Greetings for the New Year. I hope that your holiday season was a safe and happy one.
Unfortunately, I begin this column with the sad news of the passing of another of our classmates, Ruth Klarman, who died on January 9, 2023. Following Yale, Ruth graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1975 and then pursued a 35-year career in international banking and law. Beginning at Manufacturers Hanover Trust, where she headed the Chile Desk, Ruth later practiced in the international law firms of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, where she focused on structured finance products. Described in her obituary as an “unabashed New Yorker,” Ruth enjoyed many evenings at the Yale Club and attending Yankees games. Ruth’s international interests also extended to her personal pursuits, including foreign language study and travel. Ruth’s obituary noted that she “traveled the world, for business and pleasure, with friends and solo, visiting China as it opened to Western tourists, the ancient pyramids of Egypt and Tikal and the far reaches of the Easter Islands. In 2010, after a period of discernment, Ruth was confirmed in the Episcopal Church and became active in the Epiphany faith community, where she served on the Vestry as Assistant Clerk. She found ample opportunity to put her legal and pragmatic judgments to use on behalf of the Church and its day school. Ruth’s beliefs defined and sustained her especially as she confronted illness and the end of life.”
In response to our continuing call for classmates’ recollections of Draft Lottery Night, which Michael Goodman and Jay Gitlin are compiling for us, Vic Machinski sent his first ever submission to the Class Notes – in Vic’s words, a “landmark moment.” October 1 marked the second anniversary of Vic’s retirement after 44 years practicing law, in which he focused primarily on securities arbitration, litigation and commercial litigation. “My retirement was not planned, but a function of the pandemic’s negative impact on business as well as the cultural and political gyrations of recent years. I am still adjusting, but my wife, Mary Ellen, tells me repeatedly that it was a godsend.” Vic reports that their son, Scott, a West Point graduate, is now working outside of Boston in a cyber security firm, and their two daughters, Meaghan and Caitlin, have good careers as paralegals, and that he, Mary Ellen and their children are all healthy. Vic noted that he was encouraged to write by Bob Prechter, his “Yale roommate and best friend (and for many years [his] brother-in-law as well).”
Congratulations to Shelley Fisher Fishkin, the winner of the American Studies Association 2023 Carl Bode-Norman Holmes Pearson Prize for lifetime achievement and outstanding contribution to American Studies. The ASA’s announcement of this award recognizes Shelley’s “record of four decades of serious scholarly research and service in American Studies, and most especially for introducing and defining the notion of a ‘transnational turn.’ On top of the forty-eight books she has authored or edited and the more than one hundred fifty articles and essays she has published, she co-founded the Journal of Transnational American Studies. She reframed and re-defined Mark Twain Studies, modeling what it means to ‘unsettle American literature’ and establishing herself as the world’s foremost Twain scholar. Professor Fishkin’s consistent engagement with international and global themes in American Studies manifested in a multi-year collaborative effort to recover the lost histories of the Chinese laborers who built the railroads of North America.” Over the course of her career, Shelley has served as ASA President and a member of the association’s Nominating, Program, Finance, and Executive Committees. The prize for International Scholarship in Transnational American Studies is named after her.
Congratulations also to Jim Kaplan, who was featured last summer on the cover of Millennium Magazine. The accompanying column in the magazine recognized Jim’s long professional career as a lawyer in the fields of tax and estate planning as well as his avocation as an historian and walking tour guide in New York City. The column noted in particular his annual July 4 th Revolutionary Heroes tour, including the Fraunces Tavern Museum, and his writings on General Horatio Gates, for which he received a Coin of Excellence from the U.S. Army’s Regimental Association.
Although we are still two years away, we are already beginning to organize for our 55th Class Reunion (to be held in late spring 2026). If you would like to be involved in the planning, or if you have suggestions regarding the event, please contact me. The success of our reunions depends on your participation. By now you should have received Bill Primps’ annual Class Treasurer’s letter asking you to support our Class Treasury through class dues. The Class Treasury provides important financial resources and subsidy for our reunions, and we hope that you will contribute to this year’s solicitation if you have not yet done so.
As we progress through 2024, we will continue to host our popular monthly class Zoom sessions (3rd Thursday of each month at Noon ET). Additional classmates continue to join in the sessions. If you would like to be added to the invitation list, please let me know.