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News: Class Council Meeting, November 15, 2008
Notes: November/December 2008
Notes: September/October 2008
News: 2008 Annual Dinner, April 10, 2008
Notes: July/August 2008
Notes: May/June 2008
Notes: March/April 2008
Notes: January/February 2008
News: Class Council Meeting, November 15, 2008
Thirteen stalwart classmates, many accompanied by spouses, gathered at Nancy
Mongillo’s at 9:30 a.m. on a rainy Saturday morning, November 15, 2008, for a
meeting of the Class Council. Here is a report:
John Watling, our Treasurer, reported that as of October 31st, our Class
Treasury stood at $26,771.81. This is down sharply from a balance of $62,737.56
on May 31, 2008. The sharp decrease is largely due to the booking of a $25,000
charge from the University to close our 50th Reunion account, the payment of
$7,500 for two Dwight Hall summer interns, and a late charge of about $5,000 for
expenses at our April 2008 class dinner. The October balance does not reflect
any dues payments for 2008-2009 since AYA failed to send out John’s dues letter
until almost the end of October. He estimated dues collections of about $30,000
for the 2008-2009 year which will just about cover ongoing expenses. So if we
wish to build up a kitty for our 55th Reunion in 2012, we will need to consider
reducing expenses or raising dues.
Steve Wittenberg gave a full report on our Music in Schools Initiative in
partnership with the Yale School of Music. His written report has been posted
elsewhere on this site.
Rod Correll reported that this year’s Annual Fund solicitation letters are
out. Appropriate follow-up by mail and telephone will take place in 2009. It
should be noted that Rod received an award from the Alumni Fund on November 13th
for his service and stellar results as chair of 1957’s annual giving. He passed
around a handsome inscribed silver dish that was given to him at the awards
ceremony.
Alan Hockstader reported enthusiastically on the recent class trip to Israel
and Jordan. It was Alan’s largest group (35 classmates, spouses, significant
others, and widows) and by consensus the best of the trips Alan has put together
since 1998. In addition to covering virtually all of the major sites in Israel
and Petra and Gerasa (a large Roman city) in Jordan, the group heard and talked
with a number of speakers arranged by Bob Pelletreau, Alan Lovins, and Len Katz.
In Len Katz’s absence, Tom Chittenden described the Chautauqua Mini-Reunion,
which will be held on July 8-11, 2009 at the Chautauqua Institution in
southwestern upstate New York. The reunion will feature lectures, concerts,
receptions and dinners, and attendees will stay at the famous Athaneum Hotel. A
mailing about the mini-reunion went out recently.
Mark Roth, who is organizing a mini-reunion in Santa Fe on April 27th to May
1st, described the mix of historical, museum, and art lectures and tours he is
planning. The classes of 1955 and 1959 have recently held very successful
mini-reunions in Santa Fe, and Mark and I are hopeful that this reunion, which
is the first that our class has organized west of the Mississippi, will be well
attended. A mailing to the class will go out in early December.
Other forthcoming class events were noted:
--Gus Kellogg is planning a luncheon with speaker plus other cultural and
sports events at our annual Winter Day in New Haven on February 7, 2009.
--The 2009 class dinner will be held on Thursday, March 12, 2009 at the Yale
Club in New York. Our own Andy Glass—now with Politico.com—will give us an
insider’s view of the Presidential campaign and the early moves of the Obama
Administration.
--The Yale School of Music will hold its second symposium for music educators
in New Haven on June 10-11, 2009. The class will be invited.
Tom Perkins commented briefly on the 55th Reunion Class Gift. He reminded us
that all gifts to the University from and after July 1, 2007 will be credited to
the reunion gift. Tom and his co-chairs, Jack Turben and John Watling, are
beginning to develop ideas for special gifts. The co-chairs are hoping and
praying that the current financial crisis and recession lift in time for
classmates to recover financially and be able to continue their generosity to
Yale.
In Corresponding Secretary Jim Banner’s absence, Tom Chittenden mentioned
some recent additions to the class website and praised Jim for the work he does
to make obituaries interesting and as complete as possible. All in attendance
agreed with Tom’s sentiments.
Finally, Steve Hopkins reported on the Alumni Assembly on November 13th and
14th. We heard a number of reports on the AYA’s efforts to energize younger
alumni and to develop shared interest and regional clubs or committees. Linda
Lorimer talked to the group about Yale’s extensive efforts to disseminate its
intellectual product more widely through the Internet. President Levin
indicated that the University would have to trim expenses to some degree during
the current recession, but he said loud and clear that he and the Corporation
would not pull back on financial assistance or delay plans to build two new
residential colleges.
The meeting was adjourned after your Secretary wished everyone a happy
Thanksgiving and Holiday Season. Some but not all of us sat in the Bowl in
inclement weather to watch Yale beat Princeton 14-0. Nancy Mongillo’s post-game
reception was enjoyable as usual.
The next Council meeting will be at 4:00 p.m. on March 12, 2009 at the Yale
Club in New York.
—Thomas S. Chittenden
Two photographs from that day, taken by Dave Johnson, follow:
From the left: unknown, Steve Hopkins, Tom Chittenden, Dave Johnson.
From the left: Judy Hopkins, John Watling, unknown, Tom Chittenden, Steve Hopkins.
Notes: November/December 2008
I'm reluctant to toot the horn for your Washington, DC, classmates, among whom I
number myself. But, pour encourager les autres, I note the continuing
success—measured by attendance, friendship, serious discussion, and much
laughter—of our periodic luncheons (three or four annually) in this city. And I
note admiringly that, in New York, class lunches convene at the Yale Club on the
third Tuesday of each month. Can't we duplicate these successes elsewhere?
Our Music in Schools Endowment has now led to the appointment of Wing Ho as
the first Class of '57 Visiting Professor of Music Education at the Yale School
of Music. Ho, a graduate of the school, is on leave from China's Central
Conservatory of Music, of which he's chair of the viola department. In Tom
Chittenden's words, "The class can take great satisfaction in the
implementation of one of the core features of its Music in Schools Program."
Nick Tingley writes of two July concerts presented by the Yale - New
Haven Public Schools Summer Music Academy, one in Norfolk, the other in New
Haven. Classmates attending were, in addition to Nick, Gus Kellogg, Bob
Smith, and Phil Richards. "The class's endowment," writes Nick,
"receives top billing on concert programs and many thanks from the public school
teachers involved." A 4-week program open to all New Haven public school
students, this year's program enrolled 150 students, up from 120 last year. And
there's a waiting list.
Brian Kelly, still active teaching newswriting at the University of
Virginia, writes of attending an Oxford seminar on Winston Churchill with his
wife Ingrid and preparing vol. 9 of their Best Little Stories series, due out
this fall. From Peter Greer comes word of a long voyage along South
American shores (with stops too numerous to name) and an admission that his
Spanish needs work. In that, he cannot be alone. Charles Strong is now
in Frisco, TX, near his family. And Dick Simons, still of Hawaii, roams
far afield—to the east and south in the Lower 48 and, a-barge, along Burgundy
canals.
Not to be outdone in wanderings, Allan Wendt and Que Nguyen with
others, he writes, excepting spouses, "of the Timothy Dwight Zoo" (Ron
and Lee Ragen, Drum and Heide King, and Lyman and
Debra Drake) assembled in June at La Mandarine, the Drake villa in
Bonnieux (Luberon), France. Activities included delicious meals and vintage
wines from the Drake cellar, as well as visits to local flea markets and
vineyards. Also enjoying estival gallivants were those whom Tom Perkins,
ever our faithful correspondent, reports turned up at the Glimmerglass Opera, in
Cooperstown, NY. They included Rod Correll, Morris Raker, Andy Glass, Steve
Hopkins, Tom Chittenden, Steve Wittenberg, Art Diefendorf, George Lee, Bern
Kosto, Joe Clayton, and Elaine Joost. Wives came along, opines Mr. Perkins
"to explain the productions to their husbands."
In Memoriam: Henry E. Payne III died at home on June 27, 2008,
after an extended illness. Henry earned an engineering degree at Yale, then
graduate degrees at Princeton and West Virginia Institute of Technology. As
early as 1959, he had formed his own company, Payne Engineering, which provided
innovative technologies to industry and government in high technology materials
and solid-state power controls. Holding many patents, Henry led his company in
the production of devices that contributed to submarine balance, deep earth
stimulators, and NASA launch pads and moon exploration. He also spearheaded the
Bellanca Skyrocket Airplane Project, which still holds five world speed records.
Henry is survived by his wife of 47 years, Constance, a son and daughter,
grandchildren, and siblings. Donations in his memory may be made to the First
Presbyterian Church, 16 Leon Sullivan Way, Charleston, WV 25301; Woodberry
Forest School, Woodberry Forest, VA 22989; Duke University Bone Marrow Research
Center, 2400 Pratt Street, Durhan, NC 27705; or Hospice Care, 1143 Dunbar
Avenue, Dunbar, WV 25064.
In Memoriam: I must also report that John P. Swezy died in
Morris, IL, on July 4, 2008, from complications of kidney disease. After
schooling in Kansas City, John was with us for freshman year only--"one stop,"
he reflected in the reunion book, "above a subway alumnus." He then returned to
the Midwest and spent his career with engineering firms, especially the Bimet
Corporation, of which he rose to vice president before joining another firm,
where he worked until 2004. John was deeply involved in his church and
community, where he served seven terms as ward alderman, was a member of its
riverfront commission, and board member of the Morris Hospital Foundation. He
is survived by his wife, Peggy, four sons, and numerous grandchildren and
great-grandchildren. Contributions in John's memory may be made to the Future
Projects Fund of the First Christian Church in Morris or to the Morris Hospital
Foundation, both in Morris, IL.
—JMB
Notes: September/October 2008
The class’s Music in Schools project continues to win notice and applause. The
latest noteworthy report of its growth and effects was contained in a long news
piece in the Yale Daily News of April 24th (http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/24656).
Subsequently, Robert Blocker, dean of the Yale School of Music, received a Seton
Elm-Ivy Award in part for his championship of the project. These awards
recognize the advancement of understanding and cooperation between city and
university.
John Fistere has reported in after having retired twice, first from a
systems engineering career, then as executive director of the Prostate Cancer
Research and Education Foundation. Living in Mt. Helix, near San Diego, with
his wife Teresa, John recently took up the guitar and is on track to make his
debut soon singing Kenny Rogers' "Lucille." Among his interests are physics “at
the Scientific American level” including cosmology and the search for the
"Theory of Everything." Brian Walsh is the recent author of Boys
Should Be Boys: A Headmaster’s Reflections (TMCBooks of Conway, NH). Based
on Brian’s career in independent schools, most of them as headmaster of The
Buckley School in New York City, the work is a memoir-style reflection on the
different ways boys and girls learn.
I must sadly report four deaths.
In Memoriam: William Pratt Laughlin, originally of the class of
1956 but eventually with us, died at home in Manhattan on February 25, 2008.
Bill, his sister reports, lived a quiet life, loved golf, was an avid reader,
and had many friends.
In Memoriam: Richard P. Lewis died after a brief illness on May
18, 2008, in Columbus, Ohio. A distinguished cardiologist at the Ohio State
University College of Medicine, he directed, greatly expanded, and strengthened
its division of cardiology and made authoritative contributions to his specialty
as teacher, surgeon, and author. Dick was noted especially for his advances in
medical education. He was also "an avid, if frequently frustrated, golfer"--a
condition he no doubt shared with many of his classmates. Pierre
Boucaren, one of Dick’s roommates, writes, "As far as I can remember, Dick
never knew a person who didn't like him.” Ron Ragen, Dick's high school
classmate, characterizes his old friend as "almost like a brother to me. He was
a formidable competitor--bright, entertaining, widely interested and
interesting, loyal, dedicated, one of a very special breed.” Dick is survived
by his wife Penny, their children Richard P. Lewis, Jr., and Heather N. Brown,
and grandchildren. Contributions in his memory may be made to the Richard
Phelps Lewis M.D. Scholarship Prize Fund, Ohio State University College of
Medicine, Development and Alumni Affairs, 660 Ackerman Road, PO Box 183112,
Columbus, OH 43218-3112.
In Memoriam: I must also report the death on May 27, 2008, of
William O. (Don) Miller in Crisfield, Maryland. We had little news of
Don, an All American swimmer, since graduation. He reflected thoughtfully in
reunion books about his commitment to the betterment of the world, a growing
philosophical resignation to its ills, and an appreciation of what his
undergraduate education had given him. Jerry Jonas reports seeing Don
many years ago when he was pursuing an advertising career in New York and
writing for the Ford Foundation. Phil Pillsbury writes that "Don's
knowledge was wide and deep; he never wore it on his sleeve and always showed
interest in the thoughts and feelings of others.” Don is survived by two sons,
Timothy and Caleb.
In Memoriam: Edmund P. (Pete) Smith 2d died in Bozeman, Montana
on June 4, 2008. His published obituary gives a fair sense of his words and
philosophy. "Life's journey,” he would say, “is not to arrive at the grave
safely in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn
out, shouting 'Holy shit. What a ride!'" Pete was briefly an investment banker,
then a Formula Ford car racer. He tried to form a company in Italy to harvest
olives and finally worked in Belgium for a family company until his retirement.
Then he and his wife Renee, who predeceased him, roamed the US in a camper until
they settled in Bozeman. Diagnosed with Parkinsons in 1999, "he didn't change
much over the years; he simply got a little more potent." Pete is survived by
his children David Smith, Laura Shermer, Daniel Smith, and Suzanne Smith, a
brother and sister, and grandchildren. Memorial contributions in his name may
be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (http://www.michaeljfox.org);
the American Parkinson's Disease Association (Attn: Lydia), 500 15th Avenue S.,
Great Falls, MT 59405; or Gallatin Sporting Clays, PO Box 3483, Bozeman, MT
59772-3483.
For further reading: Joseph A. Soares, The Power of Privilege: Yale and
America’s Elite Colleges. Another sobering look at the class biases
inherent in our admission to Yale and how those biases continue to operate.
—JMB
News: 2008 Annual Dinner
This is a brief report on the comments that Robert Blocker, dean of the Yale
School of Music (YSM), offered about the class's Music in the Schools Project at
the recent annual class dinner in Manhattan. I send it with Tom Chittenden's
and Malcolm Mitchell's concurrence, in part to show that I can convey happy news
from time to time, in part as the observation of a thorough-going convert to an
endeavor about which I was highly skeptical at the outset. I am now as
enthusiastic about the project as the dean is.
As everyone who was present on April 10th will agree, Dean Blocker is a huge
fan and supporter of the project. Were he not, the School of Music wouldn't
have gone ahead with the project so far so fast--even with the support that so
many of us have provided it and the active involvement in its realization
provided by classmates like Malcolm Mitchell and Don Roberts.
As you may recall, the project commenced with the YSM's focus on the
Lincoln-Bassett Elementary School in New Haven. In large part because of the
YSM's commitment of staff support and its students to music programming and
instruction in the school, Lincoln-Bassett's overall performance as a school has
improved to the extent that it is no longer on the list of Connecticut schools
considered to be failing. More important, its students have grown enthusiastic
about music, and many of them now participate in its many aspects--learning it,
playing it, singing it. In addition, such has been the success of the YSM's
work at the Lincoln-Bassett School that it now feels confident to expand its
work throughout the New Haven school system, whose leaders wholeheartedly back
the project. In the fall, 20 city schools will have YSM students teaching in
them. And because of the administrative demands of such an enlarged and complex
program, the YSM has appointed an associate dean, Michael Yaffe, himself an
experienced music educator, to manage the project and has added two paid YSM
graduates, Olivia Malin and John Miller, to staff it. John is working in
several New Haven schools and has recruited more than 60 School of Music
students to volunteer as music instructors. Olivia is focused on
Lincoln-Bassett and is working with staff members there to enhance and deepen
its music program. All of this is to say that the class project is now built
into the structure of the YSM.
Because the first bi-annual symposium of the Music in the Schools project was
such a success last May, the YSM is already laying plans for its second
symposium--in the spring of 2009. Again, 1957 classmates will be invited to
nominate music educators from their home school districts to participate in and
be honored at the symposium. Moreover, Michael Yaffee is now engaged in
developing an enhanced YSM Web site, a part of which will be devoted to the
Music in the Schools project. As part of that enhancement, he is working on the
creation of a listserv and other mechanisms that will allow the project fellows
(as participants in the symposia are termed) to stay in touch with each other
and thus build a group of people throughout the country who will in effect be
alumni of the project and associated over the long term with the YSM.
Finally, also with funds provided by the Class of 1957, the YSM will soon
announce the appointment of the first Class of 1957 Visiting Professor of Music
Education. While Dean Blocker did not name the chair's inaugural occupant, he
did indicate that it was likely to be a noted music educator from China. In
that way, the class project and Yale's larger effort to build links with
universities in other nations, especially in China, will fit together.
All in all, I take this to be an exceedingly auspicious and fast-running
start to a project that has grown out of a commitment that the class made to the
YSM some years ago. I believe that we should all take much satisfaction in what
we have wrought.
—JMB
Notes: July/August 2008
Last November, a plaque at Yale Bowl honoring the athletic achievements of the
class and marking the class’s part in the renovation of the Bowl was unveiled.
The plaque reads simply: “Class of 1957 - 9 Ivy Championships, Polo National
Championship & Olympic Gold Medals in Crew (1956).” Thanks to Dick
Jones, who organized this project as part of our 50th reunion gift, a
complete report, including the names of classmates memorized by gifts, is on the
class Web site.
The annual class council meeting and dinner took place at the Yale Club on
April 10th. At the meeting, Tom Chittenden ably led participants through
officers’ reports and discussions. Much talk concerned future class
minireunions. The after-dinner speaker was Dean Robert Blocker of the Yale
School of Music. He reported with enthusiasm on the results so far of our Music
in the Schools project and outlined its future activities. I have reported on
the contents of Dean Blocker’s remarks in an email message to email-ready
classmates.
Our irrepressible Bob Rosefsky writes as follows: “My habit of
teaching via the media has resulted in a website, ‘University of Bob,’ where I
offer advice on finance, travel matters, and retirement planning, including my
curriculum, now dubbed "A Spa for Your Brain." A special feature involves a
book written in the year 2020 by Speculative Retrospective Historian Hubert
Hindsight. Its title: ‘What Were They Thinking?’ which elaborates on the
follies of our era. Hindsight has given me exclusive rights to quote from the
book, and I do so periodically on the website: www.universityofbob.com.” This
historian will not comment on the expertise of Mr. Hindsight.
Boston Magazine has again listed Larry Strasburger as one of Boston's
Best Doctors, and the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society has awarded him the 2008
Outstanding Psychiatrist Award for Lifetime Achievement. Don Rohlfing
recently saw Mike and Sherry O’Hearn in Naples, FL, then
Pat and Wendy Jones in San Francisco, finally Ben and
Joanie Case in Miami. Ben was returning from a fishing trip in Ushuaia,
Argentina.
A classmate who wishes to remain anonymous has corrected a mistake in my
obituary about Bob Joost. While Bob was among our youngest classmates,
he wasn’t the youngest or the only Ford Scholar. 18 classmates were born after
1 September 1936, the youngest on 12 August 1937. Five were “Fordies.”
We have recently lost two classmates dear to many of us. (As always, fuller
obituaries are available on the class website.)
In Memoriam: Hiram A. (Tony) Bingham died on March 31, 2008, in
Greenwich, CT, from cancer. After Yale, Tony served in the Air Force, then
attended Columbia Law School, practiced law, entered the business world, and
briefly taught. He then took up the business ventures that he’d pursue the rest
of his life--in energy production, clean energy, and organic foods. Tony
anticipated the energy shortage with early involvement in renewable
non-hyro-carbon energy sources. His most recent investments were in geothermal
properties in California. He also wrote a number of books that expressed his
philosophy of living through Anthroposophy and was involved in the related
Waldorf independent schools movement. Hal Russell, one of Tony's oldest
friends, writes that "I have never met a person who did not like him….Tony
approached life as a journey, the goal of which was to develop one's awareness
of the spiritual dimensions of human existence; he was uncompromising in his
adherence to this quest despite the skepticism of some of his friends and
relatives.” Tony is survived by his wife Anne and their three children: Hiram,
Olivia, and Matthew.
In Memoriam: John D. (Jock) Newbold died in Manhattan on April
12, 2008 from the complications from acute leukemia. After Yale, Jock attended
NYU Business School, then served in the US Naval Reserve. In 1960 he then
joined First National City Bank (now Citigroup) and remained there throughout
his career with increasingly senior responsibilities, including country head in
Singapore and Malaysia, corporate banking head in Tokyo, and finally director of
the bank's global shipping division. George Atkeson, Jock's friend from
youth, wrote in his last letter to Jock, "I know it must hurt you to go through
these difficult but necessary treatments and, along with the fact that I cannot
see you, this is hurting me terribly. Goodbye, my lifelong friend. Goodbye.
Goodbye." Jock is survived by his wife, Judith Bourne Newbold, and their three
children: Jennifer Freeman, Timothy Newbold, and Michael Newbold. Donations in
Jock’s memory may be made to the NYPH Leukemia Fighters Fund, c/o Gail J. Roboz,
M.D., 520 East 70th Street (Starr 340A), New York, NY 10021, or to the Vineyard
Energy Project at (
www.vineyardenergyproject.org).
May I ask that all classmates’ widows with email addresses who wish to
receive email messages but do not do so now to notify me via e-mail?
—James M. Banner, Jr.
Notes: May/June 2008
I commence with happy reports in a column of too much sad news.
Ed Ajello sends word that he’s won awards in juried competitions for
portrait paintings. “My retirement career in art is supposedly opposed in
required mental perceptions and optical acuity to those utilized during my
engineering career…and these awards were achieved at my advanced age of 81.”
Congratulations to this youth, who entered Yale late after submarine service in
WWII.
From Roger Gambatese: “I was married on January 19 to Jan Poole.
Perhaps getting married at age 72 is newsworthy.” Indeed it is. And from
Jim Crooks: “Laura and I sold our house in Jacksonville after living
there for 35 years. Some sadness. But no more magnolia leaves to rake, lawns to
mow, gardens to weed, pool to clean, or repair people to call.”
Class events continue to bring old friends together. The annual ’57 winter
day in New Haven, arranged by Gus Kellogg and Dick Jones, was a
great success. J. Gustave “Gus” Speth, dean of the school of school of forestry
and environmental studies, sobered everyone with predictions of the earth’s
state in 100 years. A tour of the Gerald and Sara Murphy exhibit at the Art
Gallery was superbly led by the show’s curator, Helen Cooper. And everyone
enjoyed dinner and sports events later.
Now for the sad part—four deaths since the previous column.
In Memoriam: Peter H. Hare died in Guilford, CT, on January 3,
2008. A distinguished philosopher long on the SUNY Buffalo faculty, Peter's
many writings had enduring impacts upon the history of American philosophy by
making central the works of Charles Sanders Peirce, G. H. Mead, William James,
Alfred North Whitehead, and John Dewey. Peter is survived by his wife, Susan
Howe, a brother Michael, a sister Sara, his son Clare, and his daughter Gwen.
Memorial services will take place in the spring in Buffalo. Contributions in
Peter's memory may be made to the Guilford Land Trust, PO Box 200, Guilford, CT
06437.
In Memoriam: We have also lost, on January 12, 2008, Hiram P. Maxim
II. After service as a naval officer, Hi spent much of his career at the
Wiremold Company, then as owner-manager of a reprographic firm. Actively
involved in environmental issues, he served as president of the Farmington River
Watershed Association, the Farmington and Lyme Land Trusts, and the local
chapter of the Connecticut River Watershed Council and as a member of the
Governor's Environmental Policy Committee. He was also informal Lyme Town
Historian. He is survived by his children, Sarah Maxim Nuranto, Hiram Hamilton
Maxim II, and Merritt Maxim Michael. Contributions in Hi’s memory may be made
to the Lyme Public Hall Association, 249 Hamburg Rd., Lyme CT 06371.
In Memoriam: George J. Dunn must be added to the list of deceased
classmates. George died on February 17, 2008 of complications from leukemia in
his native Cleveland. At Yale, he was vice chairman of the Yale Daily
News and a member of Skull and Bones. After practicing law, George became
in-house counsel, vice president, and general counsel for Standard Oil Ohio and
later the same with BP America after it acquired Standard Oil. Serving on the
boards of the Cleveland Orchestra, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and WCPN,
George was a significant figure in Cleveland’s civic life. He is survived by
Becky, his wife of 46 years, their two sons John and Gordon, and his brother
Bruce. Contributions in George’s name may be made to the Cleveland Orchestra,
Severence Hall, 11001 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland OH 44106, the Museum of
Contemporary Art, 8501 Carnegie Avenue, Cleveland OH 44106, or WCPN Idea Center,
1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland OH 44115.
In Memoriam: Finally I must report the death on February 19, 2008 of
Robert H. Joost from complications of Parkinsons disease. Perhaps the
youngest member of the class, Bob entered Yale as a Ford Scholar at 16. He won
the Bennett Prize in political science and a TenEyck prize for oratory and was a
ranking scholar. He attended Harvard Law School, where he was editor of the
Harvard Law Review. Then Bob was struck by bi-polar depression, which he
fought throughout his life. He was for many years a senior staff member to
Senator Warren Magnuson and the Senate Commerce Committee. At one point, he
drafted the 1000-page bill that would have updated and recodified the entire
federal criminal code. Subsequently, he became known as a leading expert on
no-fault insurance. Bob is survived by his wife Elaine and two daughters,
Leonarda and Nathalie. Contributions in Bob’s name may be made to the National
Parkinson Foundation, 1501 NW 9th Avenue, Bob Hope Road, Miami, FL 33136-1494.
Full and less formal obituaries, often with words from other classmates but
too long to be included here, can be found on the class website.
—James M. Banner, Jr.
Notes: March/April 2008
Though modest to a fault, it appears as if even he, Don Roberts, couldn’t
avoid gloating as follows: "Those looking for succor after Harvard’s drubbing of
Yale in the Bowl need go no further than the Harvard College Fund Annual Report
for 2006-2007, which lauds the Harvard Class of 1957 for its record setting
50th-reunion gift total of $27.1 million with 72% participation. Our numbers,"
writes Don, "were $34.2 million and 76% participation." No further comment
needed.
From our tour leader Alan Hockstader: "Mark your calendars that the
Class 2008 annual class trip will go to Israel and Jordan in late October for
approximately two weeks."
We've just inaugurated a new page on the class website. It's devoted to
classmates' biographies—of those who wrote none for the 50th reunion book or
those whose bios were inadvertently omitted. Each new bio will be considered an
integral part, even if in electronic form, of the reunion book and get the
editorial burnishing of Andy Glass. If you didn’t submit a bio to the
reunion book, please do so now. Like the reunion book itself, these
supplementary bios will help compose a history of the class and its members.
They are username and password protected.
I repeat here my hope that you'll make other contributions to the website.
It’s intended for our use and to provide information about the class to
everyone. The contributions you make to such pages as "Our Four Years," where
you can recall beloved (or otherwise) faculty members, your experiences on
campus during undergraduate days your mature reflections on those years, and the
like will endure as part of Yale's record. So will contributions you make to
the "Memorial Tributes" and "Classmates' Works" pages. This is
your--our!--site.
Allan Wendt recently took up the cudgels for Yale with a sharp riposte
to an article vaunting the wealth of two sister institutions. "No
self-respecting Yale graduate could accept a Harvard graduate’s praise of his
alma mater on the social consequences of the high cost of education at America’s
best universities. He cites endowment per student in casting Harvard and
Princeton as the only truly elite American universities. His facts are wrong.
Yale’s endowment per student is $1.97 million, amply larger than Harvard’s at
$1.74 million. Yale’s acceptance rate for its latest class was only 9 per cent.
And Yale’s undergraduate curriculum is widely judged superior to Harvard’s.
Having attended both Yale and Harvard, I ask what could be better than a Yale
education and a Harvard degree?"
From John Joh comes this recent note: "I left Yale at the end of
sophomore year to attend the US Military Academy, graduated in 1959, and spent
several years in the army, primarily as an aviator. Upon my resignation in
1965, I joined Delta Air Lines as a pilot, retiring, as was then required by
law, upon my 60th birthday in 1995. I attended law school in Atlanta while with
Delta and was able to combine both careers reasonably successfully for over 25
years. In 1961 I married Jane Wallis, an Alabama native and Auburn alumna. We
are both in good health and have two daughters, four granddaughters and a
grandson. I would enjoy meeting with any classmates who live in the Atlanta
area or who might be passing through this part of the country."
Ray Lamontagne recently received the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Award for
a lifetime of philanthropic achievement. Congratulations to him.
In Memoriam: From Dave Lawrence comes sad tidings of the death
on December 28, 2007, in Amarillo, TX, where he was born, of Harold L.
Daniel. Hal, as he was known to many while at Yale, spent much of his life
in the Methodist ministry, then as a tree farmer in New Mexico. Bill
Mobley, a roommate and close friend for over 60 years, writes of Harold that
"his concern was always first and foremost for the other person, a concern he
showed to his final days.... I have never known a more loyal and supportive
person. On Christmas day 2007 he and his wife Barbara had special guests--a 100
year old woman and a mentally challenged young man--because they had no real
place to go for this special day. Harold was too sick to eat but insisted that
Barbara attend to these guests. He died three days later.... He was truly a
good and gentle man. He made the world and people about him better." Harold's
survivors include his wife, Barbara, whom he married in 1957, their four
children and their spouses, and numerous grandchildren. Contributions in
Harold's memory may be made to the United Methodist Committee on Relief, P.O.
Box 9068, New York, NY 10087, or to Polk Street United Methodist Church in
Amarillo.
—James M. Banner, Jr.
Notes: January/February 2008
Nota bene! The annual class dinner, earlier scheduled for April 3rd,
will be held instead on April 10th at Manhattan’s Yale Club. Robert
Blocker, dean of the School of Music, will be the speaker. The annual
class winter event in New Haven will take place as scheduled on March
1st.
In my last column, I reported our near record-breaking $34-plus
million 50th-reunion class gift. Helping compose that sum were some
major gifts directed to specific purposes. They include the
following. Professorships: from Bill Fleming, a Yale College
microbiology professorship; from Mike Jordan, a School of
Management professorship; and from the class (with a big boost from
Don Roberts) a Music School professorship in music education.
For research assistance: from Frank Top, a gift to the School
of Medicine to aid young scientists there. Gifts of art: from Reid
White, to the Art Gallery "Two Hanging Columns," a portion of
Louise Nevelson's "Dawn's Wedding Feast;" and from Alice
Kaplan, in Allan’s memory, the lead gift with others to
the Art Gallery for "Biblioteque" by Gerald Murphy, Class of 1912.
For general purposes: from John Mars, a gift to the School of
Forestry and Environmental Studies; and from Rod Correll a gift
to the Medical School to fund research.
Following a class commitment dating to 1983, Yale continues to
offer Donald K. Walker ’26 scholarships to a small number of deserving
undergraduates. A full report about the achievements of the current
group of four Walker Scholars appears, as have others in recent years,
on the class website. Some classmates have proudly noted that one of
this year’s Walker Scholars (one, in fact, from 2005) is Michael B.
McLeod ’09, star varsity football tailback.
This seems to be the class’s publishing season. Jim Seymour
and some colleagues have recently written a human rights dictionary
(published by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan). “Some of the
content,” Jim writes, “is basic stuff we should have learned in
school, but probably didn't. There are also lots of obscure (but often
fascinating) points of international law. And you'll be glad to know
that it's bilingual (English and Chinese).” Jim now lives with his
partner in Hong Kong and would be happy to see visiting '57ers there.
Melville House has recently published Andre Schiffrin’s A
Political Education: Coming of Age in Paris and New York. The
memoir includes reflections on Andre’s undergraduate days, as well as
on his life-long association with the socialist left and on his life
in publishing.
My indefatigable source, Gus Kellogg, has sent a clipping
about Lyme, CT’s local historian Hi Maxim looking natty and
trim in an accompanying photo. Appointed in 1994, Hi’s principal
responsibility was originally to write the town’s annual report. But
proving so good at ferreting out local history, he began to write
quarterly news columns for the town paper. These columns, gathered
together, have now appeared between covers as The Lyme Heritage
News.
At the invitation of Peter Salovey, dean of Yale College, Larry
Kramer spent three autumn days on campus talking with students.
He spoke at the medical school about HIV/AIDS, to undergraduates about
leadership, to law school students about legislation that might assist
gay people, and to undergraduates in a journalism class. During
Larry’s visit, the Yale Film Society sponsored a screening of his
film, “Women in Love.”
In Memoriam: Albert C. Jerman died in Bennington, VT, on
October 4, 2007. After graduating from Yale, Al attended dental
school at the University of Nebraska and then served for 21 years in
the U.S. Air Force before retiring at the rank of colonel. An expert
in forensic dentistry responsible for identifying the remains of
pilots who died in crashes and before the widespread use of DNA
testing, Al was a pioneer in efforts to computerize the dental records
of Vietnam War POWs and MIAs to aid in their identification. A key
member of the team that identified over 700 bodies of the dead after
the Jonestown, Guyana, mass suicide, he also in the early years of the
US space program advised NASA on the dental health of astronauts. In
Arlington, VT, where he and Beverly owned the Cheese Shop, Al was
active in town and Republican Party affairs as chairman of the
Bennington County Republican Committee, member of the State Republican
Committee, supervisor of the Township of Glastonbury, and president of
the Arlington Chamber of Commerce. He also served as the historian of
the Robert Todd Lincoln home in Manchester. Al is survived by his
wife, his son Eric, and other family members. A daughter Rachel
predeceased him. Memorial contributions may be made to The Dr. Albert
C. Jerman Memorial Fund at the College of Dentistry at the University
of Nebraska and sent in care of Dr. James Peck, 113 Lasso Lake Court,
Lincoln CA 95648.
—James M. Banner, Jr.
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Bates.
This Page Last Updated: November 11, 2009.
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