Class Secretary Andy Kaufman writes:
I’m sorry to report that Sheldon Hines died on December 1, 2021. A resident of Berkeley College at Yale, Shelly majored in History and rowed crew. After Yale, Sheldon earned a master’s degree in International Affairs from George Washington University in 1977 and embarked on a career in information technology. Initially with with Coopers & Lybrand in Washington, D.C., Sheldon subsequently worked as a financial analyst and senior project manager in information technology, both domestically and internationally, for the United States Postal Service, ICON Clinical Research, Chiltern International, ASG Inc., and Phase Forward (now a division of Oracle), among others. In his final professional gig, he managed projects for a consortium of service providers exploring the use of bring-your-own-device technology for direct-from-subjects data collection and entry in clinical trials. Sheldon was a long-time board member and treasurer for the EMR Network: Citizens and Professionals for the Responsible Use of Electromagnetic Radiation, a national not-for-profit environmental group, and he was also a member of Concord Safe Technology in Concord, MA. Following his retirement in 2014, Sheldon indulged a life-long love of sailing and wooden boat building on Little Deer Isle, ME, where he and his wife Virginia maintained a summer home. He took boat building classes at the Wooden Boat School in Annapolis, MD, and Brooklin, ME, and built three wooden boats: a dory, a dinghy and a 16’, gaff-rigged sloop. After crossing paths with Sheldon and Virginia in a restaurant in Blue Hill, ME, in 2018, he and I spoke a couple of times, and his enthusiasm for his boat building and sailing were palpable. We send our condolences to Virginia and their children and grandchildren.
In December, Walt Mintkeski sent me his annual holiday letter. As was the case for so many of us, his 2021 was a lot like his 2020: continued heavy reliance on Zoom meetings, socially distanced events, attention to the many “at home” projects that had accumulated over the years and — COVID-permitting — visits with children and grandchildren. Walt continued racing his Laser sailboat almost weekly and taught private sailing lessons at the Willamette Sailing Club, and he continued his volunteer work for The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Johnson Creek Watershed Council, Oregon League of Conservation Voters, and Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL), mostly via Zoom meetings. As CCL’s liaison to his Congressional Representative, Walt works for passage of national carbon pricing legislation (H.R. 2307) to move our economy off fossil fuels to renewable energy. Walt, Joe Brooks and Alan Yuspeh have been organizing monthly Pierson ’71 Zoom chats on the first Thursday of each month. Walt notes that as a result, he “[has] seen more of my Pierson classmates this year than I have in the last 50 years.”
In addition to Pierson, Branford and several other residential colleges have been holding their own Zoom meetings during the pandemic. If those of you involved in their organization would like to publicize them in these Class Notes, please let me know. I also remind all classmates of our class-wide monthly Zoom class gatherings. We meet from Noon to 1pm ET on the third Thursday of each month in groups of approximately 10-15, and we shuffle the groups each month so that participants have the opportunity to engage with a different cohort of classmates each time. At our January meeting, we had over 60 participants. Send me an email if you would like to be added to the invitation list.
Bill Porter and Kathy have moved back to the New Haven area from New York and are now living in Hamden. Bill and Kurt Schmoke continue to serve as our class’ principal liaisons to the Calvin Hill Day Care Center and urge classmates to support the Center in its annual campaign again this year. Contributions may be sent to the Center at 150 Highland St. New Haven CT 06511 or made online at www.calvinhilldaycare.org.
Please keep your cards and letters coming with news!
Cheers,
AMK
1-17-22