Yale62.org

Our email request to share holiday newsletters has triggered the veritable tsunami of  news you will find below.  But first, best wishes for a speedy recovery to Kirk McDonald, who reported before Xmas that he had fallen and couldn’t get up … no, seriously, Kirk tumbled not from skis but from a ladder while in Park City, Utah, and was wheelchair-bound recovering from several orthopedic injuries.

This month, Steve Buck says he is off with a US Army mission to Saudi Arabia, no details but we assume his role is civilian and not military. Steve is the man who had the idea of asking for Christmas letters as news material for this site, and turned out to be a winner.

Despite discomfort, Kirk McD was able to send in this report of the New York mini-reunion he and Steve Susman organized last October, apparently a  dress rehearsal for the BIG NY mini set for 2010:

“Several members of the class got together in New York City over the weekend of October 17 for a mini reunion organized by Kirk MacDonald and Steve Susman. The format for this get-together differed from others in that since it took place on a weekend, the normal venue of the Yale Club at Grand Central was changed to the Metropolitan Club at 60th and Fifth Avenue on Central Park. Classmates who were not local stayed at the Metropolitan club which by all accounts was luxurious and comparably priced to the Yale Club.

“Everyone met on Friday evening for a drink and dinner in the greenhouse dining room overlooking Central Park. Saturday morning Steve Susman organized private visits to the Whitney and Guggenheim Museums, after which everyone descended by car or subway to Greenwich Village for a nice lunch before attending a performance of Our Town. Tappy Wilder organized the theater and gave a lengthy ‘talkback’ afterwards.

“Later Friday evening, everyone boarded a glass topped luxury touring boat for a delicious dinner cruise around Manhattan ending up just in front of the Statue of Liberty for a  spectacular view.”

Also in October was the Whiff’s 100th birthday, reported earlier in our YAM class notes by Tom Cutler, as you can read here if you missed it by going to this link.  Not in the YAM notes, because of space limits, was Tom’s moving report of a side trip our ‘62 Whiffs made to visit Tom Luckey in East Haven:

“On Sunday, a group of us went out to have a brunch and serenade Tom Luckey at his farm in East Haven, including John Stewart, Charlie Michener, Dixie Carroll, Cam Carey, Peter Clark, Mike Moore, myself and Tom’s long-time best friend, Louis Mackall. Tom was in good spirits and whenever we finished one song, he would leap into another (often a patriotic one) and we would all join in. A very special time with a few folks ducking outside to shed a tear or two. He’s an incredibly brave and still most creative guy.”

A week after this, many of the same Whiffs journeyed to witness Louie Mackall going to the altar at his family’s home in Amagansett, Long Island, marrying Patricia Klindienst whom Tom described as better looking and smarter than Louie.

Moving on to late November, many classmates began migrating towards  New Haven.  The 1962 vintage of Yale Daily News-men gathered in New York for a mini reunion during the week before The Game,  with Al Chambers, Buckley, Berger, Cory, Finkle, Gray, Liebman, and Weeden attending and  many  deep conversations took place, as we would expect from that brain trust.  For our foodie audience, “Borgo Antico” was the  dinner venue.

Chambers journeyed on to attend the AYA annual assembly in New Haven, as he reports  elsewhere in this posting, but, perhaps clairvoyant, did not stay on for the gridiron duel.

Kane and Hedlund, not at all clairvoyant,   stepped up for that, enjoying wonderful Fall weather, 50 yard line seats on the H side,  and three quarters of satisfying  football before the earth swallowed our team (again). Let’s hope Coach Williams is good at recruiting.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!:  The news you have all been waiting for – Hedlund has new call letters:   W1BV (or whiskey one bravo victor) – call him, preferably from an exotic location like Myanmar so he can book it in his log.

Seen cruising the pre-Game throng, and in high spirits, were Peter Cohen, Gerry Swirsky, Bob Oliver, Dan Koenigsberg, and Peter Sipple and spouse, the latter spotted because of his YC1962 reunion cap. Swirsky’s and  Chairman Bob’s natty outfits drew many compliments (see photo below), and contrasted sharply with some others, also shown.  We greeted Dave Hummel at the Yale tent where he was escorting Japanese University guests who had come to New Haven to attend the AYA assembly  as   a follow up to the AYA summer trip to Japan (see our archived article from our last web posting for that report, and the companion photos by Dave’s wife Cindy).

Musical and athletic classmate Joe Holmes had some nice W’s reported in his wife’s Xmas letter, excerpt here:

“2009 had one big milestone  — Joe turned 70 (whoo hooo), and he took advantage of it.
He won the national 70s in Paddle, won the 70s Coral Beach tennis, (singles and doubles), He played on the 70+ Friendship Cup Tennis Team  (U.S. vs Canada),
and won a couple of senior golf events at Silvermine GC. Poppy & Joe won the Connecticut State husband-wife golf tournament. Good year. Who says getting old isn’t fun. Of course, he squeezes that in between his
3 singing groups, bowling and duplicate bridge.”

From Bert Decker in San Francisco, he wants to share his annual “Top Ten Best (and Worst) Communicators” list at http://decker.com/blog/ .  Trust me this is worth reading, especially the TEN WORST.  A  well written look back on  people we heard a lot  from in 2009, and a few you have never heard of too.  Here’s a sample:

9. Timothy Geithner & Hank Paulson
Timothy Geithner started out badly as he continued the dour communications style of Hank Paulson. Both held the same jobs as Secretary of the Treasury in one of the most critical times of financial crisis, and both couldn’t have been much worse in communicating the way out. The air of aloofness was almost palpable with Hank Paulson, and Tim Geithner was not much better. And when Geithner got excused by President Obama for an income tax ‘error’ (more on Obama next), he then topped his lack of communicating credibility with his announcement of a plan – and there was no plan.

10. Barack Obama
Every President has to be on the list, one way or the other because communications is his primary job. Last year Obama was #1 on the Best list and President Bush was #1 on the Worst list. This year Obama doesn’t exactly trade places, but he’s the best of the worst since he has failed to fulfill the promise of his communications platform. He was a great communicator as a candidate, not so much as a leader. The New York Times wrote about “The President Whose Words Once Soared.” For the full report see our blog post here, but in summary here’s why:
* He is aloof and professorial, actually most often speaking formally with his nose a bit aloft
* He speaks in bursts and a repetitious cadence, almost in a sing-song manner
* He leans with an enormous emphasis on scripts and the teleprompter
* He has NEVER learned how to use the teleprompter well
* Often he makes gaffes when he speaks spontaneously
* And he is way over exposed, where speaking on the trivial diminishes the important

From Norm Jackson in Paris:

“The newlyweds  Norm and Margo (last Feb. 14) are getting ready for their honeymoon trip around the world.  Well, actually it’s a home-hunting trip. We’re thinking of leaving Paris and moving closer to family, either hers or mine.  So, we’re going first to Bodhgaya, where the Buddha attained enlightenment for 10 days, then on to Oz ( editor’s note:  apparently a place in Australia no one has heard of except Norm and Margo) where we’ll visit Margo’s parents, 5 siblings, and her daughter, before visiting my daughter in Oakland and her son on Tortola.  Just a little 3-month jaunt!

(In or around) Paris has been my home for 25 years, so maybe it’s time to see a bit of ‘Down Undah’ and move on.”

From me to Norm, quoting comedian David Sedaris on his own trip to Down Under:  “Australia is Canada in a thong.”

From Clark Winslow:

After Christmas and snow in Wayzata  (Minn),
we flew to our home in Belvedere Island/San Francisco for the remainder
of holiday.  With family and guests here, we total 10.  Looking forward
to the New Year while we are very grateful for 2009.  Aside from all
being healthy and doing well,  our client accounts are up  42% this year
and our assets under management have grown from $4.5 billion to nearly
$9 billion (all Large Cap Growth).   It is nice to be having fun and
making clients happy!

From  Eli Newberger:

Friends, hoping (seriously) to urge the mental health and medical
communities to consider the role of music in the prevention and treatment of
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, I just posted a set of videos of my Jazz Tuber Trio’s concert in September on jazz themes of trauma and resilience. Songs played and sung by
Jimmy Mazzy, the banjo virtuoso, and Ted Casher, clarinet and tenor sax
master, include Frankie and Johnnie, Put ‘em Down Blues, ‘Lectric Chair
Blues, Lina Blues, Put It Right Here (or Keep It Out There), Let’s Have
Another Cup of Coffee, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Ain’t Nobody’s Business,
and Hava Nagila. You can if you like watch the whole narrated movie, or
check out the individual songs here:
http://www.elinewberger.com/videos.html
or (songs only) on YouTube here:
http://www.youtube.com/elinewberger

There’s more! On to This Just In: January ‘10 – Page 2 || Back to Yale ‘62 Home