YAM Class Notes: March/April 2016
This winter is clearly off to an oddball start. Donna and I spent Christmas in Nashville with our “shared” Hillenmeyer grandchildren in 70-degree temperatures. We missed Hilly and Sallie Hillenmeyer who were in Chicago with son Hunter and his family. Now in Florida, where the dry season is very wet, we have seen Bob and Mary Rounsavall, and Bill and Terry Parsons. Peter Conze organized a wonderful evening at Jupiter Island with the Yale crew, who are rowing in nearby Stuart, Florida. Along with Peter and wife Ann, and Stanley and Susie Trotman, we got to watch video of Yale’s impressive victories in the Eastern Sprints and the Royal Henley Regatta. Sitting with the entire crew squad, an engaging group of very large young men, it was clear that we three former oarsmen might qualify for the bow if we were lucky.
Chris Kinney and I attended the AYA assembly in November in New Haven. The centerpiece of the assembly was the Yale School of Public Health, which was celebrating its 100th birthday. The alumni sessions generated some good ideas for class activities that Chris and I will be discussing for consideration by the class council. Following the assembly, Chris and wife Cathy suffered through the Yale-Harvard game with me and Steve Rockmore, Jeff Miller, and the Conzes. Maybe next year.
Andy Graham’s law firm alerted me to Andy’s latest honors: “Andrew J. Graham, founder and CEO of the full-service law firm Kramon & Graham, has been named to the ‘Top Ten: Maryland Super Lawyers—Top List,’ by Maryland Super Lawyers 2016, and is ranked as the number-one attorney in the state. Kramon & Graham is the only firm in Maryland with two attorneys in the Top Ten ranking—one of them being Andy. Andy was also selected by The Best Lawyers in America 2016 for his work in litigation, criminal defense, and arbitration. He has been selected to The Best Lawyers in America list every year since 1993.” Hopefully none of us will need a criminal defense attorney, but if I do, as a Maryland resident, I know who I’ll call.
Bob Hammond, Karl Schonborn, Seth Hoyt, and Dennis Mack temporarily replaced Joel Papernik as the class news spotter when they all alerted me that David Hopmann and his partner James Wiley Taul Jr. were married December 21 in the rotunda of San Francisco’s City Hall by the Rev. Richard Wilmington, an Episcopal priest. David is a partner in Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, where he focuses on intellectual property transactions and advertising and marketing regulation.
Jim Acquistapace reports he and wife Susan are off to China: “Even though retired, Susan is expecting to teach for a month in Wuhan, China, if she can finalize an agreement. If successful, she arrives late February, teaches in March, and we’ll travel a couple of weeks after ‘final exams.’ They require her to teach the MIT text version of Biology, which is different for her. So she has to do new lesson plans.” Hopefully the air in Wuhan will be breathable.
Finally, Fred Roberts, whose presentation you may recall from the “Passions” session at the 50th, held his first US photography workshop in Los Angeles in early January. Fred reported: “We are conducting this program in partnership with both the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Heart of Los Angeles, which provides underserved youth with free, exceptional programs in academics, arts, and athletics.”
I’ve heard from several classmates that they continue to work their way through Our Stories, which seems like a good way to pass the winter evenings. This is the traditional slow news period, so I exhort you all to do interesting things this spring and report them to me for the next magazine edition or, as I have threatened in the past, I’ll have to make up stuff.
By John Pinney, ’65