Fifty-year celebrations are in the air and one that received attention last November was the celebrated point scored by Chuck Yeager 50 years ago in the 1952 Harvard-Yale game. The New York Times devoted almost a page in its Sunday sports section to recount that famous score and ran a good picture of Chuck sporting his '53 tie. Chuck says that the Harvards have been good sports about it, but I suspect that the next person to wear his number (99) will get hammered. Yale'd better retire it.

Rain notwithstanding, a number of classmates gathered for the Princeton game. My reporter Bill Nightingale (who had the good sense not to sit in the rain) says that Lou Sinks, John Coleman, Don Byck, Geoff Nelson, Harmon Leete, and Bill Kissick braved the elements, but sought refuge at some point in Coxe Cage. Gene Zaborowski, Ted Richards, Chuck Everett, and Harlow Unger held their annual New Haven reunion that weekend, but abandoned the game after two wet quarters.

Neither inclement weather nor failing bodies can keep some of our class athletes from performing. Peter Parker and his partner won the 70-and-over doubles title in Maryland and then with others helped Maryland win the USTA Sectional Senior Championship over teams from Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and DC. And Jack Joslyn at last report was heading for Venezuela to participate with his wife Lynn and daughter Alison '82 in a masters swimming meet there. Not to be outdone, Roger Whitburn earned a Nastar silver medal last March while skiing in Aspen.

And the books keep coming. Charlie Johnson, retired from his New York law practice and living in Savannah, has written a book on Mary Telfair, a prominent Georgia lady who willed her house to found the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences. Charlie describes the will contest that ensued before the Academy was successfully established. Interestingly, Andy Labrot has served as its president on two separate occasions. Meanwhile Peter Stansky has also written a book to be published by Yale University Press this spring, Sassoon: The Worlds of Philip and Sybil. And Art Stonehill has collaborated with two others on the ninth edition of Multinational Business Finance. Art and his wife spend six months a year in Hawaii, where he teaches a course on international finance at the University of Hawaii, and six months in Corvallis, Oregon.

It's always pleasant to report stability. From Olympia, Washington, Doug DeForest writes that he has the same house, same job, same car, and same wife (not necessarily in that order of importance), but notes that the years do slip by.

Grandparenthood continues apace. Bob Weinberg and wife Wendy welcomed their first grandchild, Alexander Laszlo Weinberg, born to their son Jeremy '92. In a bittersweet vein Bill Strand lost his wife Connie last January, but her namesake, Lucy Constance, was born in September, his sixth grandchild.

Some people want to retire, but for others it is forced on them. One of the latter is Howard Levine, who had to step down as a judge from the New York Court of Appeals (the highest court in New York) because he hit age 70. An article in the New York Law Journal not only lauded his career as a judge, but ran a good picture of Howard receiving a hug from his grandson. Howard plans to teach at Albany Law School.

Ed Smith wrote that he attended the memorial service for Jim Thomson in Cambridge and came away with an appreciation of Jim's accomplishments, especially his opposition to the Vietnam War. Ed spends his summers in Marblehead and winters in Naples, Florida.

Last June Bill Kissick and his wife Priscilla hosted a 45th Reunion for the Class of 1957, Yale School of Medicine. Included in the reunion were Tom Danaher, Hal Fallon, Gil Hogan, Stan Kilty, and Bill Waskowitz. Bill claims it was just a warm-up for this June.

Sadly, I report the death of Carl Wolff last October of colon cancer. Carl graduated from Harvard Medical School and practiced psychiatry in New York until his retirement in 1998. His wife Carolyn may be reached at 165 East 72nd Street, New York, NY 10021.

The class is planning a get-together in New Haven on March 1, to see the Yale hockey team in action. Give Bill Nightingale a call if you would like to order a ticket. If enough reserve, we can have a class dinner before the game. Check the reunion Web site (www.aya.yale.edu/ reunions) for more info.

John Weber from Henniker, New Hampshire, says that he is mostly retired but doing some freelance consulting. He also offers to supply a CD of John Bush singing "Everything's Up-to-Date in Kansas City" last April in Washington. John's song-and-dance days are not over.

Ruluff McIntyre is a member of a number of historical societies, including acting as Ohio Society Governor of the Order of the Founders and Patriots of America. He is also fifer in the color guard for the Western Reserve SAR.

Bob McLean had a busy 2002. First he went to Zermatt in January for a ski trip, then in April to Japan to visit children and in May a trip from Florida to Washington for the mini-reunion there. Bob lives in Granite Bay, California.

Jim Loeb has moved to Somers, New York, where he has become active in the Westchester Yale Club. Before moving he had been president of the Hudson Valley Yale Club. He still practices law.

Charlie Coudert has retired from the foreign service, but is keeping himself busy with a number of charitable activities, including a program to help women prisoners.

To my disappointment, Pete Westerman has retired as the music director at Hunter College in New York. I say to my disappointment because I heard his final Hunter concert last April and was looking forward to many more. Pete did act as an assistant conductor at the Salzburg Festival last summer.

Dick Brown appeared on a TV show with Bill Moyers last fall discussing how pharmaceutical companies promote their drugs by entertaining doctors and soliciting their endorsements. Dick is a retired psychiatrist living in New York City.