Our call for “Draft Lottery Night” recollections has been generating many submissions, including from Bill Hammond, Mark Hassett, Jim Morgan, David Pudlin, Jim Pullman, Jim Seaton, Bob Shulman, Steve Swerdlow, Mike Weaver and Jerry Yesavage. Jay Gitlin and Michael Goodman are working with Tim Powell to post these recollections to our class website, Yale71.org. If others of you have recollections to add, please send them along.
Maine was a popular spot for classmates to visit last summer. Jay Gitlin and Ginny Bales (along with their son Basie) stopped in Portland in July on their way to a family gathering up the coast, and Pam and I had a nice dinner with them at one of the city’s waterfront restaurants. We connected with Steve Weise and Lori during their visit to Boothbay Harbor in July, and Bill Porter and Kathy stayed with us on their way back to Connecticut after a few days’ sojourn in Rockport in August. Other classmates reporting time in Maine last summer include Andy Sherman and Marty, and Jim Harvie and his family.
Ed Friedman and his wife Karen hosted a gathering at their Scarsdale, NY home right after Labor Day for Berkeley classmates Les Fagen, William Palmer, and Ken Freeman. Ed remains engaged full-time at Friedman Kaplan Law, which he co-founded in 1986. Les, formerly a senior partner at the Paul Weiss law firm, continues part-time at that firm, while also serving on boards and as a senior advisor for private and not-for-profit companies. William reported that he is looking for his next venture, either in the real estate development field in which he has worked for decades or pursuing his passion in the art world. He reported that with two children still in high school and escalating college costs, he’d better keep working. Ken admitted being the only one of the group who has retired entirely from gainful employment, after a career in consumer products marketing management. He keeps busy, though, as treasurer of his and wife Randy’s two condo associations and an occasional consultant to and columnist for his son Brett’s chain of local newspapers in the New York suburbs. Ken, who played the tuba in the Yale Symphony and Band during our undergraduate days, has also resumed his tuba playing after 52 years, motivated by a granddaughter who has become an avid saxophonist in her school band.
Joined by special guest artist and classmate Mel Jackson on the flute, the Bales-Gitlin Band presented a free concert in West Hartford last July, reliving (in Jay’s words) “the great Yale Band concerts of yesteryear.” Billed as “A Musical Tribute to Multi-Cultural Hartford celebrating Italian, Polish, Irish, Jewish, Latinx and Afro-American music,” the concert also featured several Yale songs. The encore, which Jay says regularly receives standing ovations at Yale Clubs all over New England, featured Mel (and Mary Posses ’72) performing the flute/piccolo solo on Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Mel, a long-time Hartford resident, has played with the Hartford band People of Goodwill for over three decades.
Bil Johnson sent word that David Holahan was recognized in the August 2023 issue of “Connecticut Magazine” with three awards from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists: two “firsts” and a “third” for articles on “Health,” “Sports Column,” and “In-Depth,” respectively. Congratulations, David. Separately, Bil notes that the monthly Morse College Zoom calls are continuing with a stalwart group on the last Monday of each month, but that more participants would be welcome. Bil and Doug Smith meet periodically to play tennis, and Bil also plays tennis with John Lissauer most weeks (and recently caught John in Mt. Kisco, NY, playing a Jazz Brunch at Jazz on Main.
Steve Sorett is the Treasurer of the Yale Club of Southwest Florida, whose jurisdiction runs from near Venice in the north to Marco Island in the south, and includes Fort Myers, Naples, Bonita Springs and Estero. The club is eager to identify and attract “younger” alums to its ranks and activities. To give us a frame of reference, Steve notes that he is “considered young among our club’s population.” Their guest speakers often include Yale alumni and coaches (head football coach Tony Reno has been an annual speaker for many years). If you find yourself in the area, whether year-round or as “snowbirds,” Steve would love to hear from you.
Dave Zaleske sent me the following: “The life of J. Robert Oppenheimer brought to mind some Yale 1971 connections. John Hersey, Yale 1936, was the Head of Pierson College for our first three years. He served as a World War II correspondent. He was sent to Hiroshima in May 1946 interviewing survivors of the atomic bomb. His report was first published as an entire issue of the New Yorker August 31, 1946. Oppenheimer never was awarded the Nobel Prize. Kudos to our classmate James Rothman who applied his brilliance in theoretical physics to the elucidation of cellular vesicle transport. He shared the 2013 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology. While I was active in the practice of pediatric orthopedics, I was privileged to treat patients with injuries from relatively low levels of kinetic energy. In my dotage, I try to advocate for policies which would prevent injuries to children from kinetic energy. I continue to participate in Ballroom Dancesport. Dance is a wonderful activity for a sound mind in a sound body for all ages.”
Drawing on his long career as a cardiologist, Wes Wesley has published his debut novel, The Well (High Top Publishing/October 15, 2023). I quote from the announcement I received of the publication: “In The Well, Dr. Wesley combines his vast medical knowledge with his passion for Eastern spirituality in a timely thriller that involves the discovery of the mythical Fountain of Youth and its appropriation for biological warfare. In the foreword, James Redfield, New York Times best-selling author of The Celestine Prophecy, described the book as ‘a mythical story, paralleling the cataclysmic issues of our time.’” Congratulations, Wes.
Thank you, Vera Wells, for your comprehensive summary of the two-day symposium hosted by Yale’s History of Art Department last September honoring the “Legacy of Robert Farris Thompson.” Too long to include in full here (we’ll post the full summary on our class website), Vera notes that Thompson (’55, PhD ’65) – “our beloved rock-star professor of African Art, NY Mambo and Black Atlantic creativity” – joined Yale’s History of Art department immediately after earning his doctorate. He became only the second Professor of African Art in the US, and taught at Yale for over five decades, as well as serving as Master of Timothy Dwight for a record 32 years. Symposium tributes included comments from many former students, music played by Alma Moyo, RFT’s usual “house band” when he was Master at TD, and panels and presentations highlighting RFT’s breakthroughs in research, innovative teaching methods, insightful scholarship, and beautifully written and documented books, including AFRICAN ART IN MOTION, FLASH OF THE SPIRIT, and BLACK GODS AND KINGS. Tom Jaffe and Vera (on behalf of her Sylvia Ardyn Boone Memorial Project, as Boone had earned her PhD with Thompson as her mentor) were among the financial sponsors for the symposium.
Bill Primps took advantage of a July visit to San Francisco to organize a lunch with a group of football teammates who live in the Bay Area. Classmate Joe Massey was in attendance, as were Class of 1970 teammates Andy Coe and Earl Downing, and Bill Shields from 1972. Much of the conversation focused on Coach Reno’s high hopes for this year’s team. By the time you read this column (in early November) we’ll have an indication how that has turned out.
Finally, I’m sorry to report that Martin Mador died last June. His obituary in the New Haven Register reports that after Yale, he worked as an organizer for the ACLU, designed a computer system for the Yale Medical School, and guided students through the Odyssey of the Mind Program. He then attended the Yale School of Environmental Studies, focusing on water conservation. He was active in many water conservation activities, including the Quinnipiac River Watershed Association, River Advocates of South Central Connecticut, the Town of Hamden Conservation Commission and the Connecticut Chapter of the Sierra Club.