CLASS OF 1968 | 2022 | FALL ISSUE
Caught up with Dan Wood ’67: As Nason Hamlin put it, Dan, inspired by the English exchange student, Peter Harborow ’64, along with the late Mike Tine ’67, “did foundational work that was not flashy but essential for the early crew—like convincing local utility to give us telephone poles for the construction of our dock.” Became an endocrinologist (Columbia and UConn); then two years practicing among Hopi and Navajo as an alternative to Vietnam. Moved to Bath, Maine, in 1978. Happily married to an attorney who practiced elder law. Two daughters: one a Yalie who rowed in U.S. national boat a couple of years. In retirement, he is helping build a reproduction of the Virginia, the first boat built by Englishmen in North America.
Rick Voigt recently published a novel, My Name on a Grain of Rice. From Amazon: “Harry Travers walks away from the manicured future his disintegrating, moneyed family had envisioned for him so that he could feel the rush of making something out of nothing. That something would be himself.” Eighty-four percent of the Amazon reviewers gave it five stars. The author is a lawyer (UVA). After working for the solicitor general in D.C., he moved to Connecticut and went into private practice focusing on workplace issues. In “retirement,” he has some college gigs (including Wes).
Vic Hallberg spent 11 years as a Lutheran minister serving parishes in Vermont and Minnesota (where, now retired, he lives) before shifting into the marketing of high-tech medical equipment. Vic has stayed close to Eric Conger, a Hoboken-based playwright, Bob Helsel, a retired IT consultant in Boulder, and Rick Voigt. The four of them (with wives) vacation together in, for example, the Adirondacks and Moab.
Amby Burfoot of Mystic, Connecticut, the 1968 winner of the Boston Marathon and former editor of Runner’s World, competed in his 59th consecutive Manchester (Connecticut) Road Race, a Thanksgiving Day event that draws about 10,000 runners from around the world. He said that any “lucky dude” can win Boston, but you have to be “pretty mean and gnarly” to run 59 Manchesters. He runs these days because he is not ready to “sit on the front porch and drink lemonade or something stronger.”
John Kepner, with a friend, is producing The Race to Social Justice podcast series. In one, John is interviewed on his coming to comprehend white privilege. Ray Solomon figures prominently in another. John’s hope is that candid, compelling discussions about race will help “each of us in our personal journey in addressing racism.” Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and others.
Jeff Talmadge, after 47 years in Wellesley, moved to East Orleans. Bob Ziegenhagen is living in an Episcopal senior living center in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Nice chat with Bill Currier ’69. Still learning things about one another. Bob Reisfeld’s older daughter made him a grandfather last year. His younger daughter got married in August. Though it irked the hell out of Ellen, Wallace Murfit became president of his rowing club, a position with a lot of work and no money that no one else would take. John Lipsky said all his children and all his grands live in Brooklyn. Bill Nicholson’s #1 son has retired. Bill hasn’t. Few years back, saw Peter Corbin, a renown, wildlife painter, who was in Jacksonville for a commission. Received Bill van den Berg’s holiday letter—a beautiful collage of photographs and text re his 2021. In June, Judy and I celebrated our 50th. Most meaningful accomplishment of my life.
Steve Beik died June 29, 2021, in Longwood, Florida. At Wes, a basketball player and ace tennis player (Pennsylvania State high school champion) who, in time, turned to golf. An attorney (Vanderbilt), he was a prominent figure in GOD TV, a worldwide “evangelical Christian media network” (Wikipedia). Described in his obituary as a quiet and reserved “yet passionate to see the Lord use the media to reach the lost.”
Mary Thompson, Greg Willis’s sister, wrote me: Greg died April 28, 2019, “by his own hand. . . .” The family believes the overwhelming power of PTSD finally caused him to take the actions he did. He served for 11 months on the ground in Vietnam and was never quite the same after those traumatic months. . . . Returning from Vietnam, he completed his MBA at Columbia then worked for the Bank of New York and Prudential Bache before retiring early to the family farm in Vermont. . . . He loved the land and walked almost all of it every day. . . . He became involved in the local Baptist church. . . . A train buff, he also collected antique farm tools, mostly from our family, farmers back through generations. He had a good life.”