In Memoriam
James M. “Jamie” Park
Jamie Park ’64 died on January 16, 2024 at his home in Amenia, NY. He was in hospice care for congestive heart failure. He was the first of our 13 Whiffenpoofs to die. His signature solo was “I Get Along Without You Very Well.” Click the "Play" button below to hear Jamie sing it in 1964.
No obituary was published. See below for the essays he wrote for three reunion books over the last 35 years.
Essay, 60th Reunion Book
October 14, 2023
by Jamie Park
[Jamie wrote this one-line essay seven months before his planned attendance at our 60th Yale Reunion. He died three months after he wrote it.]
To this date, I remain flabbergasted and fascinated by — and grateful for — the beauties and complexities of the natural world, which provide the context for my life.
Essay, 50th Reunion Book
June, 2014
by Jamie Park
Jamie Park
1964 Yale graduation
I remember fondly those four undergraduate years in the early 60’s and all of you who shared them with me. Yale gave me every opportunity to explore and focus my interests and capabilities, and the experience helped me come to understand very realistically my strengths and weaknesses. I am grateful for those years and for all of you with whom I lived and worked and played.
I earned two academic degrees beyond my Yale B.A. (an M.A. from Trinity and a Ph.D. from Yale). I then embarked upon teaching secondary school, then college, academic administration (academic dean and then vice president for academic affairs at the college), marriage after junior year at Yale, two girls, and six grandchildren. With a major career change, when the college closed in the late 70’s, I turned to musical composition full-time, which is what I am still doing today (though less intensely than once). Music has run through my life: glee club/octet in secondary school, with a summer singing my way around the country, then singing with the Duke’s Men and the Whiffenpoofs at Yale. I chaired the music department at the secondary school, performed in the P.A. Department’s musical productions at the college, and finally, throwing caution to the winds and devoting my full energies to being a composer and making a respectable “go” of it despite my non-conservatory, humanities educational background.
Jamie Park
in 2014
Not all has been sweetness and light. It became clear to me in the late 70’s that I was an alcoholic, and I sought and found the help I needed in the truly remarkable fellowship of AA. I celebrated 35 years of sobriety this past spring, and remain staunchly active in the program.
And speaking of celebrating, my wife and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary this past June. Our life together has been full of rewards, including the two generations coming along behind us and a relationship wherein we never have begrudged each other the opportunity to seek and find fulfillment in endeavors that don’t necessarily involve us both.
In short, as I look back, I can see much to be grateful for. I look forward to more years where I will experience the thrill of composing music, the satisfaction of growing most of what we eat, the contented exhaustion of athletic exertions, and the pleasures of a healthy, happy family life.
Essay, 25th Reunion Book
June, 1989
by Jamie Park
Observations on Life and Times
Composing music fills the soul;
Hearing it played is thrilling indeed!
But getting it played is a dog of a chore —
I welcome with thanks ideas, or a lead!