CLASS OF 1959 | 2017 | ISSUE 3

The Great Class of 1959 continues to shine. You will have received a letter from our extraordinary co-class agents reporting on this year’s results—74 percent of our class participated in raising an amazing sum. Well done, Burt and Ed! We go for 90 percent at our 60th. Hope you are enjoying your birthday cards reminding you of that event, among other things!

Ed Murphy also tossed this on the pyre to keep the class fires burning: “By heading to Arizona after our son’s change of command ceremony, we managed to miss Irma by three days. Our two sons, one living in Tampa, and the other on the beach in Jacksonville, had the excitement, but no damage!”

Steve Pyle and family survived Harvey and various other Texas storms. Austin wasn’t hit directly, luckily. He is still very active painting oils, and has a backlog of commissioned work that seems to grow rather than diminish. Never made it to Fishers Island for our annual golf outing, so look forward to 2018.

World travelers Mary and Dave Eklund were home for a change in Tiburon, Calif. managing the Tiburon Library used book office. Dave is also the chair of the sanitation district, as you remember. Mayor next?

Ted Bromage writes, “Having missed our anniversary Bermuda trip in 2016, as I was in the hospital, we rescheduled for last May. Joan tripped and fell in Portland the night before departure, breaking her left arm, so Bermuda is still on the bucket list. We are now booked on a two-week cruise from San Diego via the Panama Canal to Fort Lauderdale. Our fingers are crossed.” (And so are your class secretaries’—such drama!)  “Dylan finished his walk on the Appalachian Trail in five months and three days. Granddaughter Abigail, daughter of Sally ’84, is newly engaged, and started nursing school at Emory. We are still too active in our local Episcopal church, but old habits die hard.”

Larry Brick is far from retired, as the following note shows: “Since moving into a Continuing Care Retirement Community six years ago, I thought we could finally retire in peace and relax. Not so! Discovered the oppression of being a senior in a place run by administrators with an almost total lack of sensitivity to the needs of their residents with multiple disabilities: hearing loss, vision problems, mobility difficulties, health issues requiring special diets, and the complex needs of senior citizens in their last years of life. Only if children or a trusted relative lived nearby to supervise, did the patient get good care. This had to stop, and my wife and I took up the cause. At one point I said to the administrators, ‘I wonder how this place got the approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Nursing? Maybe I should give them a call to see if there is an easy way to resolve it.’ Two weeks later a major problem of handicapped access was solved.  Conclusion: I guess I am a long way from retiring in peace and relaxing with the administration thinking they know more about our needs than we do! They need to improve their listening skills to become less deaf! And I close with my motto: Nothing About Us, Without Us.”

Marty Weil sends tweets on a variety of subjects, including timely humor and commentary on world events and politics.

He says: “I think we need to recruit more followers for my Twitter feed—it is @martyweilwapost. If our classmates do not have Twitter accounts, please get friends, relatives, acquaintances to follow, or get one.”

Right on, Marty. Mine is @jspurdle6128. Skip?

Dick Cadigan commented on the recent New York Times article, “Sex at Wesleyan: What’s Changed, What Hasn’t? An Alumna Asks.” Read it at nyti.ms/2vvQoB0. “The essence is summed up at the end of the article: Says one undergrad: ‘I always ask for consent…Always. I do not know what I will do after graduation. Am I still supposed to ask?’ Such worries are a burden, but not like ours, summed up by John Travolta in the song “Staying Alive.”

Tom McHugh responded: “I saw it, and am afraid I had difficulty understanding the gist of the story. Thoughts/interpretations welcome.”

Bob Chase couldn’t resist: “I cannot understand why Cads sent this to all the guys who knew less about sex than any of their contemporaries.”