YAM Class Notes: September/October 2017
Summer is in full force with a hotter-than-normal July under way. However, thoughts already turn to this coming October as Bob Woodward has confirmed he’ll make good on his promise at last year’s class dinner to come back in 2017. Bob will speak at the dinner on October 27 and hopefully help us understand what’s happened since the election. Registration materials should already have arrived, so be sure to sign up, as last year’s dinner drew a record crowd.
Stanley and Susie Trotman made a grand tour in June. Stan reports: “On our way back from a family trip to Alaska, we drove down the West Coast from Seattle to San Francisco and stopped to see a few classmates. First stop was Portland, Oregon, where we had dinner at Carl and Christine Farrington’s beautiful house with a stunning view over the city toward all the great mountains in the area. The next day Dodd and Nancy Fischer joined us all for breakfast. We had a spirited, happy gathering in spite of the significant health challenges facing Dodd. Our next stop was with Gretchen and Mike Harrison, who have an equally magnificent view overlooking the Pacific Ocean near Sea Ranch, California. Mike drove us around the roughly 200 acres loaded with giant redwood, spruce, and olive trees. He is constantly at work keeping the place in shape. We continued on the coastal road to San Francisco, where we had a three-hour dinner with Susan and Jim Acquistapace and Josh Jensen. In addition to the great conviviality, the reason for our closing the restaurant was because the sommelier was plying us all with fine wines in an effort to impress Josh. Next week we’re headed to Portland, Maine, to explore the possibility of having our next mini-reunion there. We’ve put together a group of local classmates to gather ideas about a fall 2018 mini-reunion. The group, with wives, includes Lance Fletcher, John Todd, Sam Kilbourn, Denny Gallaudet, and Mac Rogers. I will send you a report from our session.”
Our able field reporter Joel Papernik sent me the following: “I had the pleasure of connecting with Stephen Dorros, MD, at an event we held in connection with BIO International 2017 in San Diego earlier in the week. Stephen, among other things, is the head of business development at the University of California, San Diego. He is a radiologist there and won a ‘best teacher’ award last week.”
Tom Marinis reports he is “enjoying Carmel, California, for the summer. If you get to California this summer, please let me know.” Tom went on to remind me of the fateful Cotton Bowl game in 1964 when I watched Navy get trounced by Texas while I nursed a serious hangover. Tom noted: “I played golf last week with a starter on the 1963 Texas football team that beat Navy in the Cotton Bowl and won the national championship. We talked about the season and I told him the story of you coming to Dallas to find you had no tickets, which I remedied. His comment about the game: ‘The eastern media did not think we were any good.’ Fitting that Staubach ended up in Dallas, where he has become a great citizen post-football.”
Karl and Leslie Schonborn went to Nashville to visit Jim Danly and ended up at Hilly Hillenmeyer’s restaurant City Fire on Mother’s Day. They encountered a slew of Hillenmeyers, including our daughter Kelly and our three shared Hillenmeyer grandchildren. Karl commented: “You and Hilly are lucky to have such grandkids. (I think Hilly said he’s got more than ten total.) Leslie and I ended our 24-day trip in Boston and the Vineyard to see our two kids . . . and another Yale classmate, Nick Guthrie and his wife, Gigi.”
Bruce Alexander is in a photo in the July/August issue of the alumni magazine. Bruce is shown with a group welcoming the new L. L. Bean store to New Haven, but he is barely visible due to the enormous L. L. Bean “Bootmobile” in the foreground. The store will be in another Yale building project developed under Bruce’s leadership.
When not singing with the Russian Chamber Chorus of New York, David Hawkins took time to post on the listserv: “Tomorrow, July 8, three of us will celebrate 50 years of marriage (not to each other). David Roscoe and his wife Linda, John Ahrens and his wife Brenda, and me and Betsy, all were married on the same day 50 years ago.” This sparked a flurry of 50-plus marriage milestone reports with Chip Marshall at 52 years—a week ahead of Alex Beard. This exchange led David Roscoe to suggest: “Sounds like a good panel for our 55th: ‘50-Plus Years—How the Hell Did We Do It?’”
In another listserv post, Chris Kinney called attention to Vietnam, another 50-year milestone fast approaching for several classmates, commenting on a new book by Mark Bowden entitled Hue, 1968. Chris noted: “I highly recommend the book. It is very well researched and balanced.” Chris was “the only member of our class to be in Hue for the duration of the battle in 1968.” Bob Hammond was moved by a note from Doug McPheters on Memorial Day to post “In Flanders Fields” in memory of Woody Knapp.
I’m sorry to report the loss of two classmates: Jay Schneider passed away on February 9, 2017, in Bethesda, Maryland, and Ben Wilson on April 6 in Montreux, Switzerland. Their obituaries are posted on the class website. Please post any remembrances there.
Reminder: Class dinner October 27 at the Yale Club of New York City.
By John Pinney, ’65