CLASS OF 1958 | 2015 | ISSUE 2

In early April, Charley DennyBart BoltonEd Kerschner and I enjoyed a lunch/golf date in Naples. Ed and Bart drove down from Sarasota to Naples, where Charlie and I reside. We gathered for lunch and then nine holes of golf. Mercifully, we did not record the scores, but the company and conversation were first-rate.

Since Randy Johnson left Wesleyan for three years in the army, he feels a part of the class of ’58 and the class of ’61. After Wesleyan he received an MBA from Stanford. He believes he was the first-ever student to use Wesleyan’s first-ever computer. It was the LGP-30, weighed 800 pounds and cost $400 ($40,000 in today’s money).

Burr Edwards reports that he and Bob Hayes tried to connect during Bob’s May visit to southern France. Sadly, they only connected via cyberspace.

Two items from John Corkran. One, his wife, Toni, is having a hip replacement in June, which will curtail summer travel. Two, relative to the 2014–2015 Wesleyan Fund, our class has been very generous this year, although we are always glad for additional contributions.

Roger Turkington has been busy in the intellectual sphere. His first volume of 195 poems has been a best seller on Amazon, and the second volume, Poetry of Passion, is in printing. He explained that since he walks with a cane, he no longer hikes, jogs, or plays tennis.

Some news from Neil Springborn. Golf occupies most of his time along with serving on several community boards. His oldest son has been transferred to Houston to take over as head of the weather bureau there.

Art Geltzer has opened his house on Cape Cod and plans another summer of fishing with Mel Cote and Dennis Allee. In June he and Younghee are going to Rome to follow up his Yale course in ancient Roman architecture. Professionally, he is doing research at Brown in digital telemedicine to improve the ophthalmic data and reduce the cost of providing eye care.

Big news from Roger Van Tassel. On April 17, he married Judith Dufour Love. They were married on their back patio in Mint Hill, N.C.

Tony Codding writes from New Hampshire. Other than taking cruises in January and March to escape the N.H. winter, his main activity has been leading a six-month long-range planning process for St. Andrews-By-the-Sea in Rye, one of New Hampshire’s nine Episcopal summer chapels.

Dick Goldman and his wife, Patti, returned from Florida on March 31. This spring he participated in three seminars for the Boston Bar Association. Two involved commercial real estate leasing and financing. He chaired the third, which dealt with the use of mediation in disputes involving closely held and family businesses. In addition to his practice he is now preparing to teach at Boston University Law School for the fourth fall in a row.

I received a very creative e-mail from Rick Pank. His theme was “baseball.” Like a “favorite mitt” he says he is finally well broken in, tennis and running becoming kayaking, biking and hiking, all keeping him in the game. His “home base” is Rowayton, Conn. (48 years), which was voted the sixth happiest coastal village in the U.S. He “keeps his eye on the ball” doing fine art photography and helping the Rowayton Art Center compete in the art league of Fairfield County. He “rounds the bases” with a mixture of nomadic trips of his own design, mixed with Road Scholar expeditions filling their head in the great Wesleyan tradition. In his “final thoughts on the game,” Rick realizes that it is not necessary to “hit the ball out of the park.” “Small ball can also win games.” That is, those who do not travel can still be happy and fulfilled.

I speak often to Art Levine and Ted Wieseman, who are in the Washington, D.C., area. Arthur and Barbara recently traveled to Antarctica and parts of South America. Art has limited his golf activity due to back issues.

Ted is doing well. He was in an assisted living facility, but recently is living independently.
Bob Furber observes that on June 16, 2016, Van Vleck Observatory will be 100 years old. He recalls having two instructors, professors Stearns and Gasteyer, for one course in which he was the only student. That class took place in Van Vleck.