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Questionnaire Responses

50th Reunion Committee

QUESTIONNAIRE RESPONSES

The members of the Yale Class of 1952 and their Widows are an amazing group of people! We were delighted to receive replies from 244 of the 918 individuals (26.5%) to whom we mailed the Interest Group/Questionnaire mailing. The responses indicate that the group has a very wide range of interests as they approach their 55th Reunion, are generally well pleased with their lives and feel strongly about a broad range of issues facing our country and the world. The following is a brief summary of the responses. The complete data can be obtained by emailing fpwilton@verizon.net or will be available at the Reunion in June.

AGE DISTRIBUTION

Classmates Spouses/Partners
AgeNo.% AgeNo.%
74-75
76
77
78 - 87
Total
 
 
 
 27
135
47
18
227
 
 
 
 12%
59%
21%
8%
100%
 
 
 
   27
30 -59
60 - 70
71 - 73
74 - 76
77 - 80
87
Total
 1
10
55
53
68
14
1
202
 1%
5%
27%
26%
33%
7%
1%
100%
 
RETIREMENT
No. of Years No.%
1 -5
6 - 10
11 - 15
06 - 20
21 - 29
 
Semi retired
Not retired
 
  
 
 
 
 
Subtotal
 
 
Total
 26
40
47
29
7
149
40
35
224
 11%
18%
21%
13%
3%
66%
18%
16%
100%
 
OUR LIVES
  
Excellent		 
 Good		As
Expected		Not
Good		 
Poor
Current Life
Met Expect.
Current Health
Marriage
Children
Outlook
 117 (51%)
69 (30%)
79 (34%)
149 (73%)
128 (59%)
77 (34%)
 93 (40%)
116 (51%)
118 (52%)
41 (20%)
71 (33%)
114 (51%)
 15 (7%)
36 (16%)
24 (10%)
10 (5%)
10 (5%)
26 (11%)
 4 (2%)
6 (3%)
7 (3%)
1 (1%)
7 (3%)
9 (4%)
 0 (0%)
0 (0%)
1 (1%)
1 (1%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
 

It is interesting to note that of the 222+ total responses, 88% were excellent or Good. For those of us in our mid-70's, that is an amazing and optimistic response!

ABOUT YALE
 GreatGoodSo-SoPoor
When Accepted
When graduated
Now
 161 (71%)
132 (60%)
87 (39%)
 62 (27%)
79 (36%)
82 (37%)
 3 (2%)
9 (4%)
37 (17%)
 0 (0%)
0 (0%)
16 (7%)
 
 
CURRENT THOUGHTS ABOUT THE UNITED STATES

I am optimistic about: We received a total of 55 different individual responses to this question. The top 18 were:

America's future - 33
The economy - 31
Election of Democrats - 19
Our youth - 12
Not much, Nothing - 10
Will survive G. Bush - 9
Our People & Values - 8
Positiveness of diverse population - 7  
Democratic Pres. in '08 - 6
 Innovations in U.S. - 6
Our resiliency - 5
Rep. party & G. Bush - 5
Support of environment - 4
Medical advances - 4
Basics of democracy - 3
Centrist movement in politics - 3
Everything - 3
Our form of government - 3

I am concerned about: We received a total of 109 different individual responses to this question. The top 20 were:

G. Bush administration - 48
War in Iraq - 39
Debt/deficit - 22
Foreign policy - 19
Quality of political leaders - 17
Decline of morality, right/wrong - 17  
Disparity of wealth, income - 16
Lack & cost of health care - 15
Foreign oil dependency - 10
Threats to civil liberties/rights - 10
 Global warming - 9
Weakening political system - 8
Our educational system - 7
Religious/Nuclear war - 6
The environment - 6
Uncontrolled immigration - 6
Decline of the U.S. - 5
Immoral corporate behavior - 5
Polarizing politics - 5
No diplomacy w/whom we disagree - 5
 
CURRENT THOUGHTS ABOUT OUR WORLD

I am optimistic about: We received a total of 49 different individual responses to this question. The top 16 were:

Not much, nothing - 42
World cooperation - 15
Technology improving life - 10
Waking up to global warming - 8
Opportunities, medical/education - 6
European Union, the Europeans - 5
Opportunities/challenges facing us - 5  
Iraq, let's win! - 5
 Globalization - 5
Things will improve - 4
Enthusiasm of world's youth - 4
The USA - 3
Economic opport. China/India - 3
Third world economies - 3
Political/Economic democracy - 3
Democratic party/beliefs - 3

I am concerned about: We received a total of 74 different individual responses to this question. The top 18 were:

Middle East, Iraq & Islam - 45
Global warming - 27
Terrorism - 26
The environment - 26
Nuclear/chemical proliferation - 22  
Islamic terrorism - 17
U.S relations with world - 12
Overpopulation - 10
Materialism - 6
 North Korea - 6
Israeli/Arab conflict - 5
Greed, self serving power - 5
Poverty - 5
Tribal/sectarian warfare/conflict - 5
Decline of Christian worship - 4
Iran - 4
Inflation - 4
Influence/bias of the media - 3

It is interesting to note that of the total of 287 optimistic/concerned about responses, there were 183 "concerned about", and 104 "optimistic about" responses. My sense from working with the individual responses is that, overall, our Class has a higher level of "concern" than it does "optimism".

I'd like to: We received a total of 77 different responses to this question. Those that received multiple responses were:

Impeach Bush and Cheney - 5
See my grandchildren grow up,
be married and productive - 5
   Travel more - 5
See peace in the world - 4
Volunteer more - 2

Some of my favorites answers:

Age and exit gracefully
Maybe do it all over again
Have a beer with Ernest Hemingway
Undo all the mistakes in my life
Take a few wonderful politicians on a 2-month cruise on a nuclear submarine to teach them a little bit about helping and survival
Dodge a few more bullets
Keep chuggin'
Live an active and productive life. Bring kindness and generosity to those around me.
Keep on keeping on
Have five more years as good as the last five
Be assured the world will be as good, or better, for our grandchildren as it has been for me
Stay healthy and shoot my age again
Begin again

If you would like to see how your present thinking correlates with your Classmates', obtain a complete copy of the questionnaire results and highlight those statements with which you agree. It will be interesting! I'm going to do it!