Aloha, all.
By the time everyone reads this, summer will be a remembrance of the past. Hopefully, everyone has had their fill of “soda, and pretzels, and beer.”

This is late in coming, but first I want to recognize our classmate Bill Dietz, who has joined the ranks of our retired after a long and very distinguished career at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). I personally need to thank Bill for his helpful thoughts and advice to a diabetes program I was directing in Hawai`i a number of years ago…a big mahalo, Bill, and welcome to our ranks!

The big news for us is that our 50th is now well over the horizon! Our classmate Rick Crootof has been hard at work twisting elbows and peering in various neighborhoods to put together a great Reunion Committee. The committee is already beginning its work and includes: Rick and Dave McNally as our co-chairs; Jim Andrus, Essel Bailey, David Bartlett, David Boyle, Howard Brodsky, Tom Broker, Al Burman, Frank Burrows, Clark Byam, Graham Colville, Gary Conger, Donald Craven, Pat Curry, Bob Dannies, Bill Dietz, Jeffrey Evans, Steve Giddings, Paul Gilbert, Al Ibargüen, John Knapp, David Luft, Jim O`Leary, John Neff, Irv Richter, Sandy Shilepsky, Pete Spiller, yours truly, Sandy Van Kennen, and Dale Walker and Wes staff Pam Vasiliou, Mark Davis ’96, and Nicky Bennett. Thank you one and all for serving. Rick has notified us that Professor Rob Rosenthal has agreed to be one of our class guests and did a great seminar at our 30th Reunion comparing the top 10 songs of 1966 with those of 1996….Can you imagine what that comparison would look like now? Now it’s up to all ’66ers to do the right thing and to start planning now on attending next year’s gathering. Let’s make singing our old Wesleyan Fight Song at least one more time together a reality on the steps of North College…see you there! And maybe even the Douglas Cannon will show up for another appearance!

The Committee has already been at work and invited Don Russell to join us, and he has accepted. Speaking of sports…congratulations to the Wes baseball team and Coach Mark Woodworth ’94 in winning its second consecutive NESCAC championship, and a welcoming to Dan DiCenzo into the head football coaching position. Thank you, Mike Whalen ’83, for a great job and congratulations in your new athletic director positon.
A final note, and one more somber, is the concern I know we all have for the seemingly ongoing gun tragedies across our nation. This is not meant to be a political statement, I simply want to call to mind how we of the ’60s era at Wesleyan were all so privileged to have lived at a time which witnessed Wesleyan’s involvement in race relations bringing together us as students and Middletown youngsters in tutorial programs; serving as a hub for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s efforts in the Middletown/Hartford area and evenings in the Foss Hill dining hall; sending its students to Washington, D.C., to march and to Tuskegee to learn. It also brought future Dean Edgar Beckham ’58 to Wesleyan, whose legacy on campus lives on through the Edgar Beckham Social Justice Award. Let us remember those days for, in many ways, they formed the glue which has cemented us as the class of ’66.

As with other Notes – a final Hawaiian `olelo:
Aia no ke ea i ka puka ihu: “There is breath still in the nostrils”—a reply when someone asks how a friend or relative is.

And so, ’66, our breaths live on!!!

We laughed, we cried, we hugged, we danced, we told stories and said things about ourselves not said before—in short, it was an extraordinary Reunion!

Many thanks to the committee who put it all together and to the 93 classmates—a 50th Reunion attendance record—who returned to our beloved campus.

The university honored a number of our own:

Hugh Wilson: Distinguished Alumnus Award for his remarkable achievements as a mathematician, philosopher, biologist, chemist, physicist, researcher and professor.
Mark Edmiston: Outstanding Service Award for his many years of service to Wesleyan as a trustee and alumni association leader.

Rob Abel, Don Crampton, and John Hall: Wesleyan Service Award for sustained service to the college as fundraisers, alumni club leaders, donors and admission volunteers.

Joseph’s Robe, the ’65 award for meritorious service to the class, was presented to: Gary and the Wombats (John Dunton, Steve Flance, Brooke Jones ’64, Leon Robinette ’64 and Richard Smith), and to Reunion juggernauts Dave Dinwoodey and Bob Barton. (To further sway the judges’ votes in their favor, The Wombats put on a spirited performance on Friday night and we all danced like it was 1965 once again!)

The festivities, which began on Thursday, featured a nice mix of seminars, time for socializing and sports (some of us played golf, tennis, and basketball), and space in the schedule just to relax and walk the expanded and beautiful campus. We also had three enjoyable banquets: a Kickoff Reception/Dinner on Thursday evening; the President’s Reception/Dinner in our honor on Friday, featuring Michael Roth’s ’78 remarks on the state of the University and his vision for its future; and Saturday’s celebratory Class Dinner with Professors Anne and Nathaniel Greene, and Wendy and Karl Scheibe; Coach Don Russell and his son, Andy; long-time administrator John Driscoll ’62 and his wife Gina; and special guest, Linda Burton, widow of Mike Burton.

Seminars and panels featuring the ’65 family included: “Butterfield 2020” organized by Bob Barton, which explored the reasons Wesleyan went from one of the wealthiest colleges in the country to the verge of financial crisis in the 10 years after we graduated.
“Our Times” was an interactive discussion among classmates moderated by Tony Schuman concerning the turmoil of the ’60s—the civil rights movement, Vietnam, the social revolution—and its influence on our lives.

“Skills for the New Economy,” a WESeminar organized by Kirt Mead examined the skills that Wesleyan grads will need in a new economy dominated by technology and rapid change. Presenters included Kirt, who consults throughout the United States and Europe on business leadership and strategic planning, and Molly Barton ’00 (Bob’s daughter), who is a leader in digital publishing.

“Architect as Artisan and Community Activist,” was a WESeminar presented by Steve Badanes regarding his decades of work in community-based architecture and design. Steve is a noted speaker, author, itinerant designer/builder and the Howard S. Wright Professor of Architecture at the University of Washington.

“Global Warming: What the World’s Climate Scientists and Policy Leaders Now Know, Fear, Hope and Plan,” moderated by Bill Blakemore, featured classmate Jerry Melillo, along with Wes Professor Gary Yohe, a leading climate-impact economist. Bill began writing about global warming for ABC News in 2004, and Jerry chaired all three government National Climate Assessments and served as environmental adviser to the President.

(In this regard, a number of classmates attended an informal meeting afterward to discuss ways to encourage University initiatives, such as focusing endowment investments in cleaner energy rather than fossil fuel companies. For more information, please contact Woody Sayre; Robert.Sayre@u-pem.fr

Another major highlight were the three “’65 WesShorts” sessions designed for classmates—scripted or not—to speak briefly about their lives, professions, passions, families, and reflections on their Wesleyan experience. They were organized and moderated by Bob Barton, Hugh Wilson and Tony Schuman and were extremely varied and entertaining. (Most of them were filmed and will be available to the class online—details to be announced.)

Ron Young came back and spoke several times with eloquence and passion. Ron left Wesleyan to pursue a career in civil rights, world peace, religion, and education. He developed a lifelong relationship with Professor John Maguire and met the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., on numerous occasions. Here are excerpts from a message he sent to the class following the Reunion: “Warm thanks for welcoming me in the class, despite my not graduating until 1986…. Connecting and reconnecting with many of you, experiencing Wesleyan’s wonderfully diverse community, learning in the Wes Seminars…. listening to the WesShorts…were incredible and very emotional for me. Reading the Remembrances about guys I knew and others I didn’t brought tears…

“Given how significantly my taking off from Wesleyan affected my life, I don’t regret what I did, but I do have a much deeper personal appreciation for what I missed.”

Ron wrote a memoir concerning his work in support of civil rights, opposition to the Vietnam War and efforts to foster peace among Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians, entitled Crossing Boundaries in the Americas, Vietnam and the Middle East.

In addition to the Reunion committee, individual kudos to: Rob Abel and Bob Barton for producing a marvelous 50th Reunion class book;

David Dinwoodey, editor, and the many contributors for their efforts in putting together the touching Remembrances booklet containing personal memories of deceased classmates;

Don Crampton for his tireless and long-time work on the class’s support of the Wesleyan Fund and his committee, for their efforts, as well;

Hal Gorman, Bill Knox, Mike Maloney and Hugh Wilson for their donations of some truly fine wine for our enjoyment throughout the weekend;

Peter Kelman, expert in Web communications, who spearheaded the critical effort to locate lost classmates and to urge all to attend.

Now, thanks to Peter’s ongoing wizardry, coupled with Bob Barton’s wes65stories website, we are well-positioned to build on the relationships renewed and begun at our 50th. And, later this summer, all of us will receive the Class Book Addendum, and those who missed Reunion will also receive the tribute to deceased classmates and Peter Whiteley’s fabulous ’60s CD. (Thank you, Peter! I listen to it all the time!)

This will not be our last class gathering or Reunion! We have a great opportunity to continue to make new friendships, renew old ones and engage each other in beneficial ways for years to come. So, save Nov. 6–7 (Homecoming), the dates for our next get together. Details to follow!

Here I go again, putting together class notes for another issue of our alumni magazine. Where will my thoughts take me, and in keeping with the “this is why” at Wesleyan, I’m looking at our class, a half-century removed from undergraduates, to lend some perspectives to the conversation. I would like to believe that we were led into our future by Wesleyan to have integrity, responsibility, and generosity in the various domains of our lives. I have been back to each Reunion and have been recording my notes on a quarterly basis so that I declare our mission accomplished.

There is a broad range of contribution to the world when you look at the paths we all followed. I’m thinking of our 50th Reunion class book and what was shared about life after graduation. I’m impressed by the physicians, lawyers, judges, and politicians who emerged from the “storied halls;” educators, philosophers, business leaders, and activists who transformed the lives of others.

Recently, I looked at the addendum to the class book and reviewed the comments of Norman Daniels, Richard T. Smith, Jr. (Chip), Joel J. Johnson, The Honorable Frederick J. Motz and Oliver E. Wood Jr. (Chips). Norm Daniels and Chip Smith took the path of social justice in theory and application to the leaders at Harvard University, in Norman’s case, and the labor workforce and union concerns in Chip’s world. Norman studied psychology and philosophy at Oxford for two years. Chip received a degree in economics from Temple University.

Fred Motz graduated from the University of Virginia Law School in 1967 and spent time as an assistant United States attorney, followed by working in a law firm in Baltimore. In 1985 he was appointed a United States District Judge in Maryland by President Reagan and continues to serve his community.

Joel Johnson was originally in the class of 1964 and didn’t graduate until 1965 when his CSS project was extended one year. He spent two years at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School. He would be a source of interesting perception in the world of commerce, having worked for the federal government—State Department, Treasury, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee, participating in such activities as UN conferences on Trade and Development. He eventually left government employment and focused on international aspects of aerospace and defense trade and industrial cooperation.

Chips Wood got an MBA in international business at the Wharton School, went to Navy OCS training in Newport, R.I., and served for three years. He joined the Levi Strauss International Division and eventually rose to regional general manager, Asia. He later formed Wood Consulting International to assist companies entering foreign markets, including an enterprise in Russia.

We didn’t have women in our class, but in reviewing the notes on our wives, there is a powerful group of ladies who have been most valuable: Chip Smith’s wife, Kim, a neurosurgeon; Fred Motz’s spouse, an appellate court judge; Norman Daniels’, a neuropsychologist; and Chips Wood, a botanical artist.

Norman Daniels came away from Wesleyan wanting to learn theory acceptance in science.

Joel Johnson remembers Vic Butterfield’s advice to have four exciting years at Wesleyan but not the best years of our lives. Chip Smith was amazed at how much he learned after the first month of freshman year and the intellectual habits he developed. Fred Motz “being grateful not so much for the knowledge that was imparted to me, but for being taught to try to ask good questions.” For myself, I learned to trust my ability to be taught and took on four years at Albany Medical School and earned an MD degree. At Wesleyan I also learned how to be a catcher on the baseball diamond, giving me the tools to be an obstetrician and “catch” thousands of babies.

Tucker Andersen is semi-retired as an investment consultant. While he and his wife, Karen live in Warren, Conn., he spends two-and-a-half days a week in NYC doing consulting work. Karen was the UConn Master Gardener Coordinator for Litchfield County, Conn., for six years. She is now retired and concentrates on enjoying her garden, their dogs and their rural, 200-acre property. In their woods there is an abundance of wild life—coyote, deer, mountain lions (no tigers) and black bears. (Oh, my!) He’s seen two of the latter. Since mountain lions are solitary animals and it wasn’t breeding season and the two he saw seemed somewhat small, he thinks they were juvenile siblings. Tucker is about to retire from the Wes U Board of Trustees but will stay on the investment committee, which will entail his meeting on campus four times a year, as well as joining monthly conference calls for updates. Living in the “wilds”, he’s become “not a real birder” but is beginning to recognize some birds. The Andersens travel via a destination club—Exclusive Resorts which means they can go to wonderful locations—Newport, Kiawah Island, Tuscany, the Caribbean Islands, to name some they visited—and stay in luxurious accommodations. Tucker has run 40 marathons, including the Boston marathon twice. And while he had an entry for the ’13 Boston Marathon, fortunately due to a medical issue he did not run. He did run in it this year. His best time ever was in the NYC Marathon way back in ’78 when he ran a 3:32.43. And in ’13, two months to the day after a robotic prostatectomy, he very slowly completed the NYC Marathon. Happily his last two PSA tests have shown undetectable levels. He organized a mini KNK reunion at Wes U, which Don Sexton and Dave Buddington attended. A non-KNK attendee was John Kikoski, who just happened to be on campus and joined after walking into the room looking for someone else. Tucker and Karen have two adult daughters. Heather uses their Connecticut and NYC homes when not leading bicycle tours for adventure cycling or traveling, and Kristen (Wes U ’95), who lives in Denver, Colo., is a published author of I Never Intended to be Brave, a memoir of her solo bicycle journey through southern Africa.

After many years in New England, David Youngblood has lived for almost 30 years in Lexington, Ky. When I asked him why he moved south, his reply was simple: “I was chasing a lovely woman who is now my wife.” That lady would be Ellen Rosenman who, unlike David, is not yet retired. She is a professor at the Univ. of Kentucky and is writing a book. Her teaching and writing keep her very busy. David taught English for 20 years at Newton South High School in Newton, Mass., (10 years as department chair), and then, once in Kentucky, for another 29 years (23 as department chair) at Sayre School in Lexington. There he generally taught seniors, always an AP class or two, the other grades in English one time or another, and creative writing now and then. When I talked to David in June he had only been retired for five days and was “quite new at it.” But both being teachers, they’d generally had summers off and liked traveling. For their 25th anniversary, they drove the length of New Zealand, north to south. It’s a long way to go and they were eager to see it all. So while it was endlessly spectacular with lovely view after lovely view, in the end they were pretty worn out in that they had not given themselves much time to just stop and rest. Now they factor that into their travels. The Youngbloods have two daughters, one adopted. Ardilla is at V.C.U. in Richmond, Va., studying interior design, and Lizzie, who went to Vassar, works for a NGO in D.C. Both are 26. David still plays some tennis and stays in touch with John Vinton and wondered what had become of Larry Shultes. (Spoiler alert: I will find out for the next notes.) He recounted a vivid memory of his Wes U days: “I was racing back and forth through the halls having a snowball fight with other freshmen when a very irate student jumped out of his room where he had been trying to study and punched me in the eye.” Naturally, being a psychotherapist, I asked him in an understanding and empathetic manner, what he’d learned from that. And naturally, being a teacher, he responded assertively that he’d learned never to throw snowballs in dormitory hallways again.”

From Chambersburg, Pa., David Brill reports that he has been retired for four years from his medical practice in radiology and nuclear medicine. His wife, Elizabeth, to whom he has been married for 11 years, is also retired from being an editor for a religious book publisher. They do some traveling and had a wonderful cruise on the Danube River to celebrate his retirement. They have also visited Tuscany. But he has a special fondness for the American West, where he loves to bird watch. He has introduced Elizabeth to bird watching, which she enjoys but not with quite the passion he has for it. (As I am a birder, too, we talked birding a lot.) He got into birding when on a trip to the Galápagos Islands, he met J.J. Hickey, a renowned American birder who was on the same cruise. Once he learned of Hickey’s credentials, he approached him and they talked birding. From that talk, David said he learned a lot about identifying birds and became interested in getting into birding. As for being retired, he goes to the gym and some Bible studies but mostly he calls himself “a self employed dilettante,” by which he means that what he likes best is just doing whatever he wants—and that is learning about many things that he could not pursue when he was working. He reads very widely in scientific areas outside of his own, especially in the natural sciences. He also likes history and art. He describes many of his days as involving sleeping, getting up, eating, reading and then reading some more. He says that is a payoff from a liberal education, a desire to keep learning. Also he recalled that he had an intellectual inferiority complex coming to WesU from a public school. He thought that he’d be way behind the prep school guys. Unfortunately he did feel overwhelmed and that lasted for about three years until he was told he was the top guy in the bottom quarter of the class. This seemed to fire him up and he says he began to strive to “catch up” and he had a good senior year. After graduation he kept on “catching up” and continued to do so long after others had gotten to wherever their level of satisfaction was and started resting. He never “rested.” That helped him go far in his career and appears to be continuing.

RON TALLMAN from t. Augustine , FL said that right now the big excitement is that one of his daughters from his previous marriage, Kelly Clements has just been appointed Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees for the UN. She started her career in government way back as a Presidential Intern with Pres. George H. W. Bush and now this. She will be moving to Geneva. He has a second daughter, Jennifer who teaches elementary school in SC and between the two he has 5 grandchildren, ages 8-20. Ron retired at a. 61 due to health reasons and it was then that he and his wife, Noel moved from Chicago to St. Augustine, FL. He developed Cervical Dystonia which limits his physical activities more and more now. Prior to his retirement he had been Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Roosevelt University, Chicago. Three years ago Noel also retired. she had owned her own ad agency. He’s not sure how the got into it, but they really like going on cruises. The went to Tahiti last year and will go to the Open in the UK this year and then cruise way up the Norwegian coast, perhaps even encountering the newly emboldened Russian navy. And in the Fall they will go to Lisbon and then cruise in the in the Mediterranean. He has fond memories of their exciting encounter with the tail end of a fierce hurricane in the N. Atlantic. Ron played #3 on the WESU golf team but due to his physical ailments, now thinks his golfing days may be ended. He also remembers that he “kind of lost track” academically and being young and “seeking adventure”, he and JOHN BURT (initially of ’64 but eventually of ’65) left WESU Jan. ’62 for Europe and returned Nov. ’62. (Dean Barlow told them he was sure they’d never return to WESU.) They visited pretty much most of Europe, drank “a 1000 bottles of wine, hundreds of bottles of beer and there were all those young ladies to befriend”. The last month of their European jaunt they lived on “.50 cents a day room and board”. A surprised but pleased Dean Barlow readmitted them and he found his lost academic track and actually graduated with the class of ’64. “But I identify with the class of ’63” says he. Ron then went to the University of Maine, got a Ph.D. in Canadian history and eventually became the director of the Canadian-American Center of the Univ. of Maine where he created the largest Canadian Studies program in the US (and the world outside of Canada) with up to 1,200 students per year enrolled in various courses. He was also president of the Assoc. for Canadian Studies in the US for two years as well as a founder and for many years, a board member of the International Council for Canadian Studies which allowed him to travel and lecture around the world.

Appearing for the first time in these notes in decades SKIP SHORT, living in Hamden, CT, has had a very interesting career or rather, careers. Not at all sure what he wanted to do for in life for his first three years at WESU, he took an inventory of his likes and found four areas of interest(1) artistic/scientific problems, (2)construction [“as a kid I was fascinated by construcion sites”], (3)analytic challenges and (4)people. So he decided that architecture would include all those interests and hustled to take courses (especially math) that he’d not needed before and after graduation, enrolled in Yale’s architectural program from which he graduated. While there he began to buy and renovate rundown buildings. And along the way met his first wife who became the property manager for what turned into almost 180 units. Eventually he became very tired of the renovation work so when he and his wife divorced he sold her his half of the units which she owns to this day and which their two children, Matthew, a 36 and Sarah, a. 31 now manage. For the first 20 years after graduation he worked for an architectural firm in New Haven. he eventually left and opened his own private practice for 15 years. But while he really liked dealing with clients, he did not like hassling with contractors or building inspectors and at age 50, walked way from the field. Wondering what to do, he noticed that his bookcase was filled with body/mind books. He decided to take a course in massage therapy at the CT Center for Massage Therapy. He liked it and learned the Trager method of massage which he practiced along with some more conventional methods from his early 50s up to three years ago. He now does a lot of volunteer work. With his architectural knowledge, he is very useful to and active on his 120 unit condo board. He is also very involved in a peer to peer counseling group in CT and an officer of the CT Butterfly Assoc. He recalled that he and ED FINEBERG used to relax while at WESU birdwatching in woods up towards Long Lane School. Skip married his wife Deborah in “01. She is an RN and is a Unit Manager in a Dementia unit.

Travel seems to be the theme for our brief class notes this issue. Bruce Corwin reports that he is renting a house in southern Spain for the entire Corwin family, including nine children and grandchildren, to celebrate his 75th. Apparently family togetherness only goes so far, because he and Toni are following that with a seven-day cruise on their own from Athens to Venice.

Bill Everett and Sylvia this year toured ancient monuments on the Nile. In addition to seeing the Great Pyramid and the temple of Abu Simbel, they joined Egyptian archaeology expert Zahi Hawass in exploring ancient village and tomb sites. They then went on to Cyprus where he continues to work conserving the Skouriotissa copper mine where his grandfather worked and his mother lived as a girl. In non-travel news, his book Sawdust and Soul: A Conversation about Woodworking and Spirituality was published this year.

Finally, Steve Trott reports that Steve Butts and Marian spent three to four months in Paris. No word on whether he made it across the pond for some Irish folk music jam sessions. Steve recently was awarded the Idaho State Bar Association’s first Distinguished Jurist Award.

If anyone has any other tales of memorable 75th birthday celebrations this year, we’d love to see them in the next issue.

We were welcomed to our 55th Reunion by the sound of the bells of old South College. Dave Potts presented a WESeminar, “Only Yesterday? Wesleyan in the ’60s,” that was based on his recently published book, Wesleyan University, 1910-1970: Academic Ambition and Middle-Class America. At the Wesleyan assembly and annual meeting of the Alumni Association, Dave received the James L. McConaughy Jr. Award, which recognizes a member of the Wesleyan family whose writing conveys unusual insight and understanding of current and past events. In his acceptance speech in the chapel, Dave pointed out the stained-glass windows that commemorate past presidents and important benefactors to the university.

Myles Standish received a Distinguished Alumnus Award for his accomplishments at the California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he created and continually improved high-accuracy planetary ephemerides (orbital positions) that are vital to the successful navigation of planetary spacecraft. Those ephemerides are now the world’s standard, providing data to virtually all of the national almanac offices, astronomical researchers, and observatories.

At our class banquet, I led the singing of “Sentimental Journey,” which captured our feelings about attending the Reunion. That was followed by “Goodnight Sweetheart, Goodnight” which reminded us of those fabulous party weekends. The singing of some traditional Wesleyan songs was a fitting ending to the banquet. My thanks to Charlie Smith and Brittany Richard, our liaison on the Wesleyan campus, for all their planning that made it a successful 55th Reunion.

On the day after the class banquet, my extended family had a reunion in Cromwell at the home of my niece, Liz Pulling. With both college and family reunions, it was a memorable trip to Connecticut.