Yale62.org

1.   You’ll be glad to take our survey

Our online 50th reunion survey, titled “70 Questions for Yale’62 70-Somethings,” launched January 18 with our January web issue. You’ll find it interesting. The goals are very simply are to have as many classmates participate as possible; learn from the survey about ourselves as 70-Somethings; make comparisons and contrasts with the information from previous surveys, and then have a spirited discussion in New Haven on June 2.

By any chance, do you care just a bit about family, finances, health, lifestyle and politics? How about sex? Or is that a thing of the past? Are you more or less religious?

This is fourth time that we have done a class survey on such areas in partnership with Smith ’62. The 2007 findings showed quite different attitudes between men and women about marriage and grandparenting. Will it be the same or different in 2012?

Participation is easy.  Have your password at the ready (it is in your email announcing this web issue, and if you have lost the email or you need a reminder, email webmaster@yale62.org and she will send the password to you). Just click on:  Yale62.org/50thSurvey/ and after a welcome and a few directions, you are ready to go. If you want to stop and return later or to complete the full survey and then look back at your answers a few hours or days later, your answers are automatically saved. Just exit the survey when you want to leave it, and return when you want to finish up. You can edit your answers, too, if you need to adjust them.

Because of the anonymity, these surveys are a safe chance to be frank. Over the years, presentation of these survey results, including plenty of audience participation, has come to be a fascinating part of our reunions. As in 2007, the presenters will be Al Chambers and from Smith, Celine Sullivan. They both have professional experience with this kind of data and nice senses of humor and sensitivity about the findings. Once again, we are using the popular Survey Monkey instrument for our “barely scientific” research.

Al advised, “There are no right or wrong answers. Don’t spend too much time thinking or fretting. Just consider your life and your attitude towards being a 70-something and have some fun while you are clicking through our 70 questions. They include a mix of multiple-choice and short open-ended opportunities, which encourage you to share more about what you really care about.”

Celine e-mailed, “I’m getting a bit melancholy as I pull this 50th Reunion research together. I’m recalling my conversation with Chris Cory, one morning back in 1982 at the Psychology Today Xerox machine, where this Smith-Yale caper began. I genuinely look forward to seeing how we’ve changed — or haven’t — over the 30 years.”

Al and Celine plan to start their analysis and comparisons of the two surveys in April. The full Yale results will be part of your Reunion packet for those coming to the reunion. They also will be posted on this website for those who cannot attend.

Let’s see if we can get more than 100 responses by the end of January and 250 by the end of February. It would be terrific if even more classmates took the survey than were able to attend the reunion, where we think attendance is going to be high. You can do your part by answering the survey right away.

2. Key Dates

Now:  make hotel reservations. Suggestions are on the University reunion site, www.aya.yale.edu/reunions

February:  respond to mailing from Yale with registration materials. Even if you didn’t send an indication you’d be likely to go, you still are fully welcome.

May 31 – June 3:  Fiftieth Reunion

3.  From Class Secretary Jim White, “300 essays, goal is in range.”

Jim’s full report is at this link:  Note from the Secretary.

4.  From Bob Oliver, 50th Reunion Chair, “David Swenson coup, powerful panels.”

Bob’s full report is at this link:  50th Reunion Planning Update

5. Reunion Requests for Books, Art, Music and Gays from Rowan, Carroll, Sipple and Nye.

Enriching our reunion will be two exhibits of our productivity in “letters” and art, two chances to sing, and a recently-added panel on being gay in our time. Follow the links below to requests for participation by those interested.

• Our Library of Our Times: Request from Ed Rowan
• Our Gallery of Our Times: Request from Dixie Carroll
• Our Voices for Our Times: Request from Peter Sipple
• Our Gays: Request from Bill Nye

6. Why I Go to Reunions, by Bill Nye

Bill’s title sums it up rather well. Follow the link ahead, for Bill’s view of the continuing value of getting together as a group. Click to read: Bill’s short essay.

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Gentlemen:  I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday season. What a wonderful time of year!  Here’s wishing everyone a happy and healthy New Year.

[1] Our 50th Reunion is set for May 31-June 2, 2012, in New Haven. Our home base is Davenport College. If you haven’t yet set your travel plans (especially hotel arrangements) for what promises to be one smashing, busy and FUN weekend, now is the time to do so. The ’61 attendance for their 50th last year was 400 classmates, 710 in all. Can we top that? Yes, we can. To check out the latest on our reunion, see the piece by Reunion Chair Bob Oliver elsewhere (click here) on this website. You may also access information about our reunion, such as a pre-registration form, hotel information, campus housing, a list of classmates who have pre-registered (as of Jan. 1, 68 of us had done so), and more, all on the AYA website, www.aya.yale.edu. Just click on the box “Yale College Reunions” and follow the easy prompts to “1962 – 50th” and beyond.

[2] 50th Reunion Class Book Editor John Stewart reports receiving some 435 submissions, including 300 essays, for our book. John, you should be mightily pleased with this excellent response. It’s a testament to your hard work and a reward for the stress and strain of putting our book together. Heartiest congratulations.

[3] The next Class Council meeting is set for Saturday April 21, 2012, noon to 3 PM in the Council Room of the Yale Club of New York City.

[4] Dues Paying: We’re off to a bit of a slow 2011-12 start. Class Treasurer David Honneus says this is not unusual. He’s confident the pace will pick up. He urges: if you haven’t yet paid your dues, please do so now. To remind – this is important – these dues are solely for use by the class and will be used, for example, to defray a decent chunk of the cost of attending the reunion. Here are the numbers, processed as of January 3, 2012 (kindly provided by Jennifer Julier of the AYA, who advises these are not year-end “final” figures): 222 men are dues payers; the dues collected so far, $26,085.50. For the year ending June 30, 2011, we had 345 dues payers, 43% of the class membership AYA figured at 805, and the amount of dues paid was $50,812. The dollar figures for both this year and last include classmates who paid dues of $350 or more to become a “50th Reunion Sponsor.”

[5] The current giving year is July 1, 2011-June 30, 2012. 6Y2 contributions to the Yale Alumni Fund (Bill Boyer, Chair of YAF Agents) and for our 50th Reunion (Bill Reilly, 50th Reunion Gift Chair) are both off to an exciting – some might say amazing – start. My thanks to Fiona Boucher of the Yale Development Office for providing the figures that follow. Fiona advises these are not final year-end numbers as her office is still processing what she describes as “quite an influx of gifts at the end of December” (not only from our class, of course, but you get the idea).

(a) Here are the numbers for 6Y2 contributions to the Yale Alumni Fund through January 3: 188 classmates, a 25.9% participation rate, have contributed $401,236 toward a goal of $750,000. For the giving year ending last June 30, the final numbers were: 314 classmates, a 43.1% participation rate, donated $207,146.

(b) Bill Reilly has a hard-working 23 member 50th Reunion gift committee, one of whom may be calling you. When that happens, you’ll know what to do – please be generous doing it. The dollars collected so far (again, counting only those gifts processed through Jan. 3) as our 50th Reunion Gift to Yale now exceed $25.6 million. The goal, Bill says, is to double the 6Y2 45th Reunion gift of $16.8 million. If accomplished it would be a top-10 50th Reunion gift.

Finally, Bill emphasizes the importance of percentage of participation. To that end, every gift counts, no matter the amount. Bill’s goal is a participation rate of 62% for ’62 – a lofty goal but one certainly within range now as 54% of the Class has made a gift that counts for the reunion.

[6] Gus Hedlund, our delegate to the AYA, reports on the November 2011 AYA assembly elsewhere in this posting (click here).

[7] Congratulations to Bill Reilly, recipient of the National Building Museum’s prestigious Vincent Scully Prize. Bill joins a long list of distinguished honorees. He was honored for his “unswerving commitment to smart environmental planning, comprehensive land use, and preservation of open space.” The award ceremony took place on Nov. 8, 2011, in the stunning Great Hall of the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. In his acceptance speech, Bill touched on a variety of subjects, for example his work as a Presidentially appointed director of The Presidio Trust. Further information is available on the museum’s website, www.nbm.org.

[8] Does any Yale class have a better website than ours? I seriously doubt it. Acting Corresponding Secretary Chris Cory prepared this superb posting. There are several 6Y2 web postings each year, all to be found at www.Yale62.org and all done with the expert, cheerful help of our State of Maine webmaster Ms. Jean McKillop. To keep the site as lively, interesting, informative, and comprehensive as it is, your news and views are always welcome. Feature articles are particularly welcome. With Corresponding Secretary Mike Kane now back home and, he tells me, “fit for action,” please send anything and everything to him at mkane40@gmail.com. Last but certainly not least, thanks to Chris Cory. While Mike was with his wife on her sabbatical these past several months, Chris stepped in and, without missing a beat, produced postings of top quality. Profuse thanks, Chris, for a job well done!

That’s it for now, men.

Take good care and best to all,
Jim White

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By Al Chambers

Our online 50th reunion survey titled “70 Questions for Yale’62 70-Somethings” launched January 18. We think that you’ll find it interesting.  The goals very simply are to have as many classmates participate as possible; learn from the survey about ourselves as 70-Somethings; make contrasts to the information from previous surveys and then have a spirited interactive discussion about the findings as part of reunion activity in New Haven on June 2.

Family, finances, health, lifestyle and politics.

By any chance. do you care about those subjects just a bit?

How about sex? Or is that a thing of the past? Are you more or less religious?

Has anything else changed in your life since you were in your early forties (our 20th reunion) or your mid fifties (our 35th), or your mid-sixties when we last polled as part of the 45th reunion?  This is fourth time that we have done a class survey in partnership with Smith ’62. The 2007 findings showed quite different attitudes about marriage and grandparenting.  Will it be the same or different in 2012?

Participation in the survey is easy. Just click on www.Yale62.org/50thSurvey/ and after clicking through, entering the password you were given in our email alert, then reading a quick welcome and a few directions, you are ready to go. If you wish to stop and return later or to complete the full survey and then look back at your answers a few hours or days later, your answers are automatically saved. But don’t forget or neglect to hit that button marked “Done” at the end.

Our goal would be for every living classmate to participate, but that won’t happen. Let’s see if we can get more than 100 responses by the end of January and 250 by the end of February.  Wouldn’t it be terrific if even more classmates took the survey than were able to attend the reunion where we think attendance is going to be high? You can do your part by answering the survey right away.

Because of the anonymity, these surveys are a safe chance to be frank. Over the years the presentation of these survey results, including plenty of audience participation, have come to be fascinating parts of our reunions. As in 2007, the presenters will be Al Chambers and, from Smith, Celine Sullivan. They both have professional experience with this kind of data and nice senses of humor and sensitivity about the findings. Once again (as in 2007), we are using the popular Survey Monkey instrument for our “barely scientific” research.

Al advised, “There are no right or wrong answers.  Don’t spend too much time thinking or fretting. Just consider your life and your attitude towards being a 70-something and have some fun while you are clicking through our 70-questions. They include a mix of multiple-choice and short open-ended opportunities, which encourage you to share more about what you really care about.”

Celine e-mailed, “I’m getting very melancholy as I pull this 50th Reunion research together. I’m recalling my conversation with Chris Cory, one morning back in 1982 at the Psychology Today Xerox machine, where this Smith-Yale caper began.  I genuinely look forward to seeing how we’ve changed — or haven’t — over the 30 years.”

Al and Celine plan to start their analysis and comparisons of the two surveys in April. The full Yale results will be part of your Reunion packet for those coming to the reunion. They also will be posted on this web site for those who cannot attend the reunion.

How many of you followed New York Times columnist David Brooks’ interesting end-of-the-year columns and blogging where he asked people over 70 years old to send in what he called their “Life Reports?” They are good reading. http://brooks.blogs.nytimes.com

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YALE CLASS OF 1962 — 50^TH REUNION — DAVENPORT COLLEGE

FOUR MONTHS TO GO

January 2012

Dear Classmate:

Planning for the celebration of our 50^th Reunion Thursday, May 31 through Sunday, June 3, 2012, is picking up speed.

We now have special events planned for an exciting kick-off on Thursday afternoon, May 31. Yale’s Chief Investment Officer David Swensen will meet with our class at 2:30 PM for his informal off the record comments and perspectives on Yale’s endowment and investment philosophy now and for the future. He will entertain questions. It will be a lively and informative start to our reunion.

Also on Thursday afternoon Alex Garvin will lead a walking tour which will revisit New Haven and how it has changed since we graduated.

Friday afternoon June 1 and Saturday afternoon June 2 will be packed with a variety of class panels and programs being planned and coordinated by David Scharff.

On Friday we will have a Memorial Service at Battel which is being organized by Peter Sipple. He is looking for singers to volunteer for the service.  We will also have a special class reception at the Yale Art Gallery before dinner and class entertainment after dinner at the University Theater.

In this website issue, you are invited to participate in our long-awaited class survey authored by Al Chambers (directly at this link) in coordination with our class at Smith College. We will distribute the results of the survey when you register on arrival. On Saturday morning, June 2 Al and Celine Sullivan of Smith will report on the survey and the 25 years of results. This should provoke a lively discussion.

Lots more is planned. Ed Rowan is in charge of gathering books for a class display. Dixie Carroll is doing the same for art, photography, sculpture and music presentations.

Reports from Ed (books by classmates), Dixie (art, architecture, photography by classmates) and Peter (memorial service & singers) on their projects are posted with this report of mine.  Click on their names in the previous sentence to read their reports.  They welcome your participation.

The Class Reunion Book is now in the editing stage under the leadership of John Stewart. He received about 450 submissions.  The target date for mailing it out is late April.

We also want to reach out to the widows of our deceased classmates. If you or your spouse can assist, please contact me as soon as possible.

I will have more details on the agenda and class activities with my next announcement in February.

AYA will send out the Class Reunion Registration mailing in March. Mark your calendars now for May 31 through June 3.

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YALE CLASS OF 1962 — 50^TH REUNION BOOK DISPLAY
MAY 31 – JUNE 3, 2012

Books by Classmates
Report By Ed Rowan

January 2012

Dear classmate:

As it has for the last decade, the Sterling Memorial Library invites 50^th Reunion authors to be part of a special exhibit from mid-May through mid-August.  In past reunions, 60 to 80 classmates have responded each year, so the Library has limited the number of submissions to three (3) published works by each author.  Publications include, but are not limited to, books, technical manuals, and magazine or newspaper features, and each is accompanied by a descriptive note and displayed securely behind glass.

Our Reunion Committee also invites authors to be part of an open “hands on” display at Reunion Headquarters in Davenport College.  Tables there will have no special security measures.  There may be an opportunity to discuss or sign books if there is enough interest.

If you wish to participate in one or both of these events, please do the following:

First, contact me, Ed Rowan, to indicate your interest and provide a list of titles.  If you want to be part of the library display, I will tell you how and when to ship material directly to the library (they will not take holdings out of their collection) and help you develop the descriptive note.  If you wish to be part of the Davenport display, then you will have to bring the material with you to the Reunion; however, we do need to know in advance how much space to allot for this.

This is a great opportunity to show classmates and the Yale community at large what you have accomplished, and I encourage you to participate. Please contact me.

Ed Rowan
33 Prentiss Way
Exeter, NH 03833

(603)772-4167
ejrowan@comcast.net

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YALE CLASS OF 1962 — 50^TH REUNION
MAY 31 – JUNE 3, 2012

Art, Architecture, Photography & Music
Report By Dixie Carroll

January 2012

Dear Classmate:

I am organizing an exhibit of  the visual arts made by our classmates to be displayed at  our 50th reunion this spring, (May 31st to June 1st) in Davenport College.  Louie Mackall will be helping me mount the exhibit.   I hope to have a big, inclusive show.

Thirteen classmates have already  expressed interest.    If I don’t know about you, and you have something to offer, please contact me!

We will display all the visual arts:   painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, landscape architecture and photography. Also: crafts that have a strong visual or esthetic component. We will include books on the visual arts and  works of art criticism.  I don’t think we can set up for videos, but John Stewart is planning to have a revolving tape of classmates’ music, (composers, performers, singers, choirs, choruses, etc.).  It will  accompany our art display.  Please contact John directly if you want to submit music something to him. (johnhargerstewart@gmail.com)

I do not intend to edit anything except the number of individual pieces submitted by one classmate, (if necessary to fit the space available).  There is an art gallery at Davenport which can be closed and locked.  It has a good lighting and a hanging system.  It is about 13’ x 24’.  It is located right behind our reunion headquarters desk in a large entryway lobby, (where additional art can be displayed).  Through a door to the left is the large Davenport common room which we can also use if the need arises.

The exhibit will be organized as follows:  Please contact me, (dickson@dicksoncarroll.com), with what you have, ASAP. (Also, if you have any questions.) If submitting work, please include dimensions and a brief description; do include images as attachments, if at all possible.  I plan to  pre-print labels and any comments that might be of interest to classmates.  Also, if your item is for sale to classmates to benefit Yale, we can have a silent auction of those items, (and you can set a minimum opening price).  Dry-mounted photos of your work are completely acceptable, (and may be preferable in some cases, since classmates must bring their work to the reunion and take it home with them afterwards. I¹m not prepared to get into the shipping and packing business).  We will not be able to provide insurance, but could arrange to have the gallery locked after hours. There is a guard in the common room overnight.

Louie and I will be on the scene starting Thurs. morning May 31st. to accept delivery and hang artwork. I hope we will have a good show!  With many participants!  E-mail me please!

Dixie Carroll
tel. 202-363-6556
email: dickson@dicksoncarroll.com

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YALE CLASS OF 1962 — 50TH REUNION
MAY 31 – JUNE 3, 2012
Peter Sipple, Music Programs

January 2012

Dear Classmate:
A Memorial Service, honoring the memories of our deceased classmates, will take place Friday afternoon of our reunion weekend.  I am organizing this service. If you are interested in participating in the service as a reader or speaker, please let me know by March 15, using the contact information noted below.

The Memorial Service will also include one or two sung anthems by a choral group comprised of our membership.  Whether or not you sang at Yale, you are invited to join us to rehearse and perform this music.   Our classmate and long-time choral director, John Stewart, will lead us.  To complement our male voices, we’d like to welcome wives, daughters, and other significant women in our lives to join the singing; the music we’ll perform will be in four-part SATB harmony — that is, they will include women’s voices, sopranos and altos.  To make planning possible, we’d like to know by no later than March 15 the names and voice parts of those who would like to sing.

If you’d like to play a role in the Memorial Service as a reader, speaker, or both, please contact me by 3/15 via email: sipplemp@gmail.com.  I will get back to you soon afterwards with additional information.

In addition, our reunion will offer yet another opportunity for those interested in singing (you need not have sung at Yale).  As part of the entertainment taking place on Saturday evening, we’ll put together a “class glee club” (TTBB, that is, men’s voices only) to prepare and perform three or four Yale songs (selections from the Yale Song Book), under John Stewart’s direction.   There will be a special rehearsal for this group as well.  If you would like to take part in our class glee club, please email me, again by 3/15, at sipplemp@gmail.com.  Dan Koenigsberg is working with me on the Saturday evening signing program.

Peter Sipple
45 Bayview Avenue
Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY 12520
845-534-2864
sipplemp@gmail.com

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YALE CLASS OF 1962 — 50^TH REUNION PANEL PLANNING
MAY 31 – JUNE 3, 2012
Bill Nye

“Hide & Seek: Gay Lives at Yale in the Eisenhower Era”
Panel Planning Report By Bill Nye

January 2012

Dear classmate:

With the encouragement of Bob Oliver and the Reunion Committee, I am putting together an event tentatively scheduled for lunch time on reunion Saturday. The working title sums it up, “Hide & Seek:  Gay Lives at Yale in the Eisenhower Era.” This will be an open discussion with Professor George Chauncey present both to listen and to provide concluding reflection. Input from classmates is welcome as planning goes forward.

Bill Nye
RealBillNye@aol.com

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By Bill Nye

I am curious about people, nosy.  Not a bad trait in a psychologist, I hope.  Going to each of our previous nine reunions has collectively been not exactly like nine sessions of group therapy over fifty years, nor a research project with a controlled population, but an extended opportunity to see how a group of terrifically interesting people, classmates and their spouses, manage life.  I will be especially attuned, I expect, at our 50th to how “in the years remaining to us,” as Peter Sipple put it in his beautiful invocation for our 40th Reunion, we individually prepare for and cope with the looming loss of loves and abilities and time.  My interest in this, I should add, is far more personal than clinical.

That this opportunity for observing and sharing takes place in the spectacular context which is Yale makes each reunion even more delicious.  Grace, charm, depth, intrigue, unmatched physical beauty:  Alma Mater has it all.

“With the encouragement of Bob Oliver and the Reunion Committee, I am putting together an event tentatively scheduled for lunch time on reunion Saturday.  The working title sums it up, “Hide & Seek:  EMERGING Gay Lives at Yale in the Eisenhower Era.”  This will be an open discussion with Professor George Chauncey present both to listen and to provide concluding reflection.  Input from classmates is welcome as planning goes forward.

And, apropos of whatever, I doubt at Yale I imagined that I would ever quote Longfellow, but are you familiar with these sweet words?

For age is opportunity no less
Than youth itself, though in another dress,
And as the evening twilight fades away
The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.

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This fall, Bill Weber wrote:  “It is clear that the public here in my part of New York State is convinced that Hydrofracking will mean the absolute pollution of our lakes and no amount of actual data will overcome the anecdotal stories of disaster in regions where drilling has taken place.

“Josh Fox with his Gasland has done the job and made true believers of the antis.

“Have you ever read Eric Hoffer’s True Believer?”

Later, Bill fleshed out the details:

Local Politics
By Bill Weber

My loss in the election for Town Supervisor (aka Mayor) of my Town, after 8 years as the Chief Exec. Officer, was due entirely to my characterization as being a pro-driller of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale deposits of New York State.  The root cause of the public disaffection was the perceived thought that drilling will destroy Keuka lake and I did not care and/or was on the take from Chesapeake Energy — all totally untrue, but perceptions become reality and cannot be shaken from the public’s mind.

Prior communications with my Yale classmates dealt initially with the proposed injection well that CHK wanted to employ in Pulteney, NY (my Town). These communications were picked up by my opposition, selectively edited and used against me in a mass mailing to the voters at the last moment before the election.  They were well organised and clever.  The vote was close, however, with only a 15 point spread.

Now here is the rub — in local, state and national political matters how does one maintain integrity and yet say what needs to be said to win elections?  We see this every day on the news with our elected officials and candidates (all elected officials are candidates at some point in their term of office!). In my case I could not agree with the mistaken conventional wisdom that gas drilling would destroy Keuka lake (Keuka is so clean my water system comes directly from the Lake with no treatment whatsoever) and that the economy and demographics demand some sort of wealth creation or we Upstaters will slowly die a slow economic and lifestyle death because of the lack of jobs and ever increasing taxes.

To further complicate matters the anti drillers were insisting on having local jusisdictions pass legislation regulating, banning or instilling a moritorium on all aspects of gas drilling and its related activities.

Our Town Attorney and State officials pointed out that the NYS Conservation Law, article 23, gives the state the sole authority to regulate gas, oil and solution mining and no local controls are lawful or enforcable. The antis simply said “pass the legislation anyway” and there were plenty of local attorneys to play the kind hearts and coronets tune of “home rule”, etc!

I believe Josh Fox with his DVD (movie) “Gasland” started this fear of gas drilling and the anecdotal evidence from nearby states, such as  Pennsylvania, whether true or not, only fueled the fire of the anti drilling mood.

In my Town alone the anti drliing mood has cost me my position, one councilman’s position and our Town Atty says he will not serve again.

To summarize — we are faced with perceptions becoming reality, whether based on fact or not and the total inability of politically based individuals to deal with the facts and stay in office.

That’s my story and I am sticking to it!!

Best regards,
Bill Weber, about to become ex-Supervisor of the Town of Pulteney, NY

(Editor’s Note: Bill’s original article about fracking is from our May 2010 issue, and is at this link: “Drill, Baby, Drill”.)

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