Class Secretary Andy Kaufman writes:
Ralph Dawson and Don Roman have been honored by Pierson College, which has established The Ralph Dawson PC ’71 and Don M. Roman, Sr. PC ’71 Prize to be awarded annually to the graduating Pierson senior “who has had the most profound impact on racial justice in Pierson, at Yale, in the City of New Haven, and beyond.” In announcing the award, Head of Pierson Stephen Davis noted the following: “Respected members of the Pierson Class of 1971, Ralph Dawson and Don Roman were pioneers at Yale and in Pierson during the evolution of the civil rights movement in this country. They showed a high measure of moral courage during their four years as students in Pierson and were instrumental in the establishment of both the African American Studies major at Yale and the Afro-American Cultural Center. For these reasons, Ralph Dawson and Don Roman provide a model for the kind of leadership that this prize seeks to identify.” Congratulations to Ralph and Don for this well-deserved honor and recognition.
Adding to their many accolades, Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld have been recently honored with The American Lawyer’s “Lifetime Achievement Award” for their work on The Innocence Project. Barry and Peter co-founded The Innocence Project in 1992 to work for the exoneration of the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and to seek reforms to the criminal justice system to prevent future injustices. Barry and Peter continue to serve as Special Counsel to The Innocence Project.
Gail Henry, Bill Henry’s widow, sends news that 10 boxes of Bill’s “papers” are now at the Beinecke Library, where they will be sorted and available for future research. Gail reports that the material “includes notes and ‘foul matter’ from Bill’s books, some of his more obscure freelance work, many letters (including all those I received when he died in ‘94), his many awards and a bunch of other stuff. I’m so pleased I was able to pass this on. Since we had no children, I figured the boxes would sit in my garage loft until someone just threw them out.” Gail is looking forward to joining us at our in-person reunion in June.
Jane Davis Doggett ’56 MFA included a shout-out to Jay Gitlin and Ginny Bales in her recent interview with the Yale Alumni Association. Doggett, described in the interview as “a pioneering graduate of the Arts & Architecture School, a renowned graphic artist and an innovator in her field,” is Ginny’s cousin and is godmother to Jay and Ginny’s son Basie (’10). Doggett noted that Jay “has been teaching courses in American and Canadian history at Yale for more than 30 years and has had a prolific publishing career. He is an engaging ‘personality’ professor with his courses typically filled to the brim, with waitlists.” She also complimented Jay and Ginny’s “lively, diverse band, a Yale ‘fixture,’” which of course will be playing at our in-person reunion in June.
Steve Benson has “stayed active in poetry and related art work in the half-century since leaving Yale, while also working in retail, psychotherapies, and other means.” He has been living in Surry, Maine, and working as a psychologist in Blue Hill since late 1996, serving folks on the Blue Hill Peninsula (including Deer Isle, Stonington, and Mount Desert Island). In the early 1990s, before he moved east for a psychology internship at McLean Hospital outside of Boston, Steve collaborated with the Splatter Trio, a group of improvising musicians in the Bay Area. Steve and the group have recently released a book and accompanying CD that includes 30 of their tracks from a 1992 recording session, recollections and notes, and a 50-page set of Steve’s writing from that period. Titled It’s a Stool Pigeon Universe, their project is posted at https://thesplattertrio.bandcamp.com/.
In addition to developing a theory of social causality that he calls “socionomics” (see his entry in our 50th Reunion Class Book for more on this), Bob Prechter has spent 24 years researching the authorship of Elizabethan-era plays, poems, stories and treatises. He reports that “for the 1.5 classmates who may be interested in who wrote what in the time of Shakespeare,” his project is posted at www.oxfordsvoices.com.
On a sad note, Caroline Brettell sent word that Sylvia Hardage Larson died last October. Caroline and Sylvia were classmates and best friends at Smith before transferring to Yale, and they were roommates in JE. After Yale, Sylvia earned a MA degree at Stanford, served for three years as Assistant Director of Admissions at Stanford and then was Director of Admissions at San Francisco College for Women. She married David Larsen in 1972. They subsequently moved to Birmingham, Alabama (where Sylvia grew up), and raised two children. Sylvia had a varied career in medical social work, first in the mental health area and later for Travelers Aid and Visiting Nurses. She left the workforce to concentrate on raising her family and devoting herself to volunteer work. She also became a master gardener. Sylvia and Caroline remained lifelong friends.
Caroline is completing a second term as Chair of the Department of Anthropology at SMU and is working on the 4th edition of Migration Theory; Talking Across Disciplines, a book that she has co-edited with a Political Science colleague. She plans to retire soon, “once she gets her final graduate students through their programs.” Caroline was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017, and she was recognized recently by SMU with a Faculty Career Achievement Award. Caroline’s late husband, Richard Brettell, a world-renowned art historian and museum director, was elected to the Academy in the spring of 2020, shortly before he died. Caroline is hoping to go to Boston this spring to accept his honor for him by signing his name in the book.
We are pleased to announce that our Class Service of Remembrance, which we presented last May as part of our virtual 50th Reunion program, was recently recognized with an Award of Excellence from the YAA. We congratulate Bliss Williams Browne and Anne Ghory-Goodman for their leadership and thank all classmates who participated. The award ceremony will be presented virtually on January 24, and we encourage classmates to join the celebration. YAA will post the link to the ceremony on its site.
Planning for our in-person Reunion is falling nicely into place. Bob Bruner and Lupi Robinson are putting together an exciting combination of social and thought-provoking events, Bill Porter is coordinating a 12-college attendance campaign, and we are looking forward to a terrific weekend: June 9-12, Davenport College. The key factor in a successful reunion is strong attendance. Please visit the reunion website and indicate your intention to attend. Knowing you will be there will influence your friends to do so as well. Final registration, as well as the opportunity to sign up for on campus housing, will open in the Spring.
Cheers,
AMK
11-20-21