Class Notes

Notes: September/October 2008
News: 2008 Annual Dinner (posted April 29, 2008)
Notes: July/August 2008
Notes: May/June 2008
Notes: March/April 2008
Notes: January/February 2008

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Notes: September/October 2008

The class’s Music in Schools project continues to win notice and applause. The latest noteworthy report of its growth and effects was contained in a long news piece in the Yale Daily News of April 24th (http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/24656). Subsequently, Robert Blocker, dean of the Yale School of Music, received a Seton Elm-Ivy Award in part for his championship of the project. These awards recognize the advancement of understanding and cooperation between city and university.

John Fistere has reported in after having retired twice, first from a systems engineering career, then as executive director of the Prostate Cancer Research and Education Foundation. Living in Mt. Helix, near San Diego, with his wife Teresa, John recently took up the guitar and is on track to make his debut soon singing Kenny Rogers' "Lucille." Among his interests are physics “at the Scientific American level” including cosmology and the search for the "Theory of Everything." Brian Walsh is the recent author of Boys Should Be Boys: A Headmaster’s Reflections (TMCBooks of Conway, NH). Based on Brian’s career in independent schools, most of them as headmaster of The Buckley School in New York City, the work is a memoir-style reflection on the different ways boys and girls learn.

I must sadly report four deaths.

In Memoriam: William Pratt Laughlin, originally of the class of 1956 but eventually with us, died at home in Manhattan on February 25, 2008. Bill, his sister reports, lived a quiet life, loved golf, was an avid reader, and had many friends.

In Memoriam: Richard P. Lewis died after a brief illness on May 18, 2008, in Columbus, Ohio. A distinguished cardiologist at the Ohio State University College of Medicine, he directed, greatly expanded, and strengthened its division of cardiology and made authoritative contributions to his specialty as teacher, surgeon, and author. Dick was noted especially for his advances in medical education. He was also "an avid, if frequently frustrated, golfer"--a condition he no doubt shared with many of his classmates. Pierre Boucaren, one of Dick’s roommates, writes, "As far as I can remember, Dick never knew a person who didn't like him.” Ron Ragen, Dick's high school classmate, characterizes his old friend as "almost like a brother to me. He was a formidable competitor--bright, entertaining, widely interested and interesting, loyal, dedicated, one of a very special breed.” Dick is survived by his wife Penny, their children Richard P. Lewis, Jr., and Heather N. Brown, and grandchildren. Contributions in his memory may be made to the Richard Phelps Lewis M.D. Scholarship Prize Fund, Ohio State University College of Medicine, Development and Alumni Affairs, 660 Ackerman Road, PO Box 183112, Columbus, OH 43218-3112.

In Memoriam: I must also report the death on May 27, 2008, of William O. (Don) Miller in Crisfield, Maryland. We had little news of Don, an All American swimmer, since graduation. He reflected thoughtfully in reunion books about his commitment to the betterment of the world, a growing philosophical resignation to its ills, and an appreciation of what his undergraduate education had given him. Jerry Jonas reports seeing Don many years ago when he was pursuing an advertising career in New York and writing for the Ford Foundation. Phil Pillsbury writes that "Don's knowledge was wide and deep; he never wore it on his sleeve and always showed interest in the thoughts and feelings of others.” Don is survived by two sons, Timothy and Caleb.

In Memoriam: Edmund P. (Pete) Smith 2d died in Bozeman, Montana on June 4, 2008. His published obituary gives a fair sense of his words and philosophy. "Life's journey,” he would say, “is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting 'Holy shit. What a ride!'" Pete was briefly an investment banker, then a Formula Ford car racer. He tried to form a company in Italy to harvest olives and finally worked in Belgium for a family company until his retirement. Then he and his wife Renee, who predeceased him, roamed the US in a camper until they settled in Bozeman. Diagnosed with Parkinsons in 1999, "he didn't change much over the years; he simply got a little more potent." Pete is survived by his children David Smith, Laura Shermer, Daniel Smith, and Suzanne Smith, a brother and sister, and grandchildren. Memorial contributions in his name may be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (http://www.michaeljfox.org); the American Parkinson's Disease Association (Attn: Lydia), 500 15th Avenue S., Great Falls, MT 59405; or Gallatin Sporting Clays, PO Box 3483, Bozeman, MT 59772-3483.

For further reading: Joseph A. Soares, The Power of Privilege: Yale and America’s Elite Colleges. Another sobering look at the class biases inherent in our admission to Yale and how those biases continue to operate.

—JMB


News: 2008 Annual Dinner (posted April 29, 2008)

This is a brief report on the comments that Robert Blocker, dean of the Yale School of Music (YSM), offered about the class's Music in the Schools Project at the recent annual class dinner in Manhattan. I send it with Tom Chittenden's and Malcolm Mitchell's concurrence, in part to show that I can convey happy news from time to time, in part as the observation of a thorough-going convert to an endeavor about which I was highly skeptical at the outset. I am now as enthusiastic about the project as the dean is.

As everyone who was present on April 10th will agree, Dean Blocker is a huge fan and supporter of the project. Were he not, the School of Music wouldn't have gone ahead with the project so far so fast--even with the support that so many of us have provided it and the active involvement in its realization provided by classmates like Malcolm Mitchell and Don Roberts.

As you may recall, the project commenced with the YSM's focus on the Lincoln-Bassett Elementary School in New Haven. In large part because of the YSM's commitment of staff support and its students to music programming and instruction in the school, Lincoln-Bassett's overall performance as a school has improved to the extent that it is no longer on the list of Connecticut schools considered to be failing. More important, its students have grown enthusiastic about music, and many of them now participate in its many aspects--learning it, playing it, singing it. In addition, such has been the success of the YSM's work at the Lincoln-Bassett School that it now feels confident to expand its work throughout the New Haven school system, whose leaders wholeheartedly back the project. In the fall, 20 city schools will have YSM students teaching in them. And because of the administrative demands of such an enlarged and complex program, the YSM has appointed an associate dean, Michael Yaffe, himself an experienced music educator, to manage the project and has added two paid YSM graduates, Olivia Malin and John Miller, to staff it. John is working in several New Haven schools and has recruited more than 60 School of Music students to volunteer as music instructors. Olivia is focused on Lincoln-Bassett and is working with staff members there to enhance and deepen its music program. All of this is to say that the class project is now built into the structure of the YSM.

Because the first bi-annual symposium of the Music in the Schools project was such a success last May, the YSM is already laying plans for its second symposium--in the spring of 2009. Again, 1957 classmates will be invited to nominate music educators from their home school districts to participate in and be honored at the symposium. Moreover, Michael Yaffee is now engaged in developing an enhanced YSM Web site, a part of which will be devoted to the Music in the Schools project. As part of that enhancement, he is working on the creation of a listserv and other mechanisms that will allow the project fellows (as participants in the symposia are termed) to stay in touch with each other and thus build a group of people throughout the country who will in effect be alumni of the project and associated over the long term with the YSM.

Finally, also with funds provided by the Class of 1957, the YSM will soon announce the appointment of the first Class of 1957 Visiting Professor of Music Education. While Dean Blocker did not name the chair's inaugural occupant, he did indicate that it was likely to be a noted music educator from China. In that way, the class project and Yale's larger effort to build links with universities in other nations, especially in China, will fit together.

All in all, I take this to be an exceedingly auspicious and fast-running start to a project that has grown out of a commitment that the class made to the YSM some years ago. I believe that we should all take much satisfaction in what we have wrought.

—JMB


Notes: July/August 2008

Last November, a plaque at Yale Bowl honoring the athletic achievements of the class and marking the class’s part in the renovation of the Bowl was unveiled. The plaque reads simply: “Class of 1957 - 9 Ivy Championships, Polo National Championship & Olympic Gold Medals in Crew (1956).” Thanks to Dick Jones, who organized this project as part of our 50th reunion gift, a complete report, including the names of classmates memorized by gifts, is on the class Web site.

The annual class council meeting and dinner took place at the Yale Club on April 10th. At the meeting, Tom Chittenden ably led participants through officers’ reports and discussions. Much talk concerned future class minireunions. The after-dinner speaker was Dean Robert Blocker of the Yale School of Music. He reported with enthusiasm on the results so far of our Music in the Schools project and outlined its future activities. I have reported on the contents of Dean Blocker’s remarks in an email message to email-ready classmates.

Our irrepressible Bob Rosefsky writes as follows: “My habit of teaching via the media has resulted in a website, ‘University of Bob,’ where I offer advice on finance, travel matters, and retirement planning, including my curriculum, now dubbed "A Spa for Your Brain." A special feature involves a book written in the year 2020 by Speculative Retrospective Historian Hubert Hindsight. Its title: ‘What Were They Thinking?’ which elaborates on the follies of our era. Hindsight has given me exclusive rights to quote from the book, and I do so periodically on the website: www.universityofbob.com.” This historian will not comment on the expertise of Mr. Hindsight.

Boston Magazine has again listed Larry Strasburger as one of Boston's Best Doctors, and the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society has awarded him the 2008 Outstanding Psychiatrist Award for Lifetime Achievement. Don Rohlfing recently saw Mike and Sherry O’Hearn in Naples, FL, then Pat and Wendy Jones in San Francisco, finally Ben and Joanie Case in Miami. Ben was returning from a fishing trip in Ushuaia, Argentina.

A classmate who wishes to remain anonymous has corrected a mistake in my obituary about Bob Joost. While Bob was among our youngest classmates, he wasn’t the youngest or the only Ford Scholar. 18 classmates were born after 1 September 1936, the youngest on 12 August 1937. Five were “Fordies.”

We have recently lost two classmates dear to many of us. (As always, fuller obituaries are available on the class website.)

In Memoriam: Hiram A. (Tony) Bingham died on March 31, 2008, in Greenwich, CT, from cancer. After Yale, Tony served in the Air Force, then attended Columbia Law School, practiced law, entered the business world, and briefly taught. He then took up the business ventures that he’d pursue the rest of his life--in energy production, clean energy, and organic foods. Tony anticipated the energy shortage with early involvement in renewable non-hyro-carbon energy sources. His most recent investments were in geothermal properties in California. He also wrote a number of books that expressed his philosophy of living through Anthroposophy and was involved in the related Waldorf independent schools movement. Hal Russell, one of Tony's oldest friends, writes that "I have never met a person who did not like him….Tony approached life as a journey, the goal of which was to develop one's awareness of the spiritual dimensions of human existence; he was uncompromising in his adherence to this quest despite the skepticism of some of his friends and relatives.” Tony is survived by his wife Anne and their three children: Hiram, Olivia, and Matthew.

In Memoriam: John D. (Jock) Newbold died in Manhattan on April 12, 2008 from the complications from acute leukemia. After Yale, Jock attended NYU Business School, then served in the US Naval Reserve. In 1960 he then joined First National City Bank (now Citigroup) and remained there throughout his career with increasingly senior responsibilities, including country head in Singapore and Malaysia, corporate banking head in Tokyo, and finally director of the bank's global shipping division. George Atkeson, Jock's friend from youth, wrote in his last letter to Jock, "I know it must hurt you to go through these difficult but necessary treatments and, along with the fact that I cannot see you, this is hurting me terribly. Goodbye, my lifelong friend. Goodbye. Goodbye." Jock is survived by his wife, Judith Bourne Newbold, and their three children: Jennifer Freeman, Timothy Newbold, and Michael Newbold. Donations in Jock’s memory may be made to the NYPH Leukemia Fighters Fund, c/o Gail J. Roboz, M.D., 520 East 70th Street (Starr 340A), New York, NY 10021, or to the Vineyard Energy Project at ( www.vineyardenergyproject.org).

May I ask that all classmates’ widows with email addresses who wish to receive email messages but do not do so now to notify me via e-mail?

—James M. Banner, Jr.


Notes: May/June 2008

I commence with happy reports in a column of too much sad news.

Ed Ajello sends word that he’s won awards in juried competitions for portrait paintings. “My retirement career in art is supposedly opposed in required mental perceptions and optical acuity to those utilized during my engineering career…and these awards were achieved at my advanced age of 81.” Congratulations to this youth, who entered Yale late after submarine service in WWII.

From Roger Gambatese: “I was married on January 19 to Jan Poole. Perhaps getting married at age 72 is newsworthy.” Indeed it is. And from Jim Crooks: “Laura and I sold our house in Jacksonville after living there for 35 years. Some sadness. But no more magnolia leaves to rake, lawns to mow, gardens to weed, pool to clean, or repair people to call.”

Class events continue to bring old friends together. The annual ’57 winter day in New Haven, arranged by Gus Kellogg and Dick Jones, was a great success. J. Gustave “Gus” Speth, dean of the school of school of forestry and environmental studies, sobered everyone with predictions of the earth’s state in 100 years. A tour of the Gerald and Sara Murphy exhibit at the Art Gallery was superbly led by the show’s curator, Helen Cooper. And everyone enjoyed dinner and sports events later.

Now for the sad part—four deaths since the previous column.

In Memoriam: Peter H. Hare died in Guilford, CT, on January 3, 2008. A distinguished philosopher long on the SUNY Buffalo faculty, Peter's many writings had enduring impacts upon the history of American philosophy by making central the works of Charles Sanders Peirce, G. H. Mead, William James, Alfred North Whitehead, and John Dewey. Peter is survived by his wife, Susan Howe, a brother Michael, a sister Sara, his son Clare, and his daughter Gwen. Memorial services will take place in the spring in Buffalo. Contributions in Peter's memory may be made to the Guilford Land Trust, PO Box 200, Guilford, CT 06437.

In Memoriam: We have also lost, on January 12, 2008, Hiram P. Maxim II. After service as a naval officer, Hi spent much of his career at the Wiremold Company, then as owner-manager of a reprographic firm. Actively involved in environmental issues, he served as president of the Farmington River Watershed Association, the Farmington and Lyme Land Trusts, and the local chapter of the Connecticut River Watershed Council and as a member of the Governor's Environmental Policy Committee. He was also informal Lyme Town Historian. He is survived by his children, Sarah Maxim Nuranto, Hiram Hamilton Maxim II, and Merritt Maxim Michael. Contributions in Hi’s memory may be made to the Lyme Public Hall Association, 249 Hamburg Rd., Lyme CT 06371.

In Memoriam: George J. Dunn must be added to the list of deceased classmates. George died on February 17, 2008 of complications from leukemia in his native Cleveland. At Yale, he was vice chairman of the Yale Daily News and a member of Skull and Bones. After practicing law, George became in-house counsel, vice president, and general counsel for Standard Oil Ohio and later the same with BP America after it acquired Standard Oil. Serving on the boards of the Cleveland Orchestra, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and WCPN, George was a significant figure in Cleveland’s civic life. He is survived by Becky, his wife of 46 years, their two sons John and Gordon, and his brother Bruce. Contributions in George’s name may be made to the Cleveland Orchestra, Severence Hall, 11001 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland OH 44106, the Museum of Contemporary Art, 8501 Carnegie Avenue, Cleveland OH 44106, or WCPN Idea Center, 1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland OH 44115.

In Memoriam: Finally I must report the death on February 19, 2008 of Robert H. Joost from complications of Parkinsons disease. Perhaps the youngest member of the class, Bob entered Yale as a Ford Scholar at 16. He won the Bennett Prize in political science and a TenEyck prize for oratory and was a ranking scholar. He attended Harvard Law School, where he was editor of the Harvard Law Review. Then Bob was struck by bi-polar depression, which he fought throughout his life. He was for many years a senior staff member to Senator Warren Magnuson and the Senate Commerce Committee. At one point, he drafted the 1000-page bill that would have updated and recodified the entire federal criminal code. Subsequently, he became known as a leading expert on no-fault insurance. Bob is survived by his wife Elaine and two daughters, Leonarda and Nathalie. Contributions in Bob’s name may be made to the National Parkinson Foundation, 1501 NW 9th Avenue, Bob Hope Road, Miami, FL 33136-1494.

Full and less formal obituaries, often with words from other classmates but too long to be included here, can be found on the class website.

—James M. Banner, Jr.


Notes: March/April 2008

Though modest to a fault, it appears as if even he, Don Roberts, couldn’t avoid gloating as follows: "Those looking for succor after Harvard’s drubbing of Yale in the Bowl need go no further than the Harvard College Fund Annual Report for 2006-2007, which lauds the Harvard Class of 1957 for its record setting 50th-reunion gift total of $27.1 million with 72% participation. Our numbers," writes Don, "were $34.2 million and 76% participation." No further comment needed.

From our tour leader Alan Hockstader: "Mark your calendars that the Class 2008 annual class trip will go to Israel and Jordan in late October for approximately two weeks."

We've just inaugurated a new page on the class website. It's devoted to classmates' biographies—of those who wrote none for the 50th reunion book or those whose bios were inadvertently omitted. Each new bio will be considered an integral part, even if in electronic form, of the reunion book and get the editorial burnishing of Andy Glass. If you didn’t submit a bio to the reunion book, please do so now. Like the reunion book itself, these supplementary bios will help compose a history of the class and its members. They are username and password protected.

I repeat here my hope that you'll make other contributions to the website. It’s intended for our use and to provide information about the class to everyone. The contributions you make to such pages as "Our Four Years," where you can recall beloved (or otherwise) faculty members, your experiences on campus during undergraduate days your mature reflections on those years, and the like will endure as part of Yale's record. So will contributions you make to the "Memorial Tributes" and "Classmates' Works" pages. This is your--our!--site.

Allan Wendt recently took up the cudgels for Yale with a sharp riposte to an article vaunting the wealth of two sister institutions. "No self-respecting Yale graduate could accept a Harvard graduate’s praise of his alma mater on the social consequences of the high cost of education at America’s best universities. He cites endowment per student in casting Harvard and Princeton as the only truly elite American universities. His facts are wrong. Yale’s endowment per student is $1.97 million, amply larger than Harvard’s at $1.74 million. Yale’s acceptance rate for its latest class was only 9 per cent. And Yale’s undergraduate curriculum is widely judged superior to Harvard’s. Having attended both Yale and Harvard, I ask what could be better than a Yale education and a Harvard degree?"

From John Joh comes this recent note: "I left Yale at the end of sophomore year to attend the US Military Academy, graduated in 1959, and spent several years in the army, primarily as an aviator. Upon my resignation in 1965, I joined Delta Air Lines as a pilot, retiring, as was then required by law, upon my 60th birthday in 1995. I attended law school in Atlanta while with Delta and was able to combine both careers reasonably successfully for over 25 years. In 1961 I married Jane Wallis, an Alabama native and Auburn alumna. We are both in good health and have two daughters, four granddaughters and a grandson. I would enjoy meeting with any classmates who live in the Atlanta area or who might be passing through this part of the country."

Ray Lamontagne recently received the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Award for a lifetime of philanthropic achievement. Congratulations to him.

In Memoriam: From Dave Lawrence comes sad tidings of the death on December 28, 2007, in Amarillo, TX, where he was born, of Harold L. Daniel. Hal, as he was known to many while at Yale, spent much of his life in the Methodist ministry, then as a tree farmer in New Mexico. Bill Mobley, a roommate and close friend for over 60 years, writes of Harold that "his concern was always first and foremost for the other person, a concern he showed to his final days.... I have never known a more loyal and supportive person. On Christmas day 2007 he and his wife Barbara had special guests--a 100 year old woman and a mentally challenged young man--because they had no real place to go for this special day. Harold was too sick to eat but insisted that Barbara attend to these guests. He died three days later.... He was truly a good and gentle man. He made the world and people about him better." Harold's survivors include his wife, Barbara, whom he married in 1957, their four children and their spouses, and numerous grandchildren. Contributions in Harold's memory may be made to the United Methodist Committee on Relief, P.O. Box 9068, New York, NY 10087, or to Polk Street United Methodist Church in Amarillo.

—James M. Banner, Jr.


Notes: January/February 2008

Nota bene! The annual class dinner, earlier scheduled for April 3rd, will be held instead on April 10th at Manhattan’s Yale Club. Robert Blocker, dean of the School of Music, will be the speaker. The annual class winter event in New Haven will take place as scheduled on March 1st.

In my last column, I reported our near record-breaking $34-plus million 50th-reunion class gift. Helping compose that sum were some major gifts directed to specific purposes. They include the following. Professorships: from Bill Fleming, a Yale College microbiology professorship; from Mike Jordan, a School of Management professorship; and from the class (with a big boost from Don Roberts) a Music School professorship in music education. For research assistance: from Frank Top, a gift to the School of Medicine to aid young scientists there. Gifts of art: from Reid White, to the Art Gallery "Two Hanging Columns," a portion of Louise Nevelson's "Dawn's Wedding Feast;" and from Alice Kaplan, in Allan’s memory, the lead gift with others to the Art Gallery for "Biblioteque" by Gerald Murphy, Class of 1912. For general purposes: from John Mars, a gift to the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies; and from Rod Correll a gift to the Medical School to fund research.

Following a class commitment dating to 1983, Yale continues to offer Donald K. Walker ’26 scholarships to a small number of deserving undergraduates. A full report about the achievements of the current group of four Walker Scholars appears, as have others in recent years, on the class website. Some classmates have proudly noted that one of this year’s Walker Scholars (one, in fact, from 2005) is Michael B. McLeod ’09, star varsity football tailback.

This seems to be the class’s publishing season. Jim Seymour and some colleagues have recently written a human rights dictionary (published by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan). “Some of the content,” Jim writes, “is basic stuff we should have learned in school, but probably didn't. There are also lots of obscure (but often fascinating) points of international law. And you'll be glad to know that it's bilingual (English and Chinese).” Jim now lives with his partner in Hong Kong and would be happy to see visiting '57ers there.

Melville House has recently published Andre Schiffrin’s A Political Education: Coming of Age in Paris and New York. The memoir includes reflections on Andre’s undergraduate days, as well as on his life-long association with the socialist left and on his life in publishing.

My indefatigable source, Gus Kellogg, has sent a clipping about Lyme, CT’s local historian Hi Maxim looking natty and trim in an accompanying photo. Appointed in 1994, Hi’s principal responsibility was originally to write the town’s annual report. But proving so good at ferreting out local history, he began to write quarterly news columns for the town paper. These columns, gathered together, have now appeared between covers as The Lyme Heritage News.

At the invitation of Peter Salovey, dean of Yale College, Larry Kramer spent three autumn days on campus talking with students. He spoke at the medical school about HIV/AIDS, to undergraduates about leadership, to law school students about legislation that might assist gay people, and to undergraduates in a journalism class. During Larry’s visit, the Yale Film Society sponsored a screening of his film, “Women in Love.”

In Memoriam: Albert C. Jerman died in Bennington, VT, on October 4, 2007. After graduating from Yale, Al attended dental school at the University of Nebraska and then served for 21 years in the U.S. Air Force before retiring at the rank of colonel. An expert in forensic dentistry responsible for identifying the remains of pilots who died in crashes and before the widespread use of DNA testing, Al was a pioneer in efforts to computerize the dental records of Vietnam War POWs and MIAs to aid in their identification. A key member of the team that identified over 700 bodies of the dead after the Jonestown, Guyana, mass suicide, he also in the early years of the US space program advised NASA on the dental health of astronauts. In Arlington, VT, where he and Beverly owned the Cheese Shop, Al was active in town and Republican Party affairs as chairman of the Bennington County Republican Committee, member of the State Republican Committee, supervisor of the Township of Glastonbury, and president of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce. He also served as the historian of the Robert Todd Lincoln home in Manchester. Al is survived by his wife, his son Eric, and other family members. A daughter Rachel predeceased him. Memorial contributions may be made to The Dr. Albert C. Jerman Memorial Fund at the College of Dentistry at the University of Nebraska and sent in care of Dr. James Peck, 113 Lasso Lake Court, Lincoln CA 95648.

—James M. Banner, Jr.


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