CLASS OF 1968 | 2014 | ISSUE 2
Johns Hopkins University Press published Cut These Words into My Stone: Ancient Greek Epitaphs, translated by our own Michael Wolfe who has been flying high but, until now, under the radar of yours truly. A little research revealed he has focused largely on bringing an understanding of his Muslim faith to a wider audience. Highlights include a string of publications (novels, essays, travel accounts, and verse) and writing awards; founding and operating a publishing company; co-founding an educational media company; producing a number of documentaries for PBS, some of which were broadcast world-wide through National Geographic International; hundreds of interviews for regional and national radio and television broadcast; and hosting a show on Nightline that was nominated for an Emmy and a Peabody. Based just east of Monterey in San Juan Bautista, Michael has traveled throughout Africa, taught at Andover and Exeter, and lectured at schools like Harvard and Stanford.
Ray Solomon, dean of the Rutgers School of Law–Camden, has been named to the newly created role of provost for the Camden campus. Under his leadership as dean (in which role he will continue to serve), the school opened a $37 million classroom building and greatly expanded its clinical and pro bono legal programs. His wife, Carol Avins, is an emerita professor of Slavic Literature at Rutgers. Their older daughter, Claire, is working for a small foundation in New York that funds innovative Jewish educational projects and their younger daughter, Jess, is traveling during a gap year before starting Goucher College.
Ray was also kind enough to tell me more about “the Gardner Open”—a golf fellowship of Ted Ahern, Dave Gruol, Pete Hardin, Jacques LeGette, Steve Horvat, Craig Dodd, Dick Emerson and Ray, which has been playing for three or four days each July since 1968. Named after their first venue in Massachusetts, they have been playing with a steadily increasing membership at rotating locations up and down the East Coast. From all points on the campus: Pete, Dave, Jacques, and Steve were all on the baseball team; Craig, Pete, and Ray were all on the same floor of Hewitt 9; and, Ted and Pete were classics majors. Steve retired after many years as general counsel of a life insurance company in Chicago and now lives in South Carolina. Pete retired from the Air Force and then taught classics in Newport News, Va., from which he is now retired. Ted recently retired from the Classics Department at Boston College, which he chaired for many years. Jacques works in Atlanta with an architectural firm as a project manager. Craig has been practicing matrimonial law for many years in north Jersey. Dave lives near Craig and is a photographer. Dick is an attorney in Danbury.
While I knew Tim Polk at Wes, it was not until I moved to New Haven to attend divinity school that we became close. A couple of years ahead of me at divinity school and a lot smarter, he would school me in theology during the week and in football on Saturdays at the Yale Bowl. Thus, it is with a note of particular sadness that I learned from his wife, Lucy, that Tim’s early-onset Alzheimer’s has progressed to the point that he needed to go into a nursing home to meet his needs.
I heard from Lynn Coe ’69 who recently retired after practicing law for 41 years first in Seattle, then in Chicago, and finally in Boston doing municipal bonds for healthcare organizations. He was with Jones Day, a huge international firm, since 1996. Self-described as “one of Hoy’s Boys outliers, married to a Smithy for 45 years; two sons: one a doctor (Dartmouth ’00, Yale Med ’06) and the other a lawyer (Wes ’06 and Kent Law ’11). Likes to hunt, fish and travel;” politically conservative; and happy to see Wes win some football games.
I must tell you belatedly that Robert Blake died of a heart attack as he returned from his daily jog on Feb. 9, 2013. Clearly one of those fascinating classmates I should have known but did not, I will excerpt from his Washington Post obituary: He moved to India when he was 11, to Tehran, and back to India for high school. He earned a PhD in economics from Michigan and moved to the DC area, working for the U.S. Treasury in various international affairs departments for 15 years before taking a job as a development economist at The World Bank. He concentrated on Africa, a continent that he grew to love deeply. (Bob believed economic development was pretty simple: empower women.) Following postings in Cameroon, Uganda, and Madagascar, he retired to Arlington, Va., in 2009. Survived by his wife, Claudia, of 44 years, he discovered the joy of child development in retirement, spending a great deal of time with his grandchildren.
Locally: Judy and I moved out of New Haven two years ago to Branford, a nearby town on the shoreline. Since then, I have discovered one of the town’s features/leading citizens are Chris and Gary Wanerka ’62. Gary is a most amiable and legendary pediatrician who specializes in allergies. They live in the woods on the other side of town and he is now working just enough to underwrite their vice—worldwide travel.
I have been teaching young men at a maximum-security prison for almost 10 years. But, in the fall, I was put back into a classroom with 16 feisty felons after tutoring the past few years, and that change in assignment put things outside my comfort zone. So I packed it in. (After which, I sat down with my financial planner to see if I could afford to retire.) I have no grand plan and know I need to think about reinventing myself. But for now I am on my stationary bike most days, went off to Costa Rica with dear friends, reading a lot, and marveling at having all day every day be mine.
LLOYD BUZZELL | LBuzz463@aol.com
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