Class Notes: March/April 2024
By John M. PinneyHaving noted the absence of geese on our lawn in the last edition, they obviously read the alumni magazine because they appeared shortly after I submitted the notes. They line up by the hundreds on the water in “Normandy landing” style along the shoreline in the morning and move to our lawn in the afternoon to attack the defenseless grass. Winter is here.
The ’65 Zoom team is off and running with a January session featuring a return engagement with James “Jimmy” Hatch, retired Navy Seal and our inaugural Zoom speaker. His topic: “Building Bridges: How Yale Has Transformed My Life” is in anticipation of his upcoming graduation from Yale. The session’s able moderators are Seth Hoyt and Sam Kilbourn, both of whom bring personal perspectives on transformative life events. The February program features Pericles Lewis, dean of Yale College. David Roscoe invited Dean Lewis to speak about his “Dean’s Dialogue” program and how his seminars are cultivating meaningful civil discussion of very tough issues at Yale today. Happily, the Zoom team plans on continuing the program throughout 2024.
A follow up to the Santa Fe minireunion: as noted in the last edition, attendees have made a contribution to the Keres Children’s Learning Center at Cochiti Pueblo, an immersive cultural education effort among tribal youth and a highlight of the entire mini. The gift of $5,000 on behalf of the Class of 1965 was presented to Dr. Joseph Suina, former governor of Cochiti Pueblo and grandfather of Mikayla Suina, a first-year student at Yale. Southwest Seminars, the organizer of the mini, arranged for the presentation. Thanks again to Earl and Deborah Potter for hosting an outstanding event. And if you’d like to know what else Earl and Deborah have been doing, check out A Five and Dime Story on YouTube—the story of their reviving the Five and Dime in Santa Fe as the Five and Dime General Store and bringing it to eight other communities.
The coming year will feature several class activities. In addition to the planning for our 60th by Roscoe, Leich, and Farrington, Ralph Protsik has offered to head up production of a class book like the Our Stories (Continuation) he and John Schenck produced for the 55th. Ralph is also fully engaged in planning a minireunion for the fall in Asheville, North Carolina, with help from Erich Cluxton. Our newly appointed YAA staff member, Janene Castaldi, and her colleague Cristina Hall have already provided their excellent support. You’ll be hearing more about it in the next few months, but be thinking about a trip to Asheville this coming September. Also, make sure to mark your calendars for the annual class dinner in New York on October 25. More on our 60th when dates become available.
Brief notes: Pope Barrow reports, “My life consists of pickleball games daily, sailboat racing weekly, zydeco dancing whenever a band is in town, watching grandkids play soccer and hockey, and many medical appointments, but it’s all good.” Earl Thompson: “Great shape at 80. I walk everywhere and may resume skiing.” Edward Gosselin published a new book in November 2023: Delvings: Italy, Sex, Heresy, Astronomy, and Other Things. It’s available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. And from a friend/caregiver of John Leo: “John’s journey continues. John’s memory continues to decline but John has not lost the ability to be a wise ass. John grasps onto many past events and friends. And if you visit, upon departure just say . . . ‘peace, pot, and microdot.’ John will get it.” Finally, Bob Leich wrote: “A friend here in Los Angeles presented me with a hardbacked volume titled History of the Yale Class of 1897, which he found browsing a bookstore. There was a member of that class named William Henry Ingham, whose father was Jonathan Ingham. Jon and I had a nice catch-up the other day and he feels that the person I spotted must be one of his ancestors. Small world.”
Bob Hammond reported: “On May 6 Barb and I, along with Helaine and Hugh Marshall, attended a lovely memorial luncheon that Susan, Jennifer, and Bob Popper hosted in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, to celebrate the lives of their parents—our classmate Bob who died of lung cancer in 2021 and his wife Linda, who died in 2023. The ‘kids’ put together a wonderful afternoon. After lunch, guests were invited to the nearby Popper home to view a display of beautiful Swedish handicrafts Linda created over the years and a collection of Bob’s artwork—an aspect of his life of which I had not been aware.”
On November 27, Fred Kneip wrote: “I am sorry to be writing to you to report the passing of our classmate Thomas P. Hyde earlier this morning. Tom was one of my roommates in New Haven and was a dear friend for the many years that followed. He was an accomplished pediatrician and outdoorsman in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and a wonderfully positive and thoughtful person.”
We lost two other classmates: Rory O’Neil passed away peacefully on October 1, 2020, with his wife of 52 years, Diane (Dedee) O’Neil, at his side. Michael H. Smith passed away unexpectedly on October 30. Their obituaries as well as Tom Hyde’s are posted on the class website yale1965.org.
Stay well, get the latest COVID vaccine, and be prepared to join in upcoming class events.