Yale62.org

Class Secretary Jim White reports that, at the AYA Assembly last November, the AYA announced “May 16, 2009, will be a global ‘Yale Day of Service’ with alumni from all over the world coming together through the common act of providing service to others through their local Yale Clubs.” This is an excellent idea, so why not sign up and do someone, and yourself, some good? If you’re interested in participating, contact your local club. If your club doesn’t have this in mind, why don’t you organize the effort? Finally, Jim wishes one and all a happy and healthy New Year. Also, Jim reminds all Class Council members to save this May 9th for the 2d annual Class Council meeting, to be held in NYC at the Yale Club.  Lunch and favors are part of the deal, as before. Jim will send an agenda in due course.  Al Chambers attended the AYA Assembly as our class AYA Rep, and his report on the event is part of this posting.

The many friends of Uncle Al Ordway will want to join me in sending him get well messages following his recent mishap while skiing at Sunday River.  Al is at home now after  treatment at the Maine Medical Center, recuperating from a rather severe collision with unfriendly fir trees. He is expected to be his old self well in time for camp season.  Get well and other messages should be routed through Michelle at msordway@roadrunner.com.

Tom Chapman, (Washington DC) and Roger Clapp, (Addison, Me)  are this issue’s candidates for a shout out for graciously accepting CorSec’s invitation to act as news scouts for their respective area.  In something of an experiment, I sent them the class lists for Maine (13 classmates)  and the greater DC area ( 51 classmates), and encouraged them to  do their best to  generate classmate news.  Following up, on their own initiative, this month Roger and Tom sent emails/letters to the troops and already  we have two responses with news from Ed Worthy and Ralph Kissick which you can read  in the March issue of Yale Alumni Magazine.

Those who recall that classmate Chris Cox was our keynote speaker at the 45th Reunion will realize the Obama inauguration involved a change in his employment status.  NYTimes chief financial columnist Floyd Norris posted a blog on Thursday, January 22 under the caption “Christopher Cox departs from the Securities and Exchange Commission, leaving an agency in far worse shape than when he arrived.” See the Floyd Norris blog entry here .  Unlike GWB, Chris leaves office without the benefit of an honorary degree from Yale. Now that he is free from the confines of high office, Chris will surely speak out to rebut Norris and other critics, and we look forward to hearing from him (maybe even on this website?).

Recent conversation with Tom Luckey showed him full of vinegar and working his way through some changes.  He is engaged in competing for a large-scale sculptural project in the  New Haven  area, details not disclosed, but with major recognition potential if he gets the commission.  In personal affairs, he expects to recover from a stubborn bed sore affliction within the next month or so, and will welcome a new companion into his life in the form of a capuchin monkey from the non-profit agency “Helping Hands.”  These endearing little creatures are very smart and are trained by “Helping Hands” to live with people with  disabilities. Knowing how much Tom loves animals, and vice versa, this could be a wonderful team.  Classmate Steve Rose, who visited Tom recently,  suggested a class contest to name the monkey. Unfortunately, the creatures come complete with names, so Steve’s creative idea will not work.  Tom says that he fully intends to lead our class in singing the Star Spangled Banner at the 50th!

For a nice overview of how much Tom has accomplished, both before and after his accident,  go to www.luckeyclimbers.com . Also, many of you may recall we ran a feature article on Tom’s business here on our own site some time back. This is the link to that article.

Some may recall this column some months ago mentioned a movie being made by Laura Longsworth, an independent documentary  film producer.  The movie deals with the early phases of Tom’s accident and some of the family issues that evolved  from that. CorSec contacted Laura and learned that the movie has been completed and had its world premier at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam in November. The US premier will be in March  at the SXSW festival in Austin, Tx.  The Sundance Channel has scheduled it for TV broadcast this Fall.

Speaking of  Steve Rose, he has become a Massachusetts resident, relocating from Pa to Acton, Mass, near a meditation center he is associated with.

 Just last Saturday, we heard how Steve Susman’s legal offensive into New York is already paying off, as the NYTimes reported that  his firm, Susman Godfrey, was representing plaintiffs in a shareholder lawsuit against directors and executives of Bank of America and Merrill Lynch. Steve says recently he has been spending half his professional time running the firm’s new Manhattan office, quote : “  The economic downturn has created more lawsuits than in my entire career.”  Several classmates shared in Susman Godfrey’s good fortune by attending the firm’s Dec 2 holiday party in NY, including Ron Etra, Bill Nye, Chris Cory,  and Steve Danetz.

In another earth-shattering development, Gus Hedlund has succeeded in talking the FCC into giving him the equivalent of a vanity plate in ham radio world. He finds his new call letters “W1BV” far superior to the former W1GUS, because it is much easier to say into the microphone “Whiskey One Bravo Victor” than whatever he used to say for GUS.  By the way, Gus recently witnessed  the power of  www.Yale62.org  when he got a radio message from a Yale graduate living in Thailand.  This guy  had read our web feature about Gus and was looking for help with his ham radio hobby!

Heard from (Dr.) Howie Kaufmann, an old friend from Freshman lightweight crew.  Howie lives in Boca Raton, near one son, has another son graduating from YLS this spring.  He recently returned from Perth where he attended the 90th birthday party for his father- in- law. While Down Under, he had tea with the Governor of Western Australia and dinner at the renowned Sydney Rowing Club, where  the Australian Olympic crews come from.  Howie says he enjoys reading Yale62.org, and plans on coming to the 50th.

After a number of years away Steve Buck is happily back at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces at Ft. McNair in Washington, teaching a seminar on North Africa and the Levant . Last summer he and  wife Hala expanded their 45th Reunion lecture “Making Sense of the Arab World,” into a week-long series at the Chautauqua Institute. They’re giving it again in February  to a big adult education course in Northern Virginia. Daughter Leila has a lead role in award-winning Lebanese/Canadian playwright’s play “Scorched” February 25-March 29 at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia. (More info on that here.)

Jack McCredie has written to say that he voted for Obama but had a number of concerns about the electoral process, one of them being that much is promised but much less is delivered.  So, he recommends a web site to track the record of the new administration -
“President Obama made approximately 500 promises (some large, and some small) during his election campaign. Who kept track of them, and more importantly, who is keeping track of them now that he is our president. The answer is – the OBAMETER. See it here: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/

All for now,

Mike Kane