CLASS OF 1966 | 2023 | SPRING ISSUE
“A bit hard to digest that it was 60 years ago that we started at Wesleyan,” begins this inspirational update from Dave McNally. “The 1960s were a different world, exciting like an erupting volcano, and I for one am extremely grateful to have come of age in that era. I am also grateful for the innumerable learning opportunities Wesleyan offered—in the classroom and beyond—although I regret not having taken advantage of more of them. Like many of you, I suspect, the older I get the more often I think about friends and experiences from years ago. I recently have happily reconnected with several friends from elementary school with whom I had no contact for nearly 70 years. And I have reread with pleasure the journals I kept on world travels over many decades. One of the innumerable benefits of retirement for me is having time for such reflections.
“Despite being afflicted with an unusual variant of ALS that has caused me to lose the use of my arms and hands—and which will inevitably spread and lead to my demise—I am a very happy camper, due to my incomparable wife, best friend, and (increasingly) caregiver, Michelle. We love our Williamsburg-style home outside Alexandria, Virginia, though we spend much of our time at our log house deep in the woods of the West Virginia Panhandle. There Michelle has created what I call ‘Mount Palomar East,’ an observatory with a 22″ Dobsonian telescope housed in its own dome. After three years and prodigious technical assistance from the Cumberland (Maryland) Astronomy Club, Michelle finally got the telescope and dome working perfectly just before Thanksgiving. The views may not quite compare to those from the James Webb Space Telescope, but they are pretty awesome.”
Though Barry Thomas and Connie’s “return to Burundi has been delayed until 2023, the good work continues there. A well-integrated set of programs—with focus upon nutrition and food security, early childhood education, keeping teenage girls in school, and women’s entrepreneurship—are now well established. The very dedicated Dreaming for Change staff are being challenged by the day-to-day requirements for preparing and serving cups of porridge to 400 children and mothers, tending to 147 children in the preschool and first primary grade, supporting 125 women engaged in the Savings and Loan Program (a type of microfinance), and working with over 225 families who participate in the Kitchen Garden Program. On top of the daily challenges, the leadership is really being challenged by the rigors of finding funding to cover the now ongoing and growing operating costs for this broad array of service programming.
“I will give specific mention to the Acute Malnutrition Program that was started in November 2021. We had become aware that the daily porridge and the other family nutrition programs were not doing enough for the children suffering from an acute level of malnutrition. The level of under-five child mortality is improving in Burundi, but it remains among the worse in the world. With kind and generous support from a couple of our Wesleyan classmates along with support from a local church in Boone, North Carolina, we were able to put together a more intense program for these really destitute children and their families. The Dreaming for Change nurse administers the program. Our U.S. organization provides funding for the food and the specialized medicine. Personnel from a nearby government health clinic provide medical diagnosis and oversight as well as referral when necessary. There are over 60 families in the program. Community women who have been responsible for cooking the daily porridge have now received additional training and are going out to identify and serve families that live greater distances from the village center. They are called ‘Light Mothers’ in French. It is quite an innovative way to bring a basic level of care to the more remote rural population. Of course, the current state of global economics and geopolitics, ultimately, cascades down to affect the very poor, such as, in Burundi, most severely.”
Tom Pulliam writes: “Granddaughter Madeline is settling in very nicely at University of Hawaii, studying marine biology and surfing in her spare time. My wife Alice and I will eventually visit Oahu to see her and connect with our classmate Hardy Spoehr. Madeline’s younger brothers have begun playing MLS Next soccer, the highest level of youth soccer in the U.S. It is sort of the same game they have been playing for years, but the level of skills of all players is amazing as is the pace of play. In September our Pleasantville High School class reunion convened in Healdsburg, California, and it could not have been better: incredible energy from a couple of dozen senior citizens who remembered events from 60 years ago as though they just happened (though remembering what they ate for lunch that day was more troubling). Just finished making plans to head to Vancouver, Canada, in March for HSBC Rugby 7s World Series event there and will be joined by one of my original Stanford teammates. I am still thoroughly enjoying helping coach Stanford women in rugby and coaching 11-, 12-, and 13-year-olds in rugby for the San Francisco Golden Gate Rugby Club. I started rugby at Wesleyan when my fraternity brothers insisted I play at Williams because they were short a player. I resisted mightily (anticipating my 130-pound carcass would not survive) but they prevailed. That decision turned out well over the years.”
Phil Shaver attended “my 60th high school reunion in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, last month. I hadn’t been back for years. Of our class of 1962 (about 300 people), a third have died. Of the living, many have lost a spouse to death or dementia. So even though I had just undergone knee surgery for a torn meniscus, I felt grateful to be alive, generally healthy, and mentally sharp. My main research collaborator and I have two new books in press. My wife is still a full-time workaholic professor, in good mental and physical health. Our 26-year-old twin daughters are thriving. I’ve been taking watercolor painting classes for a couple of years and am enjoying it and getting better. I’ve actually sold a couple of paintings and had one on display at a local gallery. We’re all concerned about the unhealthy state of our country but can’t figure out what to do about it.”
Another high school reunion and more, Bob Dearth writing that the “Post COVID-19 lockdown lifestyle reset is proving a challenge. Our plans for a visit to Portugal gave way to a higher-priority hip replacement surgery for my wife Barbara to correct both a stress fracture and arthritic deterioration in her right hip, which I understand is a pretty common surgery these days. Recovery is in progress. Have downsized vacation properties in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, moving to a modest three-bedroom condo versus the big custom-vacation property with pool. So far, not a bad trade-off. Anticipate hosting one son and grandkids this coming December after Christmas. Will continue to enter the smaller of the billfish tournaments in early October this fall, weather cooperating. Have traveled to Lake Erie for walleye and smallmouth bass fishing recently. Lots of fun and fresh fish fillets to share. Sixtieth high school reunion in June was fun too but too few attended.”
This autumn found Essel Bailey and his wife, Menakka, in California, “having finished the harvest in Knight Valley and our Knights Bridge wines are on the lees! We came out from Ann Arbor after beating Michigan State in The Big House and listening to Wynton Marsalis and his jazz group in three separate presentations. Moving around still and enjoying it!”
And this update from Barry Reder. “I retired from the practice of law (helping businesses of all sizes, ranging from banks and insurance companies to chefs and entrepreneurs with a dream) at the end of 2006 and have not figured out how I maintained a seven-day/six-night law practice while doing all the ‘stuff’ that endlessly has kept me busy ever since. Ann has struggled with the afterlife of getting two new knees simultaneously more than a year ago, and we walk most days to try to improve things. Each of our two daughters has a boy and a girl and live in San Francisco. After 43 years in a wonderful house in the Richmond District (a suburb in the city), we downsized last spring into a wonderfully urban, quite new three-bedroom apartment. It took six months to clear the house out but only two days to sell it. When it was completely empty, it was strangely devoid of the emotional content I had expected; when empty, it was just a house, no longer the home where we had raised our kids and celebrated holidays and life. We spend half the year in the city apartment and the other half on our wonderful acre and a half on a hill in Sonoma with five table grapevines, a meadow, a putting green, and a pool. My handicap had its nadir at 9 and, despite diligent practice almost daily, is now 20+. Though nearly every weekly calendar has at least one medical entry, we feel endlessly fortunate and hope to enjoy stasis for a while.”
We end with two celebratory notes. Jeff Nilson’s grandson, Isaac Ostrow, Wesleyan Class of 2026, has become a member of Wesleyan Crew. Rick Crootof and Linda celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary on September 4, 2022.”