he hosted Susan and Bob Hannah and Hannah and Mike Mazer: "We enjoyed dinner, hiking, and visiting Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West." Dan also provided an enthusiastic and vivid description of Crystal Bridges Museum of Art in Bentonville, AR. In May, Dan will be attending a Chicago-area reception for new football coach Tony Reno. On May 11th, there is a luncheon organized by Loring Knoblauch for 1964 classmates at a Chicago steakhouse with news forthcoming. Loring emailed: "Just back from a week-long duplicate-bridge tournament in Gatlinburg, TN, and a trip to Sao Paulo, Brazil, to help negotiate a joint venture."
In April, Tony Morris spoke at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies on his informed dedication about fighting wildfires. Tony also wrote an article that is posted on our Class Website in "News." Tony Lee emailed our 50th Reunion Committee about Robert Caro's new book on LBJ (also an article in The New Yorker on April 2nd), suggesting that it would make a fascinating topic for our 50th reunion. Chris Getman built on this by suggesting we enlist Professors Paul Kennedy and John Gaddis for the program.
Tony Lee was on the Outer Banks in April: "Man o' man, did the wind blow! The strongest winds we've had in the 16 years we've been making the annual migration." Tony and his Reunion Attendance Committee have been diligently trying to contact all classmates by phone. We now have email addresses for over 80% of the class; email is a much more sustainable way to keep everyone informed about reunion plans! Dan Berman had a letter to the editor published in the Yale Daily News on February 21, asking Yale "to revoke the honorary degree given in 1996 to Stephan Schmidheiny, a now-convicted felon."
Pat Caviness, always the avid traveler and photographer who lives on Koh Samui, shared a photo album of his 4-week trip to Burma. Stephen Greenblatt was further honored for his 2011 book, Swerve: How the World Became Modern, with the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. The full article about this award is posted on our Class Website in "News." Pete Putzel reminded me that Tom Powers also won a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1971. Are there any more Pulitzer Prizes among classmates out there?
Chris Getman attended a special event at Mory's in April at which Garry Trudeau, '70, was award the second annual Louis Cup. Chris emailed: "We had four of the original characters, including Mike (Charlie Pillsbury, '72) and BD (Brian Dowling, '69), who walked around wearing a Yale helmet during the event. It was hilarious!" Another Mory's event on May 15th will headline Jim Rogers for The Inaugural Jim Rogers' Speakers Series: "How I See the World Today." Chris Getman, Terry Holcombe, John Evans, Bill Galvin, and Will Elting will be there.
Douglass Lea, with his spectacular photos of Hawaii, and Ed Gaffney, with regular reports on politics, are good friends to have on Facebook. Gus Speth emailed: "Cameron and I had Candace and Tom Powers together with Robin Barone and Syd Lea over for dinner. We all live in east central Vermont, which is quite lovely. We talked a lot, I'm afraid, about our books." These and other books by classmates can be found on our Class Website, under "Publications." Terry Holcombe and Marya attend JazzFest in New Orleans this spring, arguably one of the best events around.
Paul Balser emailed: "I will be with our classmate, Allyn Ford, on May 11th in Portland, OR, to celebrate his retirement as Chairman of Umpqua Holding Company. All his kids and grand kids will be there, too. Allyn is also the owner of Roseberg Forest Products." Bob Hilgendorf invited me to his 70th birthday party on June 5th, "I guess this is an event we are all experiencing around now. We're lucky to be healthy and able to celebrate this new decade of our collective lives."
The 50th Reunion Planning Committee will meet in New Haven on Friday, September 28th and then attend the opening home football game against Colgate. Please email me if you'd like to attend or with any news about yourself and classmates. Enjoy the summer!