Class Notes May/June 2003

Class Notes May/June 2003

Upcoming events. Yale v. Dartmouth football game, October 11. Tony Dunn and Jeff Miller have reserved a “sky box” (private tent at top of Yale Bowl) with room for 40 of us. Details will be in the mail this summer. So, save the date. Class Dinner. October 31, Yale Club of New York City with Bill Nelson our speaker, Yale v. Columbia football game next day nearby, a block of rooms reserved, chaired by Bob Leich. Widows. Bebe Seymour, Charlie’s widow and a member of our Class Council, is trying to increase participation in our activities by our deceased classmates’ spouses. She suggests that interested widows email her at rawilliamson@attbi.com. Bebe practices medicine as Roberta Williamson, M.D., in the Boston area. She and Charlie have two sons, Lee, 15, and Alec, 11. Lee is 6’3″ and on his school’s wrestling team, while Alec is 5’9″ and the high scorer and rebounder on his basketball team. This made their attendance at the Bulldogs’ defeat of the Crimson five in Boston on March 7 all the more enjoyable. John Ahrens placed second in Wynkoop Brewing’s 2003 Beer Drinker of the Year contest in Denver in January. John entered the grueling two hour test of his beer knowledge and metabolism with impressive credentials: He’s been listed for 15 years in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the largest collection of beer cans (30,000) and a collection of 2,000 beer songs. John has promised to try again next year. (The first prize is $100 in beer at his local bar and beer for life at Wynkoop, about 2,000 miles from John’s home in Mt. Laurel, NJ.) Brenda and John have another reason to celebrate: their first grandchild, a boy born November 8, 2002. Jim Christie has been elected to the American College of Trial Lawyers, reflecting the esteem that he enjoys among his peers at the trial bar. News from David Crockett: “Firstly, I attended the News’ 125th Anniversary festivities April 4-5. In addition to several fascinating panel discussions of current issues in journalism – composed entirely of News alumni – there was a brunch for the ’63-’66 group in TD and a grand banquet, addressed by Bill and James Buckley, of course. It was great to see Herb Allison, Dick Hoey, Al Gropper and Zick Rubin and reminisce once again. Aside from Herb’s hair (gone) and my spare tire (all too evident), we had changed little in appearance despite the vicissitudes of our lives. Way to go, guys!  Secondly, Amelia and I are busily preparing for the graduation of our firstborn, Elisabeth, with a journalism degree from the Grady School (at the University of Georgia) on May 10 and for her wedding to her college sweetheart on May 24. My chief roles seem to be as maitre’d, sommelier, and “Chancellor of the Exchequer.” Roger Davis is an editor at Merriam-Webster, following in the footsteps of Noah Webster 1778, after a career in academic librarianship at Columbia, the University of Virginia, and Smith and research and writing at Cambridge University Press. Sam Goodyear is a producer and announcer of classical music on WHIL 91.3 FM in Mobile, AL, Monday – Friday and Sunday (a listener request program, appropriately called, “Play it Again, Sam”). If you’re in the area, tune in, call (251-432-2975) or drop by (1220 Elmira St., Mobile, AL 36604), says Sam. Karen and Mal Harris are touring colleges with daughter, Stephanie, including stops at Yale and Bucknell, where their son, Spencer, is a junior and hangs his hat about 100 yards from the home of Sue and Joe Pugiese in Lewisburg, PA. Mal is practicing municipal and real estate law along with designing, editing and publishing books – six so far. He started Parkside Publications a few years ago apparently inspired by his two years of managing the J.E. College press. His latest book is “A Life in the Golden Age of Jazz,” a biography of Mal’s musical hero, clarinetist Buddy DeFranco, which may be the most complete jazz biography ever published. Go to Mal’s website. This past November, around the fortieth anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination, Mal, Steve Clark, Terry Ellsworth, other classmates (apologies, guys, for my failing memory) and I exchanged memories of Prof. Karl Deutch’s dramatic reaction, and ours as well, to the breaking news on that warm, Harvard weekend Friday afternoon in Political Science 30a class. Hillie Hillenmeyer’s son, Hunter, a linebacker on the Vanderbilt football team, was selected by Green Bay in the fifth round of the NFL draft, as reported by Mel Shaftel, about whom there is more below. John Leo has received his third Fulbright Scholarship, this time at Constantine the Philosopher University in the Slovak Republic in the field of American Studies. While abroad, John also plans to work on a history of the grass roots gay rights movement since 1989 in Poland, where John received his first two Fulbrights. John has also decided to run for chair of the English department at the University of Rhode Island. Go get ’em, John. Jim Piersall retired from the National Security Agency in December, 2000, and became a granddad in July, 2001. Pam and Mel Shaftel’s daughter, Lauren ’95, married Matthew Williams, M.D., in April in New York City. After Yale, Lauren received a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Southern California. She is a public relations and marketing specialist in Durham. Dr. Williams is a research fellow in gene therapy for heart failure at Duke Medical Center. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Duke, where he gained national recognition as a lineman on the Blue Devil football team. By the time this reaches you, Ron Wilmore will have received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Hopkins School in New Haven on May 10, in recognition of his remarkable life of public service, first as a teacher and for the last 18 years as executive director of Northwest Settlement House in Washington, D.C. NWSH helps about 7,000 people annually, ranging from pre-schoolers to the elderly, deal with problems of poverty. At the time of Ron’s award, Hopkins will announce the creation of the Ron Wilmore Scholarship Fund, dedicated to enabling promising students from New Haven’s inner-city to attend Hopkins: “The scholarship that bears his name will…give others the same start Ron had. And, if we are lucky, there will be another Ron Wilmore (if that’s possible) or two among the Wilmore Scholars.” For more information, contact me or Marnie Halsey at Hopkins School, 986 Forest Rd., New Haven 06515, 203-387-6093 or mhalsey@hopkins.edu. Heartiest congratulations to Sandy and Ron. Well, that’s it for the 2002-03 year. Two years till our next Reunion in New Haven! We’ll be back here in the fall. Good summer, everyone.