Class Notes

July/August 2017

Note: Classmates' names in gold font are links to a pre-addressed email form (if your browser is properly configured). Other links (underlined) take you to more information about the topic. A shorter version of these Notes is published in the Yale Alumni Magazine.

As we head into summer, this will inform you about recent and upcoming Class events. Check out our Class website for details. Following our annual Class Council meeting in February, Chris Getman hosted a dinner at the New Haven Lawn Club for eight classmates who hung around for the Saturday men’s hockey game (Yale beat Dartmouth 4-0). Pete Putzel reported a record turnout of thirteen classmates at The Yale Club of NYC luncheon in April (all classmates are invited to attend these luncheons on the fourth Tuesday of each month, except during the summer).

Neil Hoffmann announced the dates for the Spring golf outing at The Yale Course on May 18-19. Even as Neil works tirelessly on this biannual Class event, he is battling parotid-gland cancer for which he had surgery in early April. Neil had a top surgeon for this condition who reported “clean margins” around the site. Please join me in sending Neil best wishes for a speedy and full recovery. Chris Getman is looking for a date to schedule a Class event to commemorate the Class Gateway in Benjamin Franklin College, which will open this Fall. You can watch a video of the final stages of construction on our Class website. Terry Holcombe suggested we use The Beatles' "When I’m 64" as our theme song for the event. In the previous issue, we reported an event being planned for July 2018. John Evans and Robert Whitby are spearheading a tour originating in Seattle, then continuing to Vancouver BC, and culminating with a ride on the Rocky Mountaineer train through the Western Canadian Rockies to Banff. John Evans also reported: “My new knee is doing very well, and I plan to ski again next year.”

Planning for our 55th Class Reunion in May-June 2019 has already begun under the leadership of co-chairs Tony Lee and Jon McBride. Please contact either of them if you have suggestions for this reunion or want to serve on the Planning Committee. Tony Lee received an interesting idea from Tim Damour, his senior-year roommate, modeled on something that the Class of 1917 did for the Class of 2017 (reported in the March-April issue of YAM). Chris Getman (one of our 50th Reunion Chairs) emailed an idea: “I noticed that one of our Classmates, Eric Midelfort, is a professor on the latest Yale Alumni Travel trip, 'Luther to the Berlin Wall; 500 Years of History.' Perhaps he could be added to the reunion program.”

As he has done before, Sam Francis shared one of his website innovations with the Class of 1963, namely to place an audio recording of their Whiffenpoof album on their website. Gerry Shea facilitated this for 1963 and emailed Sam: “What a fabulous job you have done! We, their immediate successors, have always loved the 1963 Whiffs, both for who they were and the sound they made (and still make).” Ward Wickwire (who was unable to attend the Class Council meeting in February because he was organizing a conference in Maine) emailed: “The Midcoast of Maine Conference was a great success. We had over 1100 attendees and are hoping to stream it to Boston next year.”

After eight weeks of radiation treatment in San Francisco, Pat Caviness returned to his home in Koh Samui, Thailand, in April. Pat emailed: “Before we left SF, Mike Mazer and his wife Hannah took us to an amazing restaurant where their son Bob was our charming host. Jerry Cirie, Jack Cirie’s younger brother also visited us.” Pat added a special note of thanks to classmates: “Throughout the UCSF journey, I received notes of encouragement, concern, and support. Your thoughts were inspiring.” In April, Chris Getman participated in his 31st Annual Walk for Multiple Sclerosis, with renewed enthusiasm for the new drugs that have been developed to fight this disease. Chris added: “I’m a very competitive person, and I’ve never finished below fifth overall.”

During May, Sam Francis skippered another of his annual two-week bareboat cruises out of St. Lucia. Sam emailed: “I will see two classmates on this cruise: Waldo Johnston is sailing with us for one week, and Doug Lea will be hosting us in Bequia.” Dan Pollack emailed: “In May, Bob Hannah and Mike Mazer will help me celebrate my 75th birthday in Chicago.” Sounds like Alan McFarland’s wife, K.T. will be shifting roles in the new administration, from Washington D.C. to Singapore. It should give Jim Rogers another theme for his blog!

On the publication front, Tony Lee forwarded an editorial in the Boston Globe written by Lee Sigal, "Misplaying the China Card with North Korea," which is posted on our Class website. Pete Putzel emailed that Pro Publica, founded by Paul Steiger, recently won a Pulitzer Prize. Russell Sunshine emailed: “Two bits, of good news in a single week: My wife Nancy’s new mystery, Child’s Play, was just published, and I’ve just completed seven weeks of daily radiation treatments which went well.” What a thrill to pick up The New York Times Book Review on April 23 and see both our classmate, Stephen Greenblatt (with a review of a new book about Hamlet), and a legendary Yale professor, Harold Bloom (who has written a new book about Falstaff), featured on the cover. Even inside the Review, there was another 1964 connection in a new book about Louis Kahn with a photo from the Yale Art Gallery. See more.

Our classmate Paul T. McDonald died on April 7 in Connecticut. Paul retired as a research scientist from Uniroyal after 26 years of service. In March, John Nathan and Dan Pollack attended a memorial service for Bob Reum. John emailed: “It was good of you to correspond with Bob’s son Courtney. It was a great comfort to Bob’s family to know how well Bob was liked and remembered by his classmates.” Visit our Class website to read obituaries of all our departed classmates and add your own remembrance or donate a Mory’s memorial brick.