Class Notes January/February 2003

Class Notes January/February 2003

Herb Allison deserves the credit for averting a “financial Armageddon” in 1998, according to When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein, the acclaimed account of the collapse of Long Term Capital Management, the centibillion dollar hedge fund. The Fed called the meeting, but Herb’s analytical and persuasive skills led the rescue, according to the book. Herb is now chairman of TIAA-CREF. Dalia and Bob Baker have returned home from their mission to Albania for the Presbyterian Church. Bob is now director of finance for the city of Cleveland. Ford Draper had a sixtieth birthday dinner-dance given him by his wife and sons in September in Chadd’s Ford, PA. He is looking forward (as this is written) to his son Ford III’s wedding in October. “All is going well and happily…for our family,” he concluded. Bob Heil has retired from the board of Goodwill Industries in San Francisco. During his five years as chairman, he initiated a program to train hotel and restaurant workers, led the agency’s first capital campaign and saw it treble the number of disabled, homeless and otherwise disadvantaged people it helps annually, including job training for 500. Bob is now a member of the National Advisory Council of the Sierra Club, lobbying for it in Washington and raising money for its Environmental Law Program. I had a great chat with Sam Kilbourn in October. He’s having a wonderful time. Classmates at our twenty-fifth and thirtieth reunions will remember Sam’s performance with his mime group, The Wright Brothers (including the 100 meter dash in Commons) and his solo (the motivational speaker who finished with a handstand on the lectern and then had Mel Shaftel spinning plates) respectively. Sam performs in primary and secondary schools and teaches the children how to create their own shows. The Wright Brothers have reassembled and perform at schools, fairs and corporate and governmental functions. Sam’s band, The Loose Screws, plays 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s music. On the side, he practices law and serves as president of his Unitarian Universalist congregation. Sam shares all this with Linda Nelson and his daughter, a filmmaker, and son, a physical therapist in training. Interestingly, in spite of the physically demanding, gymnastic nature of his job, Sam has suffered no injuries from it. He attributes this to stretching, strength training and diet. John Mitchell has moved from the seat of a “bulldozer, surrounded by acres of raw dirt and mud” to the comfort of a job site trailer “surrounded by phone, fax machine, lap top, drawings and specifications.” He’s in Chillicothe, supervising the remodeling of a large elementary school and the construction of a 20,000 square foot addition. He says that change agrees with him. John recently finished writing an article on Union cavalry general David McMurtrie Gregg and, in doing so, corresponded with Jim Mohr and relied on his excellent book, The Cormany Diaries, based on the journal of one of Gregg’s officers. John and Lynn enjoy their rural setting and eight grandchildren: “busy and happy and looking forward to more of the same.” Kent Nelson’s new novel, Land that Moves, Land that Stands Still, will be published by Viking Penguin in July. It’s set on an alfalfa ranch in South Dakota where Kent worked for $7.00 an hour ten years ago. He and his daughter, Dylan ’97, have also sold a “bird fiction” (I’m not sure what that is) and poetry anthology, Birds in the Hand, to Farrar, Straus and Giroux, due Christmas, 2003. Kent’s home address is Salida, CO, although he’s teaching at Rice for a semester. Last year, Kent completed the Pike’s Peak Marathon for the second time. Richard Petrelli is in New Haven and involved in teaching medical students and residents. He saw Dick Hoyt and Denny Sutro at their recent Westminster reunion. Richard’s and Marion’s daughter, Elizabeth, is at Kenyon, majoring in English. Sue and Joe Pugliese, Page Stockwell, Barbie and Duncan Sutherland, Virginia and Randy Totten, and Mary and Saint Tucker rented a 100-foot sailboat and enjoyed visiting points on the coast of Turkey during September. After 32 years of law practice, Ed Robertson closed his office. He stays busy haying and tending sheep on his farm and managing rental property. One of a lawyer’s sacred duties to mankind is, of course, to be nearby while money is changing hands. Frank Schreck has performed this function extraordinarily. Probably the country’s leading gaming lawyer, Frank has participated in the transformation of Las Vegas financially and architecturally over the past quarter century – quite an adventure, I suspect. Jennifer and John Shank’s son, Peter, was married on Labor Day weekend on Orcas Island, as far northwest as you can get in the lower 48 states. The ceremony overlooked a spectacular fiord-like bay. Afterward, Jennifer and John bicycled around the islands with friends. They recommend the area to others. There was a thoughtful and broad-based discussion of our memories of November 22, 1963, on the thirty-ninth anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination on Listserv, our Class email bulletin board. Thanks to all the contributors.