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Class Notes 2004by Edward Wasserman
January 04 Starting a new career in what used to be called late middle age is like taking up a new sport: You call on muscles you haven’t used in a while, and you discover novel sources of pain. Then, if you get the hang of it, you may find unexpected satisfactions. Academics, I’ve found, is a ferocious amount of work. Some of you have probably thought about retiring at some point into a genteel, scholarly sinecure, living amid briarwood and tweed, sharing big thoughts with adoring students. I hope you find that. For me, I was lucky enough to get an endowed, full professorship at a fine school in a beautiful place, and I want you to know that since August I’ve been working like a pony in a Welsh coal mine. But it’s OK. It’s better than OK. It reminds you how much time you were spending doing variations of things you already knew how to do, and how you’d broken a useful habit that once came naturally — learning new stuff. It’ll either age you or keep you young, I figure. A lot of recent mail involves mortality, and was triggered by news of the death of classmate George B. “Chip” Reid Jr. in early October. Jeff Stern jstern@forumcp.com sent along Chip’s obit from The Washington Post. It’s the profile of an extravagantly accomplished guy, a former partner with a top tier Washington law firm, deputy counsel to the Republican National Committee in the 1980s, and later chief executive of Bacardi Ltd. After Yale, Chip got law and MBA degrees from Harvard, and in 1974 joined D.C.’s Covington & Burling, becoming a partner in 1982 specialized in corporate and securities law. His involvement with Bacardi dates from 1979, when client Hiram Walker bought an interest in the family-held company. Chip later became Bacardi’s legal adviser, helped negotiate its $2 billion acquisition of Martini & Rossi, and in 1997 became the first non-family member to head the company. He left four years later after his efforts to take Bacardi public ran afoul of family discord. Chip returned to the D.C. area and helped found Pitts Bay Partners, an advisory firm. He died of leukemia, and is survived by his wife, Rosi, of McLean, two daughters from his first marriage to Jeanne Fallon, two stepdaughters, a sister and his mother. Remembrances welcome. Chip’s death occasioned e-mail exchanges on the listserv, and David Zincavage suggested I ask the alumni people for a class necrology. They kindly obliged, and if you want to find out why ol’-what’s-his-name hasn’t been returning your phone messages and, in general, get updated on which of us has joined the choir invisible, see: http://www2.aya.yale.edu/classes/yc1970/necro.html. If there are any omissions, or if you’re listed and wonder why, please let me know. David jdz@inr.net also suggests reviving an honorable tradition from the First World War: “One of these years before too long, perhaps we ought to chip in and purchase some truly magnificent bottle of 1948 vintage brandy or wine and arrange for it to go to the last 1970 survivor (who can proceed to drink it at his advanced age, and join the rest of the class as a consequence in all probability.)” Personally, I don’t have any strong preferences and am fully prepared to drink whatever the rest of you select. To conclude the mortality section, this from Mark Zanger, because it’s touching: “I don't remember Chip Reid, but I am sure he was more than this (not inconsiderable) obit, which says he moved in some high circles, and he had some family, and he gave something back to help guide a medical charity, and maybe he had some fun in the Caribbean rum business. “Do others remember him from happier, healthier times? Was he one of the dozens of us who built a gothic cathedral in the first good snow on the Old Campus freshman year? Did I pass him a dozen times in and out of some class, and now he's gone and we're here, and wondering?” In other news, Harold Harden MD, whose address is in Santa Monica although he apparently isn’t, writes: “From Lesotho to southern Sudan, doing medical work in East Africa is extremely rewarding!” And Buzz Potts MD bpmd@vail.net sends this from Copper Mountain, Colo.: “My wife and I got together with Roger and Becky Leonard for dinner in April. Roger and I are presidents of our respective hospitals this year, so we shared war stories. Eldest son marrying his college sweetheart. We continue to enjoy Colorado’s ski country, especially when the snow is good.” Happy New Year to all of you. Send news. Some births would be nice. March 04 Ex-class secretary Jerry Ganzfried GanzfriedJ@howrey.com sends word of the passing of his former Justice Department colleague Harold J. “Tex” Lezar, who died in January in Dallas. After Yale, according to The Washington Post obit that Jerry forwarded, Tex got his law degree at the University of Texas, where he was editor in chief of the law review. He began his career in public service as a speechwriter in the Nixon administration. In 1981 he became special counsel to Attorney General William French Smith and in 1984 was named assistant attorney general in charge of the Office of Legal Policy. He chaired the attorney general’s Commission on Pornography and was the U.S. delegate to the UN Conference for Assistance to Refugees in Africa. In 1985, Tex and his wife, Merrie Spaeth, then director of White House media relations, resigned their posts. Back home in Dallas, Tex practiced law and made two unsuccessful electoral bids, for state attorney general in 1989 and lieutenant governor in 1994. Tex wrote a newspaper column and edited the book "Making Government Work: A Conservative Agenda for the States." He returned to Washington as president of Empower America, a public policy organization in 1996, then went home to Texas to join a Houston law firm. Survivors include his wife of 20 years and three children, Beau, Philip and Maverick. Belated word of the death in September of Richard W. Woline Jr. in Milford, Conn., where he lived for 35 years. Richard developed Saranor Apartments, an affordable housing complex for the elderly and the handicapped. He leaves his wife Rebecca Kear. Contributions in his memory may be made to the Richard Woline Memorial Fund, c/o Sarano Apts., 169 Platt St., Milford, CT 06460. Remembrances of both Tex and Richard are welcome. From Lawrence Minch lawrence.n.minch@usace.army.mil: “I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiments of your last column: cold weather and white Christmases are much overrated. Last June my wife Karen and I moved from Washington to Manhattan Beach, California. Notwithstanding the rain on Christmas day, the weather has been consistently beautiful for six months, and the beach is a 20-minute walk. Although I am happy to be back in California, I had almost forgotten the enormous effort that it takes to relocate and to start a new job.” After nine years with the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Justice Department, Larry is district counsel for the Los Angeles District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “Instead of an endless stream of briefs, arguments, and trials, I now manage a small law office and give legal advice, often on very short notice, on a broad range of subjects including environmental law, construction contracts, and the arcane rules that govern how federal funds can be spent.” After nearly 25 years on the faculty of Washington University, Dr. Joshua R. Sanes sanesj@pcg.wustl.edu leaves St. Louis this summer to found and direct a Systems Neuroscience Center at Harvard. “Its goal will be to bring together biologists, ethologists, psychologists, biochemists and computer scientists to tie biology to behavior in new ways.” From Vermont, Stephen Morris stephen@stephenmorris.us writes: “Life’s taken yet another interesting turn as I continue to try to or convince society that this sustainable living is both preferred and necessary for us to prosper in the future. My new gig is as executive director of the Intervale Foundation in Burlington. The Intervale is a 700-plus acre community farming enterprise that brings us deliciously closer to our food supply.” Son Jacob, 25, “is off being a rock and roller” and Patrick, 22, is in Chicago doing stand-up comedy anything more?” David Sauer yalewriter@aol.com has resigned his professorship at the Korea Military Academy in Seoul and is returning to Hawaii. “Korea has been an interesting episode. These people are, simultaneously, good-looking, intelligent and honorable, but also rude, stupid and cruel.” He continues: “The recent death of my best friend in a taxicab crash has left me bereft. To think that I was sitting next to him and escaped unscathed and he died in the crash is unfathomable. I am in shock and unable to function normally.” David is cruising through Polynesia in February. “I have increasingly little interest in this progressively more insane world. I’ll watch the madness on television, while staying well away from it. Sunny beaches and shady coconut palm groves are very appealing.” In Boston Alan Mandl amandl@comcast.net concentrates his legal practice on cable TV, telecommunications and energy regulation. Wife Regina Snow Mandl is a partner in the same firm, specializing in family law and estate planning. Son George, a University of Wisconsin grad, is a video editor and producer, while daughter Cecily, a junior at Connecticut College, was recently studying in Edinburgh and interning for a member of the Scottish parliament. Dr. Soni O. Oyekan sonioyekan@aol.com reports from Louisiana: “Thanks to Almighty God, Priscilla Ann Parker Oyekan and I are blessed with three daughters and a son.” Year-old grandson Isaiah Elijah Valdez lives with eldest daughter Ranti and husband in Austin. Chris Seaver cseaver@hydril.com writes from Houston that his daughters Sarah and Rose turned 4 and 2 last summer. “I am late getting around to having a family, but they are a joy.” Ex-class secretary Adam Rowen MD says he saw Peter Sheras on the O’Reilly Factor discussing bullies and bullying, the subject of Peter’s recent book. Peter is a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia. Your class needs you: It’s time for work to begin for our 2005 reunion. That will require the energy, vision and initiative of a reunion chairman. If you’d like to take on this honored task, please get in touch with me. Scott Simpson, who did a fabulous job as chairman last time, assures me it’s even more fun than elective surgery. Plus, you are guaranteed the ardent thanks of a grateful nation. Well, class anyway. May 04 IWe have turned a corner in our collective life cycle. Not to be indelicate, but news of the death of classmates is getting, well, not quite routine. But it’s losing the unexpectedness and poignancy, the ache of potential unrealized, the sorrow over premature loss, that it has had until now. We’re of an age, guys. Men like us die, regularly. Hug your partner. Kiss your kids. Start the book. Take the trip. Carpe diem. Bartholomew Hobson hobsonbd@hotmail.com writes from Northern Wisconsin: “I've taken on a new career in middle age, in my case, parenting. My eldest, Jack, is now two and a half, and my second son, Graham, was born last March. So there's some news about birth to balance the news about deaths. “I asked the Class of 1970 for parenting advice after Jack's birth and got a couple of useful tips, mostly comments along the lines of, ‘What were you thinking? I think this is a great thing to be doing at 55. I don't have to worry about retirement planning; I'll be 75 before Graham gets out of college… “Best of all, in the fine tradition of our Peter Pan generation, I can postpone growing old for another couple of decades. No one will be calling me grandfather for a very long time.” Peter N. Kyros Jr. died on Christmas morning at his home in Falmouth, Maine. His wife Valerie was there, and Peter III and Caroline were opening presents. That’s from The Washington Post obit that Joe Friedman sent. After Yale, where he had worked on congressional campaigns of his father, Peter Sr., he got a law degree from the University of Virginia, and worked for Sen. Edmund Muskie on Capitol Hill, on Muskie’s senatorial and presidential campaigns and later on the 1976 Carter-Mondale campaign. As an aide to Vice President Mondale, Peter had special responsibilities for the National Endowment for the Arts. He left government and went into private practice, becoming managing partner of DC’s Winston and Strawn and later joining a worldwide developer, Potomac Development Associates. He became president in 1994. Peter married Valerie Beman, daughter of renowned golfer Deane Beman, in 1993. Contributions in Peter's memory to: Esophageal Cancer Awareness Association (ECAA), P.O. Box 519, Avila Beach, CA 93424. Joe Friedman jcfriedman@juno.com recalls a trip with Peter, Paul Chapman and Fred Conway to the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia to witness the legendary tides. “I was one of a number of Peter's good friends in Pierson – and we all remember his gentlemanly manner and dignity, as well as his quiet and unassuming intelligence and sense of humor. He was a decade ahead of us in his maturity and self-confidence —no doubt attributable in part to his early involvement in his father's political career. Peter was also quite knowledgeable, even during the height of the rock decade of the ’60s, in the arts and classical music — an anomaly, given the times.” Donald Kelley (kelleygetman@alamedanet.net) was in Berlin last fall with the Pacific Mozart Ensemble to record and perform Leonard Bernstein’s Mass with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchestra under Kent Nagano. “Quite an exhilarating, jet-set singing experience,” Donald writes from Alameda, Calif. Watch for the recording from Harmonia Mundi. Marvin Krakow (MKrakow559@aol.com) married Anita Siegman in a backyard ceremony in August in LA. “We are still head over heels (in the honeymoon phase) and are planning to stay that way. … My work as a lawyer continues to involve handling civil rights and employment discrimination cases for individuals. It has its own challenges, not the least of which are the deeply conservative judges I have to confront, but great satisfactions, politically and in the people I meet and work with. Joe Woolston (joseph.woolston@yale.edu) was named Albert J. Solnit professor of child psychiatry and pediatrics at the Yale Child Study Center. From Guilford, Conn., Joe says he and wife Sally have entered the empty nest phase, their two youngest having left for college last year, one to Harvard and the other to Yale. From Felton, Calif., John J. Almquist was one of Grey Davis’ last judicial appointments, having been named to the Superior Court the day before the October recall. “Never having practiced criminal law, I am, of course, in charge of the misdemeanor calendar.” Elder son Sam is an Army 2nd lieutenant attending military medical school in Bethesda, younger son John is a sophomore at UC/San Diego. “Life is good.” Jack Kirkwood left the Federal Trade Commission after 25 years for Seattle University law school. “I have found full-time teaching (and writing and consulting) to be an enormous amount of work, but also (after doing it for a year and a half) quite satisfying. SU is especially stimulating because of its focus on social justice.” Jack recalls the late Chip Reid, a good friend in both college and law school and best man at Jack’s wedding. Chip “had an outsized personality in addition to his considerable intelligence. He was confident, gregarious and relentlessly upbeat — an unmistakable presence in any room. And he exuded a can-do attitude that was infectious.” Richard Gold’s Seattle-area project teaching poetry to troubled teens continues to draw praise, and Jack sent a recent local newspaper clipping that opens: “In an age of hyperbole, calling Richard Gold a saint would probably provoke a healthy dose of knee-jerk skepticism.” Not from that writer, however. Also from Seattle, Matt Schaffer (matthew.schaffer@globaltactics.com) writes that wife Chris has passed the rigorous Federal Law Enforcement Training Center course in Brunswick, Ga. — where Matt went to high school — and is now a Customs and Border Protection Officer. She was assigned to Seattle, so they have moved from Spokane. “We'd welcome visits from classmates,” Matt writes, “and the chance to meet up with any classmates already living in the Seattle area. Our older son Grayson now writes for Outside Magazine, and Ethan is a junior at Evergreen College in Olympia — a wonderfully refreshing center of college activism. The boys collaborated to start www.organicvolunteers.com., and it's going strong.” Finally in Seattle, Bruce R. Miller (brmiller13@comcast.net) is working on engineering projects on Boeing wide-bodies. “Elizabeth is moving freight around the world for DHL-Danzas. Lindsey spent the summer studying modern history in Elizabeth’s home town of Brighton, England.” She’s an environmental planning major at Western Washington University. “Clare, Slim and grandson Nashville are living in Austin, Texas, and doing well.” Ross Tonkens MD (Ross.Tonkens@quintiles.com) is global scientific head of Cardiovascular Therapeutics for Quintiles Inc., the world's largest contract research organization. Ross handles scientific support of Quintiles’ cardiovascular business. He had been a cardiologist in Beverly Hills before moving to Las Vegas and working in both clinical research and venture capital. He also managed several successful political campaigns. Ross works out of Quintiles' world HQ in Research Triangle Park, N.C. “Change is difficult but refreshing,” Alan Minier aminie@state.wy.us writes from Wyoming. Alan was recently named to the powerful State Board of Equalization, “making me one of three administrative law judges who handle Wyoming’s state and local tax cases and completing a transition out of both private law practice and active involvement in the civic affairs of Cheyenne.” From Minnesota, Robert C. Cavender Jr. MD collins.cavender@aya.yale.edu reports that younger son Joe (Branford ’97) was married in September to Karis Temple. He’s in his third year at University of Chicago law, where he’s managing editor of the law review. Buzz Potts MD writes from Copper Mountain, Colo., that his three kids are out of college. “I write the occasional op ed in the local paper in a vain effort to keep it from falling over to the left. Like Roger Leonard, I am sacrificing my sanity for a year to be the medical staff president of the local hospital. It is like pushing a string to get physicians to agree.” In Tennessee Bart Whiteman (bartw@cdc.net) invites classmates to read his columns on Google news. He’s shopping an anthology of 90 to publishers. His account of a trip to the Upper Cumberland is at www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_43710.asp |