CLASS OF 1962 | 2021–2022 | WINTER ISSUE
I took on this new position as class secretary hoping that it would bring me back into contact with old friends and acquaintances. That it has, and I thank those classmates who extended good wishes privately, as well as those with the substantive news reported below.
Pete Buffum is retired, still married after 55 years, and in the same Philadelphia house after 50 years. After spending 20 years in program development and evaluation of prison and probation settings while teaching occasional courses in criminal justice at Temple University, Pete “spent another two decades mostly assisting my wife in her real estate career. Now, while I consider myself retired, I am finding it difficult to get her to retire. She has way too much energy. But in the scheme of things that’s not much to complain about.”
Bob Gause still practices pediatric orthopedics in Winterport, Maine, probably as the oldest on the staff with “no more surgery but 25 patients in the office tomorrow. They keep me young just solving their problems so I am lucky.” He recalls rooming with Dave Fiske and Tony Scirica in the Psi Upsilon house “along with a boa we fed mice from the psych lab. Good days . . . good memories. Memory is key.”
John Hazlehurst reports, “I’m still living in Colorado Springs, happily ensconced in a three-story Victorian not far from the three-story Victorian where I grew up. Still gainfully employed as a reporter and columnist for the Colorado Springs Business Journal, and amazed and amused by life as a crusty old geezer. Together, Karen and I have six kids, 22 grandchildren, and four great-grands. We’re healthy and active, although not as fit and foolish as we were a few years ago. Too busy to retire—three big rescue dogs, multiple jobs paid and unpaid, our statewide visitor magazine Colorado Fun, frequent family visits, and the never-ending renovation of the 1899 house.”
Mike Riley is “still trying to reach out with my (heterodox, insouciant, outrageous) answer to ‘what is to be done?’ with our time and our country,” with his website maritalhospitality.com.
Bob Saliba and his wife Jenny have moved to a retirement community—Fellowship Senior Living in Basking Ridge, New Jersey—where “I was the reluctant spouse, but I can say with confidence that it was the best decision ever. We are in good health and are enjoying living here very much.”
Steve Trott relates that after 33 years on the Ninth Circuit Court he has assumed “inactive senior status” with one case left to finish. His “spirited dissent” on an immigration case judgement by his colleagues became one of roughly 90 out of 12,000 requests to the Supreme Court to be taken up, and “the Court reversed my colleagues 9-0 and sent the case back with instructions to do it right. Now I will probably get to write a new opinion correcting our mistake.” In his new life after 55 years with the law, Steve plans to “spend much of my time bothering Bob Hunter with questions about foreign affairs.” Steve added that the Highwaymen, “after losing Chan, Bobby and David, closed up shop after singing together for 50 years in the end of a great adventure.” A final note added that Rick Tuttle visited for a few wonderful days in Boise during which they celebrated Rick’s birthday and “had a great time catching up and exploring terrific memories from Wesleyan and EQV.”
And finally an update from your new secretary: Personal life has been up and down as I lost both my first wife Lynn and son Seth to cancer while just in their 40s, but have been happily remarried for 30 years now to Helena, a Finland-born, and now retired, flight attendant with Air Canada. My resulting exposure to both Finnish and airline culture has greatly enriched my life. I have also been lucky professionally. After a PhD in clinical psychology from Harvard, I landed in the large and internationally staffed Psychology Department at York University in Toronto, where in 1980 some like-minded colleagues and I established a new specialty graduate area in the History and Theory of Psychology. Our small program has turned out a steady stream of outstanding scholars and teachers, while my own research and writing became focused on this area. Its most visible result has been the textbook Pioneers of Psychology currently in a 5th edition published by Norton. Although formally retired, I maintain affiliation with the program but work as I say for less than half the time and with half the efficiency of yore.
Just prior to going to press, I received the very sad news of the passing on November 4, 2021, of our longtime leader and friend to all, Bruce Corwin; his obituary ran in the Los Angeles Times: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/latimes/name/bruce-corwin-obituary?id=31339645
Best wishes to all for the holidays and 2022.