YAM Class Notes: March/April 2015
By the time you read this, you already should have: registered, arranged a place to stay, made travel plans, and begun revving up your energy level and memory cells to enjoy the terrific program our reunion committee and Yale have prepared. Also, thanks to Carl Farrington, you should have received a CD of the Yale Daily News from our years at Yale, which you can search for news (or mentions of yourselves). This should prove to be an invaluable aide-memoire as you reminisce.
Your class book is scheduled to be mailed on April 15. At last count, it will contain 515 personal essays in addition to a host of special essays and features. I’ve mentioned them before, but our stalwart class book editors and their team deserve another mention: Ralph Protsik, John Schenck, and Bob Woodward, with able assistance from Doug McPheters, David Martin, John Spitzer, and college captains who coaxed and cajoled us all to write our essays. The book has been a key milestone from the beginning of reunion planning to ensure you’ll be able to read our stories well in advance of the reunion. As I’m sure you’ll see when the book arrives, the committee, Reunion Press, editor Veronica Rough, and our AYA representative Jennifer Julier deserve an enormous round of applause.
The local and regional gatherings are under way, orchestrated by Jeff Miller. Dodd Fischer and Page Stockwell got things started in Portland, Oregon, with Ed Newbegin, Art Hetherington, Oscar Mayer, Craig Chisolm, and Robin Cody. David Roscoe followed with a lunch in New Jersey: “On January 15, three New Yorkers—Alex Beard, Dennis Mack, and Randy Morgan—crossed the Hudson to meet up in Summit, New Jersey, with four ‘Jersey Boys’—John Ahrens, Toby Frey, Bob Popper, and David Roscoe—for ‘lies, laughter, libations, and lunch.’ Four others had to cancel late. Though we’d traveled very different paths since 1965, we discovered we have far more in common than not.” Donna and I, and our weekend guest Steve Rockmore, attended a lunch in Palm Beach on January 19, organized by Stan Trotman and Peter Conze. Also in attendance were Susie Trotman, Jeff and Susanne Miller, Dan and Monette O’Grady, Dorsey Gardiner, and Bruce Smathers. The next challenge for the reunion committee, and each of you, is to make sure everyone shows up on May 28, so please call your friends and roommates. We hope to boost attendance to record levels for a 50th reunion.
Erich Cluxton sent the following news: “Linda, my beautiful wife of 40 years, and I both retired in 2014. For me, this brought closure to a 45-year career in independent education (boarding and day schools), 16 of those years as a headmaster. We retired to nearby Hendersonville, North Carolina, not far from our daughter and son and their respective families. We enjoy the proximity to them and our five grandchildren. We still have our ‘handmade’ house in Maine that we built in 1974. Part of every summer is spent there, now with three generations of Cluxtons!”
Robert Eastaugh wrote that he retired as a full-time justice of the Alaska Supreme Court in 2009 but still serves pro tem part time as a justice. Seth Hoyt wrote a note of appreciation for our stalwart class treasurer: “Please tell Fred Kneip what a wonderful job he continues to do for ’65 (and for Yale). Looking forward to seeing him and my other classmates next May.” Don Alderman filed this note: “Retired completely 4/1/14. Enjoying my three grandchildren whom I visit in the Washington, DC, area two times per year. Sometimes I visit with ex-roommate Nick Fessenden and his wife Brigitte who live nearby. I am expecting Nick to attend his first reunion this year!”
Ab Lawrence wrote from Prescott, Arizona: “Tim Merrill has been a huge encouragement to me this year. Thanks to Tim, I have heard from or spoken to Dave Strong, Mel Shaftel, Chuck Mercein, and David Martin, and stopped to contemplate and remember Woody Knapp, Ed McCarthy, Bill Henderson, and Mike Waterman. News of the Yale Bowl, the Princeton and Harvard games, and calls from my son Glover brought back memories and lessons learned. I am thankful to be able to remember so many remarkable classmates. Life in Prescott is blessed and peaceful as I share it with my wife of five-plus years, Christie. Granddaughters range from a sophomore at Middlebury and a freshman at the University of Puget Sound, to a newborn, Selma Irgens, my daughter Bess’s first child, born in Oslo, Norway.”
It saddens me to report that John Gemmill passed away in New Haven on December 6, 2014, “after a year of valiant, optimistic experiments fighting melanoma.” John was a member of the Navy ROTC at Yale and served three years on active duty. After the navy, he practiced architecture in Connecticut. John’s obituary in the New Haven Register noted that he was a skilled yachtsman who “provided extraordinarily thoughtful, steadfast, affectionate friendship and skills” to all who knew him. John is survived by his wife, Stacey McGlone Gemmill, whom he married in 1974.
Please be well, endure the winter safely, and come join us in New Haven in May.
By John Pinney, ’65