Class Notes

March/April 2018

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 I write these Notes on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I’m reminded of the sermon he delivered to our graduating class on June 15, 1964. King quoted lines from John Donne’s poem:

Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

We’ve posted it on the Class website if you would like to hear it again.

In less than a month, your Class Council will gather in New Haven on February 9 for our annual Class Council meeting. A record 30 (out of 36) Council members are planning to attend, most likely because the following day we will meet in Benjamin Franklin College to dedicate the Class of 1964 Gate. Gate donors and widows of donors will be honored for their generosity. This event also recognizes the leadership of Terry Holcombe, who spearheaded the drive in 1989 at our 25th Class Reunion. Rick Levin and honorary classmate David Swensen will join us for the dedication. Charles Bailyn, Head of Benjamin Franklin College, will be our host at lunch in the College. Some of the first student residents in the College will give us walking tours. In addition to celebrating the 1964 Gate, we will also visit the Nyberg-Baker Courtyard in Benjamin Franklin College that Len Baker and Mary donated. That same weekend, we will also enjoy dinner at Mory’s and men’s hockey games.

Don Edwards, our Class delegate to the Association of Yale Alumni, attended AYA Assembly LXXVII — “Creating Communities at Yale” — last November and filed an excellent report that is posted on our Class website. Kai Lassen, one of two classmates on the Yale Alumni Fund Board, also attended the Assembly.

Neil Hoffmann has announced May 10 as the date for the spring golf outing on The Yale Course. Contact Neil if you would like to attend. You can read the "account" by Chris Getman of the fall golf outing on our Class website.

John Evans reports that 12 classmates (24 travelers) have signed up for the Canadian Rockies railroad trip in July 2018. There is still time to join this spectacular mini-reunion. You can find details on our Class website or contact John.

Tony Lee and Jon McBride, the co-chairs of our 55th Class Reunion in June 2019, have been organizing planning committees. Please contact either of them if you would like to be involved. Jan Truebner, widow of Peter Truebner, has agreed to serve as liaison to widows of classmates.

In December, Bill Woodfin wrote “I spoke with Ray Haas and was relieved to hear that their beautiful home in Santa Rosa CA was spared the worst of the fires. We would be delighted to get with classmates visiting Dallas or the Texas Hill County area.” Bill Greene wrote in November: “I am now founding member and consultant for OR Dx Rx, a firm specializing in surgical safety and quality. My three children have blessed me with 5 grandchildren. I recently remarried.” Chip Levengood wrote in December: “Remembering the large number of classmates who joined the Peace Corps, I want to make them aware of the National Peace Corps Association, whose executive board I joined last summer. I continue to serve as the Co-President of the Yale Club of Spain and chair the Alumni Schools Committee for Spain and Portugal.”

Bam Alling wrote from North Carolina: “I lost my wife just before the last reunion. Then met a wonderful gal who is now the third Mrs. WMA III. I’m looking forward to the Rockies trip.” Jeremy Wood forwarded an article about a new building in Louisville KY, named for a classmate: The Owsley Brown II History Center. Chris Getman forwarded a photo taken outside the Yale Bowl during The Game in November. It shows the addition of a red Harvard fire hydrant (aka relief station) next to the statue of Handsome Dan. Sam Low emailed: “I have been documenting the Hawaiian vessel, Hokule’a, for the last four decades, so I’m honored that my film, The Navigators: Pathfinders of the Pacific, has been accepted into the Smithsonian Human Studies Film Archives.” Pat Caviness, who got his cancer-free diagnosis last year, is now working himself back into shape: He emailed: “I’m taking Muay Thai boxing. Got a fine coach. You’re taught to throw everything but the kitchen sink at your opponent.”

Keith Stavely and his wife Kathleen have published a new book, United Tastes: The Making of the First American Cookbook. It is posted on our Class website in Publications. Though he is not a classmate, it's noteworthy that Robert Stern, the architect of the new Colleges, has co-authored a new book: The New Residential Colleges at Yale: A Conversation Across Time. I am told that the 1964 Gate is pictured. Gerry Shea’s book, The Language of Light; A History of Silent Voices, was reviewed in The New York Review of Books in December. The final version of John Wylie’s book is now on Amazon. John blogged: “Since my retirement 10 years ago, Ape Mind, Old Mind, New Mind has been a work in progress. The basic ideas arose from my knowledge of the internal experience of the major mental illnesses directly imparted to me by thousands of my patients in 35 years of practicing psychiatry.”

It is my sad duty to report that Per Wickstrom died on December 29 in Duluth MN. His obituary and remembrances are posted on our Class website in In Memoriam. Those of you who attended our 50th reunion will remember Per’s presentation, “Why I Paint.” You can view it on our Class Website on his remembrance page. Per’s roommates — Peter Giblin, Bill DuRoss '65, Ed Massey, Pete Putzel, Jim Shanklin, and Charlie Warner — have established a memorial fund — The CHUM Per Wickstrom Fund — to honor and remember Per. Some of Per’s roommates will be attending his memorial service in Duluth on January 13. Ed Massey emailed: “It feels good to have a tight community inside a community, all of whom are facing some version of the same end of the adventure story.”

While they were not members of our Class, we want to remember Vincent Scully and Carm Cozza. Scully died in December and Cozza died in early January. For many of us, Scully was the first teacher to make architecture both fun and argumentative. Cozza will be long remembered as our football coach in 1963, before he became head coach. We have included both obituaries on our Class website under "class news." Carm’s web page includes photos of him during our 50th reunion.