Tag: 1968

I will open with a lovely letter I got from Guy Baehr as it is a model for you all: “I guess I’ve been putting this off for a decade or two, But I thought I’d send you an update now that I seem to have come to a convenient turning point. Which is to say that I am now finally and firmly retired to a small town on the north coast of the Dominican Republic.

“I’ve built a house here, sold my house back in New Jersey and am looking forward to making friends among the expats and locals here, enjoying the Caribbean climate, and watching the fascinating process in a country of 10 million people moving, sometimes fitfully, from being a Third World country to an almost Second World country. (I guess that’s my CSS training.) Also I have a long connection to the Dominican Republic that started when I came here as a Peace Corps volunteer right out of Wesleyan and continued with a later marriage to a Dominican woman in the U.S. that lasted for 24 years.

“Most of my professional career was spent as a reporter for the Newark Star-Ledger, New Jersey’s largest newspaper. It was a rewarding and interesting career that let me cover a wide variety of people, from homeless people to Mikhail Gorbachev to survivors of the attack on the World Trade Center escaping Manhattan. I hope I left the state a little better than I found it. When the Internet started killing the newspaper business, I switched to teaching investigative reporting at Rutgers.

“With exquisite timing, I stopped working for pay shortly before the Great Recession, bought land here in the Dominican Republic and started building a house. It’s taken me until this year to finally move down here year-round. I’ve found the process challenging, absorbing and rewarding. Now I’m settling down to enjoy the more conventional pleasures of retirement: building small sailing dinghies, making new friends, and spoiling my 1-year-old grandson on periodic visits back to the U.S., not during the winter if I can help it.”

Rich Zweigenhaft ’67, a professor at Guilford College and co-author of Diversity in the Power Elite: How It Happens, Why It Matters, was cited prominently in a June 28th New York Times article on gay CEOs.

Bob Runk ’67’s musical career continues. He is writing/singing/recording. In 2013, he got nearly $55 in royalties from people downloading his stuff, and he has a wonderful website, the Runkus Room, at bobrunk.com. I caught Wendell Wallach, a fellow at Yale’s interdisciplinary Center on Bioethics, on a NPR talk show on July 1st, discussing the larger implications of some of our technological advances.

On the way up to Quebec, Judy and I stopped in Norwich, Vt., at the lovely hillside home of Andrea and Rich Kremer ’69 for a delightful dinner on the deck. Their big news was the birth of their first grandchild, a boy, in the spring. Andrea is adjuncting at Dartmouth, teaching freshmen writing intensive courses that focus on issues in medical ethics, while Rich is auditing all kinds of improbable courses. He is still consulting some but summers are pretty much dedicated to keeping the woodchucks out of his gardens.

In the crazy, tumultuous fall of ’67, I was befriended by Larry Dunham MAT ’69, a kind, spirited, accepting fellow. He was married—still is—and the father of two great kids who now have five of their own to whom he is a devoted grandfather. (The thing that really amazed me back in the day is that he was a graduate of the same repressive boarding school I attended and, nonetheless, had evolved in an open, wonderful way.) Anyway we reconnected after all these years and picked up where we left off. He lived in St. Paul and, finding his temperament ill-suited to traditional employment, worked on the railroad and then as a long-haul truck driver. Retired for a couple of years now, he is spending more time in the East to be closer to his daughter, Johannah ’91, and his son, Wheatleigh, who is a Yale graduate and an entrepreneur. Active in the McCarthy movement, Larry remembered Dave Siegel ’69 and Dave Caswell ’69 warmly.

I want to quote from a May 8th editorial from the Washington Post at some length: “On the merits, the race in the Democratic primary for attorney general in Maryland is a slam-dunk. State Sen. Brian Frosh of Montgomery County, who is among the most admired, intelligent, civil and hardworking lawmakers in Annapolis, should win the nomination in a walk.

“Over the course of nearly three decades in the legislature—much of that in leadership roles—he has been the author and driving force behind landmark laws to improve firearm safety, safeguard the environment and protect Maryland consumers. Other lawmakers take cues from Mr. Frosh when it comes to public ethics. Measured by achievements, qualifications and breadth of experience, the other candidates are not in Mr. Frosh’s league.

“At once self-effacing and substantive, Mr. Frosh has inspired bipartisan respect as a legislator who gets big things done without unduly tooting his own horn. He has shaped and sponsored much of Maryland’s most important environmental legislation for years. He wrote laws that cracked down on identity theft and teen drunk driving and has been one of the Senate’s most effective strategists in tackling gun violence.” (The best man won here; Brian took the primary handily.)

Locally, I am not completely sure what to do with my newfound freedom. Went to my 50th high school reunion, which even my wife enjoyed. Volunteering for Governor Malloy’s reelection bid. Laid low this summer as our condo has a pool and a beach, and feels like a resort. Trying to find my legs here.

Please do follow Guy’s example and update me on how you have been spending the years. It makes me feel like I am doing something of value here and not just rattling on for my own amusement. 

LLOYD BUZZELL | LBuzz463@aol.com
70 Turtle Bay, Branford, CT 06405
203/208-5360

Johns Hopkins University Press published Cut These Words into My Stone: Ancient Greek Epitaphs, translated by our own Michael Wolfe who has been flying high but, until now, under the radar of yours truly. A little research revealed he has focused largely on bringing an understanding of his Muslim faith to a wider audience. Highlights include a string of publications (novels, essays, travel accounts, and verse) and writing awards; founding and operating a publishing company; co-founding an educational media company; producing a number of documentaries for PBS, some of which were broadcast world-wide through National Geographic International; hundreds of interviews for regional and national radio and television broadcast; and hosting a show on Nightline that was nominated for an Emmy and a Peabody. Based just east of Monterey in San Juan Bautista, Michael has traveled throughout Africa, taught at Andover and Exeter, and lectured at schools like Harvard and Stanford.

Ray Solomon, dean of the Rutgers School of Law­–Camden, has been named to the newly created role of provost for the Camden campus. Under his leadership as dean (in which role he will continue to serve), the school opened a $37 million classroom building and greatly expanded its clinical and pro bono legal programs. His wife, Carol Avins, is an emerita professor of Slavic Literature at Rutgers. Their older daughter, Claire, is working for a small foundation in New York that funds innovative Jewish educational projects and their younger daughter, Jess, is traveling during a gap year before starting Goucher College.

Ray was also kind enough to tell me more about “the Gardner Open”—a golf fellowship of Ted Ahern, Dave Gruol, Pete Hardin, Jacques LeGette, Steve Horvat, Craig Dodd, Dick Emerson and Ray, which has been playing for three or four days each July since 1968. Named after their first venue in Massachusetts, they have been playing with a steadily increasing membership at rotating locations up and down the East Coast. From all points on the campus: Pete, Dave, Jacques, and Steve were all on the baseball team; Craig, Pete, and Ray were all on the same floor of Hewitt 9; and, Ted and Pete were classics majors. Steve retired after many years as general counsel of a life insurance company in Chicago and now lives in South Carolina. Pete retired from the Air Force and then taught classics in Newport News, Va., from which he is now retired. Ted recently retired from the Classics Department at Boston College, which he chaired for many years. Jacques works in Atlanta with an architectural firm as a project manager. Craig has been practicing matrimonial law for many years in north Jersey. Dave lives near Craig and is a photographer. Dick is an attorney in Danbury.

While I knew Tim Polk at Wes, it was not until I moved to New Haven to attend divinity school that we became close. A couple of years ahead of me at divinity school and a lot smarter, he would school me in theology during the week and in football on Saturdays at the Yale Bowl. Thus, it is with a note of particular sadness that I learned from his wife, Lucy, that Tim’s early-onset Alzheimer’s has progressed to the point that he needed to go into a nursing home to meet his needs.

I heard from Lynn Coe ’69 who recently retired after practicing law for 41 years first in Seattle, then in Chicago, and finally in Boston doing municipal bonds for healthcare organizations. He was with Jones Day, a huge international firm, since 1996. Self-described as “one of Hoy’s Boys outliers, married to a Smithy for 45 years; two sons: one a doctor (Dartmouth ’00, Yale Med ’06) and the other a lawyer (Wes ’06 and Kent Law ’11). Likes to hunt, fish and travel;” politically conservative; and happy to see Wes win some football games.

I must tell you belatedly that Robert Blake died of a heart attack as he returned from his daily jog on Feb. 9, 2013. Clearly one of those fascinating classmates I should have known but did not, I will excerpt from his Washington Post obituary: He moved to India when he was 11, to Tehran, and back to India for high school. He earned a PhD in economics from Michigan and moved to the DC area, working for the U.S. Treasury in various international affairs departments for 15 years before taking a job as a development economist at The World Bank. He concentrated on Africa, a continent that he grew to love deeply. (Bob believed economic development was pretty simple: empower women.) Following postings in Cameroon, Uganda, and Madagascar, he retired to Arlington, Va., in 2009. Survived by his wife, Claudia, of 44 years, he discovered the joy of child development in retirement, spending a great deal of time with his grandchildren.

Locally: Judy and I moved out of New Haven two years ago to Branford, a nearby town on the shoreline. Since then, I have discovered one of the town’s features/leading citizens are Chris and Gary Wanerka ’62. Gary is a most amiable and legendary pediatrician who specializes in allergies. They live in the woods on the other side of town and he is now working just enough to underwrite their vice—worldwide travel.

I have been teaching young men at a maximum-security prison for almost 10 years. But, in the fall, I was put back into a classroom with 16 feisty felons after tutoring the past few years, and that change in assignment put things outside my comfort zone. So I packed it in. (After which, I sat down with my financial planner to see if I could afford to retire.) I have no grand plan and know I need to think about reinventing myself. But for now I am on my stationary bike most days, went off to Costa Rica with dear friends, reading a lot, and marveling at having all day every day be mine.

LLOYD BUZZELL | LBuzz463@aol.com
70 Turtle Bay, Branford, CT 06405
203/208-5360

Jeff Talmadge has done something quite remarkable: after working in very responsible positions in a humongous computer company that managed to go belly-up, he created a job for himself with a website—weneedavacation.com—which gets folks vacation rentals on the Cape and the Islands. Well, Jeff’s cottage industry has been going and growing since 1997 and, at this point, Jeff is easing himself out and passing the business on to the next generation. Jeff’s daughter, Becky, and stepson, Jimmy, are taking the lead, and a grandson is afoot at work some days. Jeff and Joan have renovated their East Orleans summer home for living there full time. And a holiday letter gave me the distinct impression that there is not a golf course Jeff does not like.

Though Amby Burfoot has retired as the editor of Runner’s World and moved to Mystic, he continues writing about running-related issues. He was 7/10 of a mile from the finish-line when the bombs went off in Boston. Unbelievably, it has been 25 years since Dave Pryor died from Agent Orange. Bill Nicholson fondly remembers rooming with Dave before Dave concluded that “this arrangement was not going to lead to anything but weekend mischief and mediocre grades.”

Jeff Bell traveled to Russia where he saw the places to which Professors Greene and Pomper had introduced him. So much for the enduring value of a liberal arts education. Wig Sherman’s youngest son, Jonathan, was a lacrosse captain and an economics major at UConn. His post-graduate plans are to secure gainful employment. In August, Paul Spitzer gave Judy and me a fascinating tour of the Connecticut River’s estuary, and we also visited Dave Losee’s exquisite cottage in Isleboro, Maine.

Dave Gruol, Jacques LeGette, Steve Horvat, Ray Solomon, Craig Dodd, Ted Ahern and Pete Hardin got together for their annual golf retreat, which took place this year in Madison, Conn. Dick Emerson was also there, but a back injury limited him to lively conversation and walking the round of golf they played at the Yale golf course, helping to keep up the spirits of those who struggle at this frustrating game.

As my regular readers know, the crew has stayed in touch and active but there has been one notable exception—Joe Kelly Hughes ’67—who until recently was unaccounted for. It turns out, he was drafted out of law school, ended up a Navy SEAL officer and qualified for underwater demolition team training. After two combat tours, he spent three years as a naval adviser to Bolivia. (“I can’t tell you how radically all that affected my mindset.”) Leaving the military in 1975, he moved to the Mexican Caribbean and was involved in many recovery projects. For some years, Joe has been Atlanta-based, developing industrial automation equipment and watching our country move from an industrial to a service economy. A FEMA responder, he spent many long days in New York after 9-11 and Sandy, and in Mississippi after Katrina. “My wife of 15 years and I travel, and I read to expand my knowledge of art and history which began in the COL. I hike with my dog through the Appalachian mountain trails, build and restore ship models, and am a director of a museum of underwater history in Mexico that I helped establish.” His son, a well-known hunting and fishing guide, lives in Bozeman, Mont., with his wife and son.

As the crew has stayed so close over the years, sorrow over the passing of Sib Reppert ’67 in August (of the same kind of liver cancer that Steve Jobs had) was tempered only by the realization that he had lived such an extraordinarily full life. Study at Oxford, service aboard a nuclear submarine and Harvard Law were followed by a Boston-based career as a litigator involved in patent-related and other complex cases including the national asbestos property damage litigation, breast implant cases, and professional malpractice cases. While a life-long competitive oarsman who competed in hundreds of regattas, sailing was Sib’s passion and he was never happier than at sea. Indeed, in 1995, Sib and his family sailed through the Panama Canal to New Zealand aboard their 37-foot sloop. And, in 2001, he and his daughters sailed from Cape Town to the Windward Islands aboard their 42-foot catamaran. In October, several of us celebrated Sib’s life with his wife, Christine Veztinski, and daughter, Victoria ’04, in an event beautifully orchestrated by Will Macoy ’67. Victoria reflected that he had gone quickly—he had been rowing just weeks before his death – and “at the top of his game,” so we needn’t feel bad. Though as Davy Crockett ’69 noted, we all thought he’d be the last man standing and do.

Finally, in July, we lost Alan Nichols to a brain tumor. His regimen of daily exercise strengthened his physical and mental well-being, which his doctors said enabled him to sustain his fight against the tumor as long as he did. A Bethesda-based golf nut, Al wrote for an urban daily and on the environment before focusing his journalism on travel and golf-related subjects for a number of major outlets. A low-handicap player, he was also an occasional amateur tournament participant and a life-coach whose teaching was designed to have an impact on more than your game. Al was especially close to John Carty, who remembers his presence and kindness at some of life’s bigger junctures – like the present he gave John’s first-born. If you put “Alan B. Nichols” into You Tube, you will find some wonderful videos of Alan puffing on a cigar and reflecting wryly on his life and the world. And that is probably how we should remember him.

LLOYD BUZZELL
70 Turtle Bay, Branford, CT 06405
203/208-5360. LBuzz463@aol.com