Class Notes: July/August 2021

Class Notes: July/August 2021

We are slowly and cautiously moving towards some semblance of normalcy here in Maryland, although our St. Michaels town council has wisely extended the mask requirement. Donna and I actually had live house guests—my nephew and his fiancé visited for a weekend. So good to be with real live people.

Reminder: please make sure your email address is up to date with Yale. Simply go to Yale.edu, click on Directories, click on Yale Alumni and log in or open an account, and make sure your email address is current. If you know your email address has changed, please send your new address to alumni.records@yale.edu. You may be missing out on some really great events, especially our monthly Zoom sessions. Speaking of which, the April session was another outstanding program featuring John Shattuck on foreign policy in the Biden Administration. Following John’s excellent opening, the classmate panel for the session included three very different and thoughtful perspectives from David Martin, Carl Gershman, and John Todd. All four have been witness to and participants in key aspects of foreign policy.

As noted in the last edition, we are committed to continuing these sessions indefinitely. I hope you all will have availed yourselves of the May program with Richard Hodes, whose 28 years as director of the National Institute on Aging equips him well to address a topic of significant, and obvious, importance to us all. If you missed it because you didn’t get the invitation, I’ll repeat the advice from the last notes edition: 1) check to make sure your spam/junk filter isn’t blocking them, and if not, 2) email Jennifer Julier at the YAA to see if you’re on a “no email” list. And one more reminder: all of the Zoom sessions were recorded and are available for viewing on our class website.

In brief notes: Richard Bienia wrote, “I have retired from the foreign service and find considerable enjoyment in being a useless member of society.” His 50th class book submission suggests he might have been pretty useful prior to retiring. Steve Clark sent the following: “As reported before, we live 100 yards across Corte Madera Creek from Bill Cole and his wife Carol. We’ve become good friends and occasionally kayak on the creek together. Bill and I are both ‘president/secretary’ of our respective HOA’s, mainly because no one else will do the job. Betsy and I are swimming two to three times a week with a local masters team, Betsy in the fast lane and me in the slow, ‘social’ lane. No more muscle memory.” And Bob Radsch sent a note in which he crossed out “Retired” and went on to explain: “I continue to manage money as I have for decades. My wife and I look forward to our Pfizer shots and the freedom they will bring. I wish the class better times in 2021.” Landon (Bunky) Carter sent a notice that he’s launched a new “Transformational Training” online: “The Odyssey Experience is a transformative journey and exploration into the nature of Being Human, living in our experiential world.” He can be reached at landon@landoncarter.co.nz.

In an exchange with Earl Potter, I got this update on his growing retail empire: “We had been looking for just the right Five & Dime General Store site in Jackson Hole for 14 years, and had the ridiculous good fortune to open it in December 2019. Jackson had a sterling summer (and winter) because visitors to Yellowstone Park were at record levels. It carried our whole company through the plague year. We would love to do a mini in Santa Fe—we still have the hotel, with a new wing since the last class visit.” Earl and I will continue the conversation about a possible mini to kick off the return to class gatherings in 2022. 

Plans for an in-person New York class dinner this fall are on hold, pending a decision by the Yale Club of New York. Bob Leich has booked the venue, and as soon as we know more, we’ll alert the class.

I’ve received notifications on the passing of two of our classmates. Bryce Appleton’s daughter Amy (Y ’94) informed the YAA and me that Bryce died peacefully on February 20, 2020, after an extended illness, surrounded by his children. And the YAA sent notice that Bob Moss died on January 2, 2021, surrounded by his beloved wife and two daughters, in Raleigh, North Carolina, after a recent diagnosis of brain cancer. Please visit the website and post remembrances for these and other classmates. If you haven’t been to this section of the website, take a look: you will be able to post something for every classmate we’ve lost.

I hope you’re all fully vaccinated and finding you’re able to ease your way back to some sort of normalcy.