CLASS OF 1957 | 2018 | ISSUE 2

Gordy Wilmot and family are enjoying a summer cruise out of Boston to Bermuda. This is an event that the Wilmots have done previously, and it attracts almost the entire participation of the family, 19 in all. His eldest grandson married in May and all the Wilmot children (three) and grandchildren (nine) attended. Gordy hosted a bachelor party in his rec room, where the fare consisted of pizza and games included Dungeons and Dragons.

John Chaplick writes novels, the latest entitled Parchments of Fire. Deep sea divers discover a 2,000-year-old Roman shipwreck that harbors secrets proving potentially catastrophic to modern day Greece. This is the fourth of John’s published novels in the adventure genre. His fiction writing career began on the first day following his retirement, after finishing his morning cup of coffee, and he has not looked back. The novels are framed against the dark shadow of foreboding, but with a real event likely to occur in a contemporary setting. The books are available via Amazon or EngagingBooksBlog.com.

I’ve heard from Naren Bali in Buenos Aires, where, among other things, he reminds me that it is winter in Argentina. He has a consulting practice and says wife Margarita is busy with a variety of cultural pursuits including modern dance and video production. She completed a three-month program as an invited artist under a Mellon fellowship at the University of Washington in Seattle. Their children teach at the university level; daughter poly-sci at Michigan State and son math at the University of Buenos Aires.

Naren updates on a “periodic economic crisis” in Argentina with a resignation that this will ultimately pass. He cites a Spanish saying, “No hay mal que due cien anos” loosely translated as “there’s no harm that lasts a hundred years.” Somehow that sounds more resonant in the original language. He concludes his note this time with some nostalgic thoughts about our time at Wes, where the so-called Silent Generation benefited from government by a “reasonable Republican” and the Yankees won the World Series. (Naren, I second the motion, especially the baseball reference even though it wasn’t every year, just many of them.)

A note from Dick Cassie informs the class of the passing of Roger Nelson in April. Friend and roommate at Wes, Dick played basketball versus Roger in high school and when they found out they were both headed to Middletown, they decided to room together, along with Ted Kuhn. These two Jersey boys kept in touch all throughout the passing years—a lifetime of fun and laughter. Dick writes that Roger was always upbeat, true to his associations in business and personally. He adds that Roger was wont to say that Wesleyan gave him “a terrific education.”

Bill Shepard’s wife, Lois, is recovering from a knee replacement. He endorses Jim Brown’s comments (in my last column) on the values of regular swimming and the backstroke in particular. Bill writes for the periodical French Wine Explorers and will teach an American history course on World War I at nearby Chesapeake College.

Art Typermass | joanarth64@gmail.com
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