Tag: 1966

As our 80th birthdays arrive, humor is called for—Jeff Nilson providing some, writing: “As part of my aging, I have been writing limericks lately. Like earworms, they occupy more and more of my consciousness. Oh well! Soon I will be turning 80, which has given rise to this verse:

Soon I will be turning 80,

An age when the world less weighty.

I have lost all my glam,

But I’ve learned who I am.

(Oh I forgot.) .  .  .  I’ve had a lot of gas lately.”

Jeff apologized for sharing this “bit of doggerel” with an English professor, and I replied that “Edward Lear is a favorite of mine,” while pointing out that “Samuel Johnson defines ‘doggerel’ as an adjective: ‘Loosed from the measures of regular poetry; vile; despicable; mean.’ And as a noun: ‘Mean, despicable, worthless verses.’ Yours hardly falls under these definitions, and I rather imagine that Johnson admired a good deal of what at the time was thought of as being doggerel, quoting as an illustration of the word in use a passage from Addison’s Spectator: ‘It is a dispute among the criticks, whether burlesque poetry runs best in heroic verse, like that of the Dispensary; or in doggerel, like that of Hudibras.’ I say if age brings one to writing limericks, bring it on. I hope you won’t mind me including this in our next class notes. Your classmates, as I am, will be delighted.” I trust you are.

Jeff went on to write: “I haven’t thought much about Johnson or Addison over the past 50 years. It is most wonderful to think of these two giants tickling your brain. I vaguely remember Johnson’s definition of a fishing rod as a stick with a hook on one end and a fool on the other. Here on Cape Cod, one would never utter such a definition. There is a huge amount of money spent to transport fishing rods and their men into the waters around the Cape, so that they might catch a fish or two. Our granddaughter, Sarah, works at the Allen Harbor boatyard detailing and occasionally repairing boats costing between $20,000 and $100,000. During the summer, most sit idly waiting for their owners to take them out into Nantucket Sound.”

Jeff gives this update on the family: “Grandson Isaac will soon finish his second year at Wesleyan. Grandson William is exploring colleges with strong music programs. He told his mother, Elizabeth ’88, he didn’t see any point in finishing high school as all he wants to do with his life is to play music. He plays bass guitar, piano, and stand-up bass. Unlike his grandfather, he has a beautiful singing voice. Granddaughter Sarah has been accepted at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Marietta and our children are healthy.”

On March 7 Harold Potter wrote from Logan Airport that he and his wife, Lee, were “on our way to Lisbon tonight. The last time we were there was 1980. Bill Machen, a fellow classmate, was with us then. We are traveling with Lee’s roommate from Swarthmore this time.” Below is a photograph of Lee and Harold in the village of Carmona, Spain. “We are now in Ronda, which is in the mountains. Pretty spectacular. Granada and then Madrid next.”

Harold “enjoyed the recent comments from classmates about MLK” and went on to spark a conversation by writing that he “remember[s] James Baldwin’s visit too.” Others have as well, Thomas Hawley writing “remembrance of James Baldwin . . . was one of the highlights of my too brief Wesleyan experience.”

David Luft chimes in that “I might never have known who Baldwin was if he hadn’t come to chapel. I learned a lot from him, especially about the experience of being Black. Interestingly, Ta-Nehisi Coates said roughly the opposite on some matters when he visited Oregon State, but he meant the same thing. Baldwin wanted me to be able to acknowledge his Blackness, while Coates didn’t want me to think I was white. My parents actually never told me I was white. But you didn’t meet a lot of Black guys in Allentown in those days.”David goes on to add: “I’m working on a Czech intellectual history and on a collection of my essays called Toward a Central European Intellectual History.”

David Griffith,who also had an “impromptu lunch with Martin Luther King . . . just the two of us, in the CSS dining hall,” gives us this gem: “I remember drinking with Mr. Baldwin, late in the evening in our dining room at what had been EQV. I’m taxing my memory to recall the conversation with him, Franklin Balch, and Willie Kerr, who were often visitors at or after dinner . . . . While Dr. King looked into my whole being with what seemed a benevolent interest in my family and Colorado Springs and the high mountains, during my unexpected lunch with him, Baldwin was the literate cognoscente, offhand, lubricated, smoking (I believe), and I felt regarded me with the regard that any civilized person would have for a guy in blue jeans from the Wild West.”

Peter Monro had a dazzling encounter with “James Baldwin not at Wesleyan, but rather at the American Protestant Church in Paris, where he was living in 1965. In that church’s crypt, I also sat across from Joan Baez, who had broken off her tour of England when Bob Dylan took it over. She borrowed a guitar to sing at one of the weekly hootenannies held down there.” Hard to top that! Peter goes on to write: “The one celebrity of interest I met on campus was Norman Thomas, the aging socialist. I recall Jimmy Sugar, who would become a National Geographic photographer, taking his portrait.” Peter “was already planning my overall, and ultimate, appreciation for my Wesleyan education, which I suspect is quite unlike most others in both content and consequences. Ultimate because a serious medical diagnosis for my wife assures that I will have little time to offer further comments.” Here is his account of a brave, adventuresome, life well lived:  

“Essentially two of my undergraduate years were spent abroad: summers in Tours, France, and academic years in Paris, first with the College of Letters as a sophomore, then pivoting back to a regular curriculum to spend the next year in the Sweetbriar junior year abroad [program], rooming with classmate Stephen Giddings, among others.

“My fluency and knowledge of French culture did not lead to an academic career, nor to the diplomatic career as political analyst in a Francophone country for which I had hoped. I married and started a family too quickly to permit that, which is why I now have two wonderful daughters, Catherine, 55, an outdoor enthusiast in Burlington, Vermont, and Allison, 53, a marketing specialist in suburban Boston.

“My Wesleyan mates—few in number (Phil Shaver, Sam Carrier, Jim Brink),  strong in persuasion—pushed me to graduate school. But I walked—quite literally—out of graduate school in Worcester, Massachusetts, and down the street to a first career in journalism. It was a wonderful choice, informing me about all manner of things I wouldn’t have otherwise known, especially the nature of civic community that I had missed moving every couple of years growing up. 

“When I burned out of that field at 35–stress and alcohol fueled its demise—I moved near my two daughters in rural Vermont with only enough money to buy land. So together we constructed a homestead—a log cabin from slash, a two-story house off the grid, hauling water, chopping wood—think David Budbill’s Judevine Mountain—(I’ve just recovered photos of daughter Catherine hammering the outhouse together). 

“It was a five-year project that segued into my second career—after another year of graduate school—as a landscape architect, a wonderful calling for me, complete with constructing my pencil designs with shovels and tractors, and conserving land in stunning places, mostly here in Maine. 

“Over the decades, French has allowed me to fully engage with clients in the Acadian-infused folks in northern Maine, to hike isolated areas of France in the past 10 years, where I was more than once the first American locals had ever met, and to help asylum seekers from French-speaking African nations here in Portland.

“As a result of my years abroad, I lacked much contact with professors or students or the campus community in Middletown, but Wesleyan deserves a doff of my hat for its unique offering of a lengthy immersion in a wonderful foreign culture. (That undergraduate experience also convinced me I could learn other languages, so in the past decade I’ve spent one spring in Lucca learning Italian and two months hiking the Camino de Santiago after ramping up in Spanish.)

“One anecdote: In Paris of the ’60s, I befriended a plumber, who—despite being a Communist—bought a café where he one day accosted me with a pointed finger, saying, ‘Your capitalist society is dying!’ He was showing off for two mates in his Communist cell standing at the bar. I smiled and replied, ‘Yes, that’s why your daughter is studying English in London.’ He roared with laughter, introduced me to his pals, and gave me a free cognac.”

It finally happened: Tom Pulliam’sgranddaughter, Madeline, met Hardy Spoehr. Hardy writing: “We had a great visit with Tom Pulliam, his wife, Alice and . . . Madeline in January. Tom still looks like he can take the rugby ball from scrum over the goal line. Madeline is a student at our University of Hawai`i.”  Hardy goes on to write: “Last month, February, I received a great call from Rick Crootof who, with his wife, Linda, gathered with his family on Kaua`i. . . . Great to catch up with both.”   

Tom Pulliam corroborates the long-sought visit. “In February, finally got together with Hardy Spoehr and his wife, Joyce, in Honolulu. The occasion was visit to granddaughter Madeline, a sophomore at U. of Hawaii where she is studying marine biology and art. . . . She’s a self-taught surfer, so Hawaii suits her just fine. Was terrific seeing Hardy, who is still paddling in outrigger canoe races, and as it turns out, he has been competing in those races for years against an old rugby coach of mine, who also joined us all for dinner, which is how each found out: both recognizing the other as member of an opposition team.” Tom gave this further update on his ever-engaged, active life: “And speaking of rugby, one of the true highlights of the year was the return to rugby by oldest grandson, Evan, now a junior in high school, to play for his high school team, which resurrected its rugby team after being dormant for 100 years. He had stopped playing for couple of years to concentrate on MLSNext soccer, which forbids its players from playing any other sport. Evan couldn’t resist, though, and led his team to [a] six-game win streak, concluding a great season during which he played 9, the same position I played for several decades, and demonstrated skills that vastly surpassed any I possessed over a long career. An unexpected event: an action photo of Evan appeared on the cover of the national high school rugby magazine, but his MLSNext coaches undoubtedly never saw it. Evan will visit Connecticut College in a few weeks, which is interested in him playing soccer there, the same Connecticut College from our Wesleyan days (and nights), but not really the same at all. Wife, Alice, and I head to Italy at end of April for three weeks. Should be fun and probably a little different experience from my last visit to Italy in 1978 on a rugby tour. Still spending lots of time with daughter Amanda’s family. They live about seven minutes away. In addition to Madeline and Evan, there are Jay (14) and Ben (11 soon), who are also athletes. We spend many happy hours watching them compete.” Tom ends with this thought that no doubt many of us share: “Never planned a life this good. Never expected it. Has not stopped me from thoroughly enjoying it.”

Clark Byam writes that he has “nothing to report other than I’m now 80, still hiking. . . .” This led to a back-and-forth about the importance of staying active. I had no idea what an athlete Clark was and is, asking him innocently about his time on the Wesleyan swim team, and getting this: “I had a bad sinus infection my senior year at Wesleyan that kept me out of practice for three weeks. I came back for one week of practice and decided I no longer had the desire and quit the team. There was a biology professor who had spent a year in Japan and had also gotten his black belt in judo and was offering a class in judo. I took it, and it was a challenge but learned a lot from it. I also trained and boxed in the Golden Gloves my first year in law school before I went into naval aviation training in September of 1967. Later when I was a lawyer in Pasadena, I played a lot of tennis, over 10 years, at Cal Tech tennis courts with a client who was Cal Tech graduate and brilliant. Also played a lot of racquetball at a local gym. So, you might say I was a jack-of-all-trades and master of none, but I stayed active.” Whew! Keep it up, Clark! His parting words to all of us: “Stay healthy!”   

Let’s begin with this wonderful reminiscence from Barry Thomas: “Yesterday, my mind took me back to freshmen English and my struggles with the classics, such as Moby-Dick, with which, as a public school boy, I had had very limited experience. This, as opposed to the prep school guys, who had already read Moby-Dick, Pride and Prejudice, and other such, in some cases, more than once. There it was, in an old, battered box, my copy of Melville’s classic, all highlighted and underlined. Wonder if I will understand Ahab and his quest any better this time around? Call me Ishmael.” Barry’s discovery of that battered copy of Moby-Dick made me smile,recalling as it did my own struggles to keep up with our prep school classmates. And it took me to a bookshelf  where I have copies of Alfred North Whitehead’s The Aims of Education and Science and the Modern World, sent to us that summer before freshman year and the focus of those group meetings when we got to campus, mine lead by Professor David Abosch. From the underlinings I must have read both carefully, and The Aims has stayed with me, being relevant today. Abosch took us aback, prep school and public school alike, when he asked how many of us had read Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. No one raised a hand; he opined that if one hadn’t done so by the age of 18, he would not amount to much. 

Barry goes on to tell us that “Dreaming for Change in Burundi has had a very good year. I have written previously about the visit Connie and I made to Burundi in February. We celebrated a five-year anniversary since the beginning of the work in 2018 to address malnutrition in one rural community. It was a very rewarding experience to see all that had been accomplished by our colleagues . . . to address the challenges with which people, especially women and children, are contending as they strive to survive each day in their subsistence life. The focus has been on improving family health and nutrition, providing educational opportunities, and improving family income. We could not have been more encouraged by the programmatic progress being made and the development of organizational capacity and capabilities.

“Now we learn . . . that Dreaming for Change has graduated from its start-up phase and is moving on to the next phase of sustainable growth and development. USAID has provided a grant to fund a vocational training program for women. Soapmaking and sewing/tailoring will be the focus. Many of the women will come from the microfinance program that now has 325 women formed into 13 groups. Remarkably, this Village Savings and Loan Program has become self-sustaining. Then, the U.S. Embassy announced in July that the embassy would be sponsoring the establishment of an ‘American Corner’ at the Dreaming for Change Center. American Corners are small library and computer lab facilities that U.S. embassies around the world make available to local people, especially young people, to help them learn about the United States, learn English, access scholarship programs, etc. Usually, these facilities are available only in urban settings. Our American Corner will be the first to be opened in a rural community in Burundi. It will be a resource that will enhance all the programming. Then, a month ago, a relationship was opened with a prominent, U.S.–based family fund whereby Dreaming for Change would receive annual funding support of an unrestricted character. In other words, this very ambitious service venture is opening new sources of funding, over and above the funding that its rather small group of U.S. private donors has provided during the start-up phase. Very welcome, of course, as the funding requirements of the preschool and primary school, now with 150 students, continue to increase and, though there is measurable progress, malnutrition programming remains a critical part of the service model. So, 2023 has been a really good year for this venture of service in one of the poorest places in the world. More work to be done.”

John Stremlau’s request in our last class notes that we share with him our memories of the visits that Martin Luther King Jr. made to Wesleyan set up quite an exchange, and here a glimpse of what I have seen:

Hardy Spoehr writes: “Aloha, Larry. I attended two of Dr. King’s presentations in our old dining hall on Foss Hill. Let me tell you, coming from Hawai`i in those days I really had no idea or background in the civil rights issues at that time . . . before coming out of those gatherings when all joined hands and arms and sang ‘We Shall Overcome,’ are still one of those times in one’s life that bring forth ‘chicken skin.’ We all left those gatherings feeling the power of ‘oneness in purpose’ and having no doubt that we shall overcome. There was so much hope and promise that now, at the age of 80, I can only tear up a bit when I view the current situation in the United States and only hope that this current generation of students, who we once were, can once again create an overwhelming wave for them to ride into the curl and come out of the tube bringing forth the promises so eloquently envisioned in those times at Foss Hill.”   

In response to John’s “query about MLK at WESU,” Bud Smith writes: “An attempt to reckon with Blacks in my life, it’s largely about one of our WESU classmates, Lawrence Benét McMillan, who followed me to campus from Bunnell High in Stratford, Connecticut, where our families were across-the-street neighbors. We were roommates for the first semester of my senior year, which was Benét’s junior year.” Bud goes on to include a link to his essay “Lights in the Darkness,” published some years ago in the Black Issue of the Tidal Basin Review”: https://issuu.com/tidalbasin/docs/tidal_basin_review__spring_2011/122. The essay, which “explores a number of campus incidents . . . including hearing MLK in the chapel,” is riveting. John’s e-mail is: john.stremlau@wits.ac.za. Do share your memories with him.

Bud has a number of irons in the fire, writing: “In May of 2023, the Connecticut legislature passed a controversial resolution exonerating all those accused of witchcraft in colonial times. The second edition of my historical novel The Stratford Devil (2007), about the hanging of Goody Bassett in my hometown of Stratford, was taught in the schools as part of the 15-year educational effort behind that resolution. The first edition (1984) portrayed Goody Bassett as an early feminist. The new third edition cleans up some errors in the first two and contains a much-needed preface. Coming in an age of religious terrorism, political witch hunts, Native American reparations, and environmental degradation—with attempts to limit wolf populations in states that have them ( including right here in Wisconsin)—the novel is a microcosm of America today.”  And meanwhile he is “collaborating on a screenplay based on the novel with a former LA screenwriter, whom I met through my softball league, which ended last month. Golf league is over, too, but I’m still fishing.”

Ever so good to hear from Dick Stabnick who still goes “to the campus periodically when I am in Middletown in court. Closed my original law firm after 50 years and now still practicing of counsel with my daughter’s firm. Cheri and I spend time between West Hartford and our home in Rhode Island with an occasional trip to our home in Florida. That’s the problem, no hobbies other than time with our daughters and grandson.” I see no problem at all.

Clark Byam and Paul Gilbert, among other news, remind us that an important date in our lives is forthcoming this year, Clark writing: “I turn 80 end of December and still hiking 2 to 3 miles most days.” Paul notes that “all is well here in Charleston, South Carolina. Once the summer heat lifts, the fun starts. Even Christmas is fun, although my wife and I miss the beauty of a snowy winter but not the aggravations. I’m turning 80 in March, which is a shock but I’m devoting my volunteer time to Veterans on Deck, an organization that provides sailing experiences to vets at no cost. Many of them are younger men and women who are battling mental issues from serving in the military. All we do is enjoy our trips with no expectations from our guests, and we do get lots of smiles and thanks. It’s worthy work.”

Two of our classmates will not see that 80^th year. David Griffith writes: “Jeff Dunn, a standout football player who was on our freshman team and left before the end of the year, has passed away here in Colorado Springs, after a very long and successful career in construction and real estate.” Here’s the link to his obituary: https://obits.gazette.com/us/obituaries/gazette/name/jeffry-dunn-obituary?id=53086268

And our classmate, David Witherbee Boyle, who had “been in serous decline for a couple of years, with kidney failure, Parkinson’s, and seizures,” died on October 22, 2023. As Rick Crootof writes: “David was a significant force in our KNK life, as an animated Autoharp and song-filled full member of our fraternity, and memorably as the owner of a VW bus (also memorably unheated since he bought it in New Orleans, and also with no gas gauge!), which spent numerous road runs to Smith and Holyoke transporting dates to and fro. At our reunions, he invariably was up front carrying our ’66 banner. When I would address our class dinner having chaired five, six, seven, eight, and eventually nine reunions and declaim ‘It is time for a younger man,’ his voice would reliably ring out ‘but you ARE the youngest man in the class.’ He was a lovable teddy bear, and he loved his family, his Cleveland Browns, and especially his Kentucky. He leaves a hole. RIP, David Witherbee Boyle ’66.” His obit: https://www.brown-forward.com/obituaries/david-boyle.

In closing, Essel Bailey, who denies stealing signs for his much beloved Michigan Wolverines, reminds us that we “Really need to get behind Wesleyan’s This is Not a Campaign . . . because there is more the current Wes could do in the world!”

And Liz Taylor ’87, Wesleyan’s Class Notes Editor, shares this photograph from Homecoming 2023.

     

We begin with a telling photograph.

On the evening of May 24, 2023, President Roth gathered together members of the Wesleyan University community for a ceremony at the College of the Environment to honor, celebrate, and thank Essel Bailey and his wife, Menakka Bailey, for helping to found and support what will now be known as the Bailey College of the Environment. A dinner at the president’s home followed. As Essel has often and rightly noted: “The most significant challenges we face today are environmental.” Thanks to Essel and Menakka’s vision and generosity, the Bailey College of the Environment will soon have new, updated quarters in a renovated Shanklin Hall, funding for student research projects, and an endowment to support interdisciplinary faculty work on environmental issues. Essel (my one claim to fame moving forward will to have been Essel’s roommate sophomore year in North College) wrote to me, with an exclamation mark, “Our whole family, kids, grandkids, and siblings” attended the dinner as did one of Essel’s faculty mentors, Professor Nat Greene. Rick Crootof, Sandy Van Kennen, and Will Rhys represented the Class of 1966.

Wesleyan students and faculty today and for years to come will be inspired by, and benefit from, Essel and Menakka’s vision and support. On behalf of your fellow classmates, thank you Essel and Menakka.

Although he retired as distinguished professor of psychology from the University of California, Davis, eight years ago, Phil Shaver has not let grass grow under his feet, writing: “I have continued working on research and writing projects with other (younger) people. One of them, a very creative Israeli professor, Mario Mikulincer, and I have two new books out, both with long academic titles, I’m afraid: (1) Attachment Theory Expanded: Security Dynamics in Individuals, Dyads, Groups, and Societies; (2) Attachment Theory Applied: Fostering Personal Growth through Healthy Relationships.” For his many scholarly contributions to the field of psychology over many years, Phil will be honored—and what an honor it is—in September with induction into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Not sure where he finds the time, but Phil has also “been taking watercolor painting classes and playing golf a couple of times a week, until three weeks ago, when I had to have knee replacement surgery. Throwing your weight leftward while pivoting on the left knee gradually wears the knee out. My workaholic professor wife, Gail Goodman (who has not retired yet), and our 27-year-old twin daughters, both of whom live nearby, are a lot of fun and treat me very well.”

Clark Byam, who lives in Pasadena, California, continues “to hike and play some golf. Also have a lot of Goggle stock, so good retirement accounts. Wasn’t recommended by a broker but years ago Wall Street Journal article I read said if you don’t know what to invest in . . . invest in Google. Best advice I ever got.”

On May 25, Barry Thomas sent this wonderfully informative update: “A couple months has passed since Connie and I returned from Burundi. Other than just being a bit lazy, the only excuse is that I have been a bit under the weather for a couple weeks. Nothing serious or chronic, and I am getting better. Just getting old which, I am coming to understand, is serious enough.

“The time in Burundi during February was very good. We were joined by another couple . . . Ana is an early childhood education person who had helped Connie with the online training programs during the pandemic years. Her husband is a now retired professor of religion at Appalachian State. They found the experience to be . . . extraordinary—of course, seeing all the negatives involved with the extreme poverty but, on the other hand, all the good work being done by the Dreaming for Change staff. Connie and Ana had a rewarding three weeks working with the teachers and the children. There are now 130 children in the school that includes a first primary grade. D4C has experienced an influx of children and mothers in recent weeks as they seem to be coming from greater distances for food and other help. Part of the issue is that D4C is becoming known in the province as a good place where food and a nurse’s care are being provided.

“During our visit, D4C celebrated a fifth anniversary. The place of trust that has been built with the community is noteworthy. Connie and I were also impressed with the staff Janvier has attracted and the organization he is putting together. In my time working in poor places, I have learned that, aside from the bad political leadership and governance, the main factor holding people in their subsistence life is the absence of organization management and just plain organizational work experience.”

David Luft plays in a different league. He is now “learning Czech and working on a book about Czech intellectual history since the 15th century.” He “started earlier with Spanish and Latin, and my real love, of course, was English. Thanks to Beckham and COL, I did get pretty good at German, and I kept at it. But I got interested in Austria, which was where Musil was from. So, there was a lot for me to unpuzzle about languages. And then in 1980, Solidarity made me want to learn Polish.” Of course! “For the past 20 or 25 years, I have been learning Czech and Polish in a chaotic way. It’s demanding . . . but pretty interesting. I can see Russia more clearly from there and understand Austria and Germany much better. I did learn some Russian in the 1980s, and Czech and Polish are closer to Russian than to German.”

Tom Pulliam worries that “my story is a little monotonous.” Hardly, Tom. What a life you are living! Tom is “coaching rugby at Stanford (mostly with women’s team who finished third in country last season) and with kids ages 10–14 at San Francisco Golden Gate Rugby Club—absolutely loving it—and still watching three grandsons (10, 13, and 16), who live seven minutes away, play baseball, flag football, and soccer. The 13- and 16-year-old [are] now playing MLSNext soccer, which is highest youth level in the U.S., but prevents them from playing anything else because it is so intense.” Tom’s “granddaughter is headed to sophomore year at University of Hawaii and is extremely happy there, studying marine biology. I am determined to get over there for visit and to see Hardy Spoehr.”

Shortly after hearing from Tom, I got this note from Hardy Spoehr: “Aloha, Larry. . . . Nothing much to report here except our second hurricane of the season is moving slowly toward us. Also, just want to put a plug in [for] Wesleyan’s ongoing webcasts of its athletic events . . . looking forward to viewing this year’s teams with my morning cup of coffee. . . . He Ola Kakou—be well.” Both Tom and Hardy wrote before the devastating wildfires in Maui.

Al Burman writes that he and his wife, MJ, are “still enjoying work and spending most of our time in Arlington, Virginia, and Sausalito, California, where quite some time back we had a chance for a nice catch-up with Barry Reder and Phil Shaver and their spouses. I was very sorry to hear about Frank Burrows.” Al attaches this photograph “of my wife MJ and me from our Amsterdam-to-Bruges bicycle-barge tour in June 2022. It was great fun and we are off to Mallorca for a similar ride in November.”

Great missive from Joel Russ who writes: “Carolyn and I celebrated our 55th wedding anniversary this year. We are now living in South Bristol, Maine, to be near three grandchildren (two of whom are off to college at Oberlin College and Conservatory and Williams) and are enjoying semiretirement. Carolyn retired after 33 years of public school teaching, and I in a variety of community-based nonprofits in Maine. I still do a little strategic planning and facilitation consulting for Maine-based nonprofit organizations, serve on three local nonprofit boards (land conservation, early childhood education, and chamber music), and one statewide nonprofit board, the Maine Gun Safety Coalition. I also coach the local elementary school cross-country and track and field teams. Trying hard to stay fit and busy.

“My most important activity at the present time, however, is to help raise funds for a critically important Maine resource, LifeFlight Maine, Maine’s only emergency helicopter and air rescue service. This service is particularly important to Maine’s rural and coastal island communities. In the past 25 years, LifeFlight Maine has transported over 36,000 Maine residents of all ages, most of whom were experiencing life-threatening conditions.

“This is my personal story and why I am so committed. Twelve years ago our daughter-in-law, KC Ford (our son Matt’s wife), was a passenger in a small plane that sank soon after leaving Matinicus Island, located 21 miles off the Maine coast. KC sustained serious, life-threatening injuries. Had it not been for a LifeFlight Maine emergency helicopter, KC would most likely not have survived. As you can imagine, our gratitude toward LifeFlight Maine is immense. I have committed to express that gratitude by participating in a major fundraiser, Cross for LifeFlight, a self-directed athletic activity. My goal is to run 100-plus miles in the month of August and to raise $6,000.” Here’s a photograph of Joel the runner and one capturing the cause.

Ever so good to hear from John Stremlau, Hon Professor of International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand. John writes: “My wife and I returned to Johannesburg in 2015, where I am working on a comparative study of the politics and international relations of South Africa and the U.S. Reckoning with race in these two different and distant democracies is a major thread. Although it primarily deals with recent and contemporary events, on a more personal level, I recall my formative experiences on issues of nonracialism and political equality, that really began during the 1960s at Wesleyan.

“I believe I owe a special debt to the late John D. Maguire, who was just out of grad school and a member of the faculty. He had developed a friendship with Dr. Martin Luther King, who he [brought to campus] several times during the 1960s. Meeting Rev. King, listening to his address in Foss Hill Hall and in smaller discussion groups, had an enduring impact on my life and still does. Indeed, I probably would not be here in South Africa, which I first visited in 1977 and became a permanent resident in 1999, or served in Atlanta as vice president for peace at the Carter Center (2006–15), had it not been for John Maguire. John, I think was born in Montgomery and in 1961, the year before our first year, was arrested along with MLK and another Wes colleague, David Swift, for joining one of the early freedom rides.”

John would very much like to hear “from any classmates who might have had a similar formative experience with Maguire and King during their four years at Wesleyan. It would be helpful to hear from them as a kind of reality check.” John can be reached at: jjstremlau@gmail.com or john.stremlau@wits.ac.za.

Those of us fortunate enough to live with him on the first floor of a Foss Hill dormitory freshman year referred to him as “the Great One.” That him is, of course, Alberto Ibargüen, who from being editor of The Wesleyan Argus went on to a distinguished career in journalism, among many accomplishments, becoming publisher of the Miami Herald. In 2005 Alberto became president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, a philanthropic organization that invests in and supports media, arts, and culture. A New York Times article of March 24, 2023, let us know that Alberto is stepping down from that position. In its lead it says “He Brought an Artistic Flair to the Knight Foundation’s Philanthropy.” The article notes, “In its 18 years under Alberto Ibargüen, the organization funded punk shows in Detroit and poetry dropped from helicopters in Miami. As he prepares to retire, he talks about what might be next.” Congratulations to Alberto on a distinguished career. We wait to hear what is next for “the Great One.” (See: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/24/arts/design/alberto-ibarguen-retiring-knight-foundation.html).

From celebratory to sad news. Bob Dearth writes: “So sorry to learn of the passing of F. Sugden Murphy, one of my favorite fraternity brothers. We kept in touch often during the first five or 10 years out of Wesleyan and then drifted in different directions as we aged and our families grew. Then later, after he has moved to New Hampshire, I learn he has become good acquaintances with a friend from New Canaan whose wife was a classmate of my wife at Skidmore and who then moved his family to New Hampshire too. Many fond memories of our time together at Wesleyan and after. RIP.” Frederick Sugden Murphy Jr., known as “Skipper,” died on December 10, 2022. An obituary can be read here: https://www.seacoastonline.com/obituaries/pprt0381553.

And our classmate, Grant Holly, died on November 8, 2022. In 1970 Grant accepted a position as assistant professor of English at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, where he would serve for the next 52 years, a greatly admired and cherished teacher and colleague. Many of you may not have known him at Wesleyan, as he and his wife, Michael Ann, and their daughter, Lauren, lived off campus. He and I, however, became close friends, both majoring in English, both writing our senior theses in the basement cubicles of Olin Library. That friendship deepened as we went on to complete our graduate degrees at the University of Rochester, writing our PhD theses under the same mentor, Professor James William Johnson. The friendship and good times I shared with Grant and Michael Ann beginning from our days at Wesleyan will always be cherished, his death shaking me. Grant, being the life force that he was, I thought would live forever. Here, if you have not seen them, are some links:

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/latimes/name/grant-holly-obituary?id=37402268

https://www.hws.edu/news/2022/remembering-professor-grant-holly.aspx

https://www.hws.edu/offices/president/statements/statement-on-grant-holly.aspx

Let’s end on a happy note, this from the peerless Jeff Nilson, who begins with a photograph of his two grandsons, Isaac ’26, and William, “The tallest family member . . . age 17 . . . who plays the piano, the bass guitar, and the standup bass . . . wants to study music in Europe,”  and Jeff’s daughter, Li ’88, mother of Isaac and William.

Jeff goes on to write: “I am still taking nourishment. I try to be grateful every day. I say to myself, ‘This is the day you are given. Rejoice in it.’ Jeff has “started my third children’s book. It is an easy-to-read mystery narrated by a bulldog named Daisy.” Here, the opening lines of Sally, Daisy, and the Mystery of the Kidnapped Dogs: 

“Someone was stealing dog toys from the dog park. But my sister Sally and I didn’t care. We are not fetchers. We aren’t jumpers either. We are sniffers and watchers. We are bulldogs with short legs and heavy bodies. We don’t jump. We don’t run. We waddle. We like a good snuggle and a good scratch behind the ears.

“Our favorite thing is sniffing. Every morning there are great smells on the sidewalk in front of the dog park: other dogs, a few cats, rats and mice, roaches, spiders, old hot dog juice, and drops of old ice cream.

“We hang out with our dog walker Keisha. Here’s a photo of Keisha, Sally, and me in front of the dog park in Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn: In that photo behind us, you can see a lot of jumping and fetching. But Sally and I are not one of those crazy fetchers.

“A couple of weeks after this photo was taken, some of my best friends disappeared. There was Alex the Greyhound and Felicia the mutt. She had one blue eye, one brown eye, and a lot of wisdom. I missed her. Who was taking our friends? No one knew how to stop the dognappers. And no one knew how to rescue our missing dog friends….”

Bud Smith has done it again, publishing another book; Bud edited and wrote a foreword to  Gauntlet in the Gulf: The 1925 Marine Log and Mexican Prison Journal of William F. Lorenz, MD. The inimitable secretary of the Class of 1967, Richie Zweigenhaft, reviewed the book, writing: “Gauntlet in the Gulf reveals the adventurousness of William F. Lorenz, a prominent early twentieth-century psychiatrist who, in 1925, was forced to abandon a fishing vessel smack in the Gulf of Mexico, only to be imprisoned with his shipmates in the Yucatan. It also reveals how innocent individuals traveling internationally can become caught up in geopolitical animosities. Finally, it reveals an insightful and engaging storyteller, as Claude Clayton Smith deconstructs Lorenz’s fascinating journal. When the Ruth strikes a reef, Lorenz’s leisurely, lyrical account, takes a stunning and dramatic turn.”

On the subject of books, David Luft’s The Austrian Dimension in German Intellectual History (2021) is now in paperback. This past January, “[a] colleague in Poland invited” David to give a lecture in Poznan, and he spoke on “writing Central European intellectual history. My friends in Europe suggested that, since I would be there anyway, we could create a workshop on the changing forms and meanings of Romanticism in the 19th century and after. I spoke to the workshop on Romanticism on January 23.” Harold Potter and his wife Lee have been traveling as well, Harry dropping me this note: “Lee and are at Logan waiting for our flight to Paris. Then on to Morocco.” Thomas Hawley has been receiving visitors at his home in Carmel-by-the-Sea. “Not too long ago we got together with Cliff and Michelle Shedd and Bill Boynton and his very nice female friend for a lovely evening together. And before that, Sandy Van Kennen and his son paid us a visit, which was just great.” Another West Coast classmate, Clark Byam, is “still alive and been retired since end of 2021 after 49 years of practice. Hike along in hills where I live [Pasadena] and play golf. Invested in stock market and so far reasonably happy with results.” David Griffith, who is about to retire from a distinguished career as a lawyer in Colorado Springs, writes: “Our family is fine. I’m in pretty good shape and looking forward to fly-fishing and nature photography and seeing the summer again, waking up to the mountains and rivers. I’m about to retire from law practice after 52 years. I’ve been writing stories from law and life . . . some true, others I’m not sure if the stories are true or lies or dreams recalled from mixed memories. Old habit of Griffith men to tell a good story and exaggerate or tell outright lies to make the story better.”

Dan Lang in “August . . . began a three-year term as a member of the Board of Governors at King’s University College,” London, Ontario, Canada, “a liberal arts college much like Wesleyan today. . . . ” At a recent board retreat, “maintaining faculty quality” was discussed. The phrase caught Dan’s attention. “Maybe it was the notion that King’s and Wesleyan are what we today call ‘selective liberal arts colleges’ that triggered a recollection of where I had heard the phrase before: Victor Butterfield in his address to the entering class, and in a little booklet—The Faith of a Liberal College—that we all received in our orientation packages. I still have a copy and looked. There it was on page 19, ‘responsibility for maintaining a faculty of quality.’” Dan doesn’t think much will come from such a discussion; “in Canada academic senates and faculty unions give the idea short shrift as a role of governors.”

Bob Dearth, “a car nut” who “can’t accept aging gracefully,” writes, “Instead of throwing a big, six-figure sum at a new high-performance Corvette, I have gotten the bug to preserve one of the late ’50s/early ’60s piece-of-art automobiles that came out of Detroit as I was growing up.

My latest focus is on a ’61 or ’62 Oldsmobile Starfire convertible. These were huge tributes to chrome and options that were being added all the time to the cars being designed in Detroit. I’ve bought a shell of a ’62 that now seems to need more dollars to restore than I bargained for and I will likely turn to one already restored and finished . . . not to be a trailer queen but to drive and enjoy while we can still buy premium gasoline. I still remember the 17-year-old date I had as a senior in high school whose dad worked for GM and who had a ’62 Oldsmobile Starfire convertible as his company car and who let us take it out on dates, especially since the bucket seats and console kept us a respectable distance apart as we drove.”

We end with a celebration of the life of Frank Burrows who died on February 2. He had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. His daughter Lauren writes that Frank “died peacefully at home. As was his nature, he remained cheerful and in good spirits until the very end.” Rick Crootof, who knew Frank well, visiting him at his home in Florida, writes: “Frank was a giant in our magnificent 50th Reunion class book, itself a giant love fest to our class. I am so glad he was able to join us for a reunion or two after the 50th.” John Neff wrote to Lauren: “I’m not surprised to hear that he was cheerful and in good spirits. I have only the most affectionate and smiling remembrances of your dad over all these years. Apart from Middletown I visualize him most in Faulkner territory there in Oxford. Or at a parting breakfast or lunch at our 50th when passing on to him a skinny red, white, and blue regimental tie acquired from J. Press in 1965–1966 for our tongue-in-cheek ‘secret society’ F.S.S.S. (Fraternal Society of the Self-chosen Seven) whose ritual greeting was ‘fssss-sss.’ All good times. Not least his quarterbacking our last reunion book with all the incredible Argus and other documentation—a labor of love.”

Dave McNally shared with Lauren this reminiscence: “Your dad was ever cheerful and good spirited, and always a pleasure to be with. And I will never forget, sitting at a round table at one of our class reunions (I think it was the 40th or 45th) when I noticed that my wife Michelle kept staring across the table at your mother Carol, and vice versa. It turned out that they had shared a house off campus when both were undergraduates at the University of Minnesota. Talk about small world! I was glad that Frank passed away peacefully (may we all be so fortunate). And may you fully celebrate his life even as you mourn his passing.”

As Rick wrote to Lauren: “I think we can all agree that you are an honorary member of the Class of ’66, however distinguished that might be! Thanks for keeping us informed, Love, Rick.” Amen.