CLASS OF 1954 | 2024 | SPRING ISSUE

Glad to have heard from so many aged but active members of the Class of 1954. I’m Dan Resnick, your current class secretary, scribbling away after Bob Carey stepped down. Bob did a remarkable job in his decade or more as our class secretary. About 40 of you sent in news during those years (see classnotes.blogs.wesleyan.edu/tag/1954/). He was the happy recipient of news about awards and prizes, projects in the making, vagaries of retirement, successes of grandchildren, arrival of great-grandchildren, hobbies and pastimes ranging from gardens and fitness to labor on memoirs, and an astonishing amount of travel. He fielded and shared, too, the difficult messages announcing deaths and sickness. In the last decade he heard directly from Dave Walden, Terry Hatter, Bud Johnson, John Binswanger, Ken Davenny, Dave Hodgin, Curt McLaughlin, Len Stolba, Shep Johnson, George Ray, Dick Matthews, Marty Feins, Bob Gruskay, Bob Montstream, Rod O’Connor, Dr. James J. Yashar, Norm Stuessy, Carl Bufka, Chuck Davis, Ken Davenny, Jeff Lockhart, Dr. Jules Schwaber, Bill Drury, Bob Schnuer, Al Flynn, Bruce Storms, Ben Cope, Bob Muir, George Klein, Ed Dewey, Marshall Umpleby, Charles “Jim” Landesman, Art Dexter, Hal White, Art Spada, Eric Cone, and Bill Christopher. Let me share with you the updates we received in November.

Terry Hatter, from the United States District Court, married to Trudy for 64 years, now has a great-granddaughter and is expecting his first great-grandson in the spring. He wishes us all the best, and we congratulate him on his expanding family.

Bud Johnson reports to us from Westchester County. He and Lynn have just moved into a senior living campus in Rye, near New York City. He is close to most of his children (some are in Florida and California) and four of his eight grandchildren, a medical center, the Union League Club, and Winged Foot Golf Club. Sounds like a great choice, Bud.

Marty Feins, ever eager to see classmates again, wants to know how many plan to attend our 70th Reunion, May 23–26, 2024.

David Hodgin, long dedicated to advancing public space for the arts in Scotts Valley, Santa Cruz County, reports that one of his big projects, a Cultural and Performing Arts Center, is up and running. For 14 years Dave spearheaded this project for the Scotts Valley Community Theater Guild (svctheaterguild.org), creating this performance space from an old roller rink. He also developed the first Alfred Hitchcock Festival: (hitchcockfestival.com). Hitchcock was a 30-year resident of Scotts Valley. The next festival is scheduled for March 8–10, 2024. Although still enjoying work on community service projects, he says that at 91, he is ready to pass along that responsibility.

Your scribe reports that Dan Resnick has no big projects in the pipeline, but thinks that, as the psalmist wrote, “my cup runneth over.” He has been married for 65 years, has six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, has traveled widely, and is living comfortably and independently in a middle-sized city with great theater and music, medical care, proximity to family, and the pleasures of nature. A local wag has described Pittsburgh as “the Paris of Appalachia.” As a sometime resident of Paris, Dan couldn’t agree more, but is happy to hunker down in the foothills of the Appalachian chain.