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News Briefs concerning classmates and more, including Rod Speer, Harry Botsis, Lew Spratlan, Lee Bolman, Dick Riseling, Paul Wortman, the latest Yale Corp. election, Roman Weil, Sam Waterston, David Honneus, Prof. Tim Snyder’s class and more news on Ukraine, Phil Proctor, Tappy Wilder, Bill Reilly, Paul Wortman, Paul Gorman, the sinking of the Moskva, Duncan Spencer and many, many more. READ THE LATEST… In Memoriam
 Peter E. MaximJuly 14, 2023 Obituary to be posted Obituaries Index
Tip: Select any of the Obituaries Index links above to view all of the obituaries of our ’62 classmates we currently have on our site. |
9/28/23 Yale ’62 Interview This brand new Yale ’62 Interview features a chat between classmate Jack McCredie and Y62 Communications Team member Tim Hall and concerns the history of the famed Chautauqua program in Chautauqua, NY. Jack has attended, well, forever, and has served on its board. For more about Chautauqua, visit CHQ.org and for more about its full-year, online access to programs, visit CHQ Assembly. Please make any comments here 9/28/23
We asked classmate Fred Appell to show us some of his recent artwork, and he sent us a dozen paintings and sketches from his sketchbook, along with his commentary. Please click through to see THE ARTIST’S SKETCHBOOK 9/28/23
The monograph named in the title above was written by classmate Kent Hughes for the Wilson Center. We thought that many of you might wish to read it, especially in advance of our November Coffee Hour, which will be devoted to a discussion of China. Please click here to access Kent’s monograph. 9/19/23
David Honneus sent in the following: “I found this in a trunk (literally) and sent a copy to John Stewart, as he was a cast member. This was the undergraduate-written Spring Musical of The Dramat in 1960 – before the famous Albert… READ THE REST, AND SEE THE PROGRAM, HERE 9/19/23
A Sept. 7, 2023, New York Times story about a case study of economic diversity at elite colleges sparked a series of exchanges among Y62 Communications Team members that other classmates may wish to join… READ THE DISCUSSION 9/11/23
Comments? Please make them here. 9/11/23 By Lee G. Bolman
In 2015, a Yale sophomore math major died by suicide after posting a desperate message on social media that she “couldn’t bear the thought of having to leave for a full year, or of leaving and never being readmitted.” In 2021, a first-year student feared that if Yale found out about her mental health struggles, she might be forced… CLICK TO READ FULL ESSAY. 9/11/23 By John “Dirty Bas” Stewart Long-planned, on the evening of Tuesday, August 2, we assembled in Gates Mills, Ohio, at the home of Bonnie Humphrey and Charlie “Sonuva” Michener. Peter “Pop” and Margaret Sipple, Louis “Boiler” and Patricia Klindienst, John… READ JOHN’S FULL REPORT HERE 8/28/23  Click on link to our article below to view larger, complete image In a major story covered in the New York Times on August 26, there was a report of a flyer issued by the Yale Campus Police union, warning incoming freshmen in dire terms of the risks of being on the streets of New Haven… READ FULL ARTICLE 8/24/23 Two of the issues that have caught our attention, recently: From Our Y62 Outpost in Idaho, Gary Richardson When I first moved here as the Idaho Conservation League’s first organizer/educator in the late ’70s, a favorite slogan was “Idaho Is What America Was.” Now, Idaho has become a bellwether for the far-right nonsense that is sweeping the country under the aegis of a Republican party that has lost its bearings along with its marbles. I’ve updated the slogan: “Idaho Is What America Is Becoming.” The following Idaho Statesman editorial offers a summary of just how crazy things are getting: While extremists chase away Idaho teacher of the year, state’s leaders stay silent Idaho’s 2023 teacher of the year Karen Lauritzen, previously a fourth-grade teacher in Post Falls in North Idaho, has left the state, chased away by far-right… CLICK TO READ FULL EDITORIAL. and… Yale Welcomes Largest First-Year Class Ever The class of 2027 set multiple records when it arrived on campus last weekend. Yale welcomed 1647 new first-year students, the largest in university history. In 2017, class size at Yale jumped by about 20% with the opening of Pauli Murray and Benjamin Franklin Colleges, but this year’s class ballooned more than expected because of a historic high in the yield rate, with seventy-two percent of admitted students choosing Yale. The class has also set several new records for diversity. More than 360 first-year students (22%) are eligible for a Federal Pell Grant for lower-income students, compared to 12% 10 years ago. Twenty-one percent are first generation college students, up from 12% ten years ago, and minority enrollment has increased in the same 10 years from 36% to 59%. The number of students of color in the first-year class has almost doubled in the last decade. The class of 2027 began with the largest applicant pool in college history. Yale admitted 2275 applicants from a pool of 52,250, for an admit rate of 4%. Comments? Please make them here. 8/7/23
Comments? Please make them here. 7/20/23 For a few days this past spring, Bill and his wife Irene ventured into Upper Patagonia for a pleasant break from their city life in Santiago. Click here to see the photos. 7/20/23 Charles left a dream job as foreign correspondent, packed up his family and reinvented himself as a cherry farmer in Northern Michigan. Here, he reflects on the life-changing powers of a 160-year-old farmstead. Click here to read the essay. 7/11/23 Comments? Please make them here. 7/05/23 Supreme Court Strikes Down Affirmative Action in College Admissions By Lee Bolman
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In our senior year the YGC was accompanied by two freshman groups and an intermediary glee club, the Apollo, which I had the honor of directing. In our sophomore year director Fenno Heath was called away for a family emergency in the fall and I was invited to conduct a concert. By then the music had been learned and memorized, a friend loaned me a pair of more formal… CLICK TO READ JOHN’S ARTICLE 6/23/23
6/15/23 Read Class Secretary John Stewart’s Report here. 6/06/23 Dean Quinlan’s slides are here. Comments? Please make them here. 6/06/23
Y62 Communications Team member Lee Bolman reports that classmate Neal Freeman has just published a charming and highly-readable article about his passion for the Denver Nuggets (in, oddly enough, the National Review). In an account filled with dark humor and genial self-deprecation, Neal tells how he became part of the ownership group of a team that was among the most hapless ensembles in the history of professional sports–in his first ownership year, the Nuggets stumbled to 11 wins in 82… Click here to read Neal’s own words about the Nuggets. 5/23/23
For five decades, our own Y62 award-winning actor Sam Waterston has thrilled audiences of theater, film, and television. But he’s also a passionate activist and serves as Chair of Oceana, the preeminent ocean conservation NGO, advocating to save the oceans and the climate through science-based policies for responsible commercial fishing, reducing single-use plastics, and halting the expansion of off-shore oil drilling. Sam will be speaking at a free event on June 2, at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, 246 Warren Turnpike Road, Falls Village, CT, at 7:30-8:30PM. We called the high school to inquire, and there will not be a Zoom for tuning in, although there will be a recording of the event produced after the event. We will keep you posted on that, and will provide the link when available. For more information, or to see how to attend in person, here’s the link. 5/23/23 By Gary E. Richardson, Y62 Communications Team member The explosion of interest in artificial intelligence (AI) over the past few months has been phenomenal, especially since the release last November of Open AI’s ChatGPT, which has already been superseded by GPT-4. These pioneering AI neural networks are fraught with inaccuracies—confident responses that don’t seem to be justified by the chatbot’s training data. Like many, I’ve had mixed results with Chat GPT: I’ve learned a few things I did not know or had forgotten. The bot appeared to carry on “intelligent” conversations on several topics of interest. However, chatbot can’t tell me where it gets its information and ducks some areas of discussion with a… CLICK TO READ GARY’S COMPLETE ESSAY 5/23/23 Y62 classmate Bob Rosenkranz has changed the name of his debate series from Intelligence Squared US to Open To Debate, still continuing the time-honored practice of civil discourse in the discussion of ideas. The debate we’ve linked here, recorded a couple of months ago, concerns the question “Will ChatGPT Do More Harm Than Good?” Click on the graphic below to enjoy the debate. Comments about this topic? Make them here. 5/16/23 Dick Riseling, classmate and Communications Team member emeritus, sent us the following news: “A whopper of a tornado hit here on April 22. Apple Pond Farm and Renewable Energy Education Center was hit by a tornado that compromised our home, main equipment, and storage buildings. It wiped out our huge barn and smashed most of our farm equipment. The twister knocked down or broke off at 40′ our wonderful stand of spruce trees, felled over a hundred trees on our hay fields, and blew our fences down. It eliminated nine out-buildings where we held various workshops, and destroyed our wind turbine, and solar systems. “Settled in 1739, there is no record of such a weather event in this area… Read the rest of Dick’s account here. 5/09/23 On Thursday, May 9, we learned about a remarkable Venezuelan family which sent not one, not two, but four brothers to Yale in the late ’50s and early ’60s. Two brothers, Rodolpho “Rody” Salas and Jacobo “Jack” Salas, were our classmates. In the first half of the Coffee Hour (shown above), Rody and Jack, joined by brothers Henrique “Henry” ’61 and Gustavo ’64, spoke to us about life in their home country, about coming to Yale, and where their lives have taken them since those days. Related to this Coffee Hour, we offer a link to a recording of Gustavo Salas being interviewed by an international journalist in Stockholm after receiving the Right Livelihood award. In the second part of the Coffee Hour, Rody and Jack spoke about how life has changed in Venezuela since their boyhoods. Comments? Please make them here. 5/02/23 On October 6-7, 2022, the Yale School of Architecture held a symposium to honor the work of our late classmate, Alex Garvin. While this material is not yet available anywhere else online, classmate Steve Rose has sent in screenshots of the printed article describing the event, so that we may read it here. PLEASE CLICK TO ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE. 5/02/23 By Lee V. Bakunin Thank you for your wishes, emails, cards and other forms of encouragement on my 83rd birthday. 83 is an opportunity to be thankful for every person I’ve met and the experiences of being above ground. A stopping point on another that will occur on May 16, 2023. 30,000 days since I emerged on April 6, 1940 at 4:11 am. Before most of you were… PLEASE READ LEE’S FULL ESSAY HERE 4/17/23 On Thursday, April 13, we held a rousing Coffee Hour with guest expert Dr. Leo Cooney, Prof. Emeritus, Yale Medical School and developer and first head of its Geriatric Section, along with classmate speakers who gave reports of choices they’ve made in their current lifestyles. Dr. Cooney also gave us his slides he presented during his talk. Please view them and/or download them, as you prefer. Comments? Please make them here. 4/17/23 What began two weeks ago as an email thread has come out into the light as a page here at Yale62.org. The participants thought other classmates might like to add their own points of view. Any of us may do so by… READ THE CONVERSATION, AND ADD YOUR OWN COMMENTS 4/17/23 By Michael Kane Last month, the 2022-23 season ended for three Yale winter sports teams- men’s hockey, women’s hockey, and men’s’ basketball. Your correspondent enjoyed watching the final games on ESPN, from the comfort of warm and sunny Florida. The women’s hockey team repeated a dominant 2021-22 season, beating most opponents, including Harvard and Princeton, on the way to a 28-4-1 record before losing to Clarkson and Northeastern in postseason tournament play. The men’s basketball team (21-8) shared the regular season Ivy title with Princeton, then beat… READ MIKE’S COMPLETE ACCOUNT HERE 3/31/23 Amid the deluge of political, war, and economic news, a new report from Antarctica caught my attention: Floating pack ice surrounding the frozen continent has shrunk to the smallest extent since monitoring by satellite began in 1979. As reported in The Guardian online on March 4, the ice pack reached a record low of 1.79 million square kilometers on Feb. 25 — about 9% lower than previous February levels. According to Australian scientists Rob Massom and Phil Reid, “two-thirds of the continent’s coastline was exposed to… READ RUD’S FULL ESSAY HERE 3/31/23 Astronomically, a red or blood moon is the phase of a total lunar eclipse before and after totality, when the moonlight is dimmed and reddened by sunlight passing through the earth’s atmosphere. From time immemorial on all continents, a blood moon has been an ominous sign foreshadowing disruption and destruction. Perhaps most famously, the New Testament book of “Revelations” imagines that… READ GARY’S COMPLETE INTRODUCTION and BURGERT’S POEM HERE 3/24/23 Our tireless Class Secretary and Communications Team member John Stewart recently sat down with Jill and David Scharff to chat about their lives as psychotherapists and life partners. Enjoy this light-hearted, chatty exchange! Comments? Please make them here. 3/24/23 By Lee V. Bakunin Heritage is a combination of seemingly unrelated events and circumstances. Pursuing dreams amidst challenges, adversity and successes left by others. A gift and a puzzlement. Why Yale? Here’s my story: You decide. I was the hope from my parents and grandparents that my life would thrive and leave a legacy for future generations. The catalyst was my Grandmother Stella, an outspoken independent 17-year-old… READ THE COMPLETE ESSAY HERE 3/24/23 By Lee Bolman When journalists or television news anchors want an informed source who can provide depth and historical context around the war in Ukraine, they’re likely to call on Yale’s Professor Timothy Snyder, an expert on Eastern Europe. His course on the history of Ukraine this semester is so popular that he’s made it available online. A central theme is that “Ukraine must have existed as a society and polity… READ THE COMPLETE SUMMARY HERE 3/16/23  National Review Founder, William F. Buckley, Jr. By Lee Bolman Classmate Neal Freeman, author and chairman of the Foundation Management Institute, recently published an article in the National Review under the title, “The Enduring Legacy of William F. Buckley, Jr.” Describing Buckley as both friend and mentor, he argues that “Bill Buckley did not resuscitate American conservatism. He did not rejigger it. He created it.” Neal opens his article with a vignette about the FBI file that was created when he was nominated for a presidential appointment. Among the Bureau’s interviewees was Bill Buckley, who described Neal… READ THE COMPLETE SUMMARY 3/16/23 We’re one day late with this, but it ran via Thornton Wilder newsletters yesterday, and since Tappan speaks of using these very same words to eulogize Thornton in Battell at Yale, we thought you might like to hear them, as well. 3/10/23 By Lee Bolman If you’ve been following the news even casually, you’re aware that Dominion Systems is suing Fox News for $1.6 billion, alleging that Fox repeatedly and knowingly defamed Dominion by airing false claims that Dominion’s voting machines were hacked… CLICK TO READ LEE’S FULL COMMENTARY 3/08/23 On March 2, our Coffee Hour participants convened to talk about what it was like for several of us to have had “multi-vocational experiences” over the course of our working lifetimes. Several classmates started us off on the topic by sharing their own experiences, and then we moved into a full-group discussion of it. We hope you enjoy the recording! Please be sure to share your own thoughts on the topic here. 1/09/23 UPDATED 3/09/23
By Philip Stewart An inconspicuous subset of the Yale class of 1962 were the eleven juniors who spent the year 1960–1961 in France under the auspices of the Sweet Briar Junior Year in France, a venerable program about 90-strong that had begun at the University of Delaware in period between the two World Wars. These men were, if my archives are correct, David Arkush, Jeff Barnouw, Roger Craig, Edward Freeman, Joe Graham, Steve Hazlett, Bill Reilly, Tom Sherman, Robert A. Smith, Philip Stewart, and Sam Waterston. One interesting feature of this group was its diversity. Far from being characterized, as one might imagine, by French majors, they were remarkably diverse both in their fields of study (one, for example, majored in Southeast Asian Studies) and eventual profession: several were to become… Read Philip’s complete essay here 2/27/23 Summary by Tim Hall On the evening of February 16, a group of Yale ’62s sat down with Diane Ronayne, wife of classmate and Communication Team member Gary Richardson, to learn in an online seminar format the fine points of how to write our own obituaries. The video of this workshop is now available above for the benefit of everyone in the class. It comes highly recommended by the original participants! READ MORE ABOUT THE SEMINAR 2/06/23 Let’s keep the discussion going! Add your comments here. 1/31/23 A couple of weeks back, Y62 Communications Team member Bill Weber sat down once again with classmate Charlie Valier — this time to talk about his work with the St. Louis Police Commission and the career gangsters against whom they struggled to clean up law enforcement in the late ’70s and early to mid-’80s. Please take a look at the interview, and remember to comment here. 1/31/23 By Bill Stott Thanks to NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and cousin Alex Tucker, family archivist, here are pictures precious to me. From the Met, two Walker Evans Polaroid portraits taken at Jane and my Westlake home in April 1974. Before he took the pictures Walker commanded each of us, “Look sad!”  Jane  Bill [Ed. Note: Old photos found again spur memories for us all.] Please read Bill’s essay here. 1/31/23 By Tom Triplett Bill Weber asked that I consider penning a brief memo on my post-Yale career. I do so with a degree of reluctance, as Yale has faded from my priorities. To set the stage, I can share that I was raised in Portland, Oregon and attended public school, where I did well, both academically and in sports. I know that I got into Yale on diversity (i.e., having been raised in Oregon with arrows chasing the buckboard). I arrived at Yale by train with a steamer trunk, where the only folks I knew were alums of American Field Service. I was a bit… Click to read Tom’s complete essay 1/09/23 Our first ‘First Thursday’ Coffee Hour of 2023 featured a quick review of the midterm elections, to see how we mgith have done on our predictions made in last September, and to discuss where the country may roll on from here. It was an energetic talk filled with agreements and disagreements, but unfailingly cordial ones. Enjoy the recording! Comments? Please make them here. Please make them here. Thanks. 1/09/23 By Tim Hall For anyone interested in a mind-changing walk through a near-future world coping – ultimately fairly successfully – with environmental disaster, Kim Stanley Robinson’s sci-fi novel, The Ministry for the Future, is worth your serious consideration. I read it last summer, at my wife’s urging (her friend Carolyn said, “You have to read this book!”), and I hung in there to the end, in spite of the prodigious length – 563 pages. I like short books, short attention span! The book centers on the life and work of Mary Murphy, who has been appointed Director of a new United Nations ministry whose constituency is the people of the future. It deals with near-future events, starting with a catastrophic heat wave in India that killed… Read Tim’s complete essay here 12/21/22 On December 13th, we had the great fortune to connect Class Secretary and Y62 Communications Team member John Stewart with Steve Lash for a discussion of Steve’s still ongoing time at Christie’s Auction House. He retired as Chairman, but still goes to work every day, and shares with us the reason. Enjoy this delightful conversation! Comments? Please make them here. Please make them here. Thanks. 12/21/22 By Whitman Knapp The “crypto” world has been rocked by disaster after disaster in 2022. The trouble started in May with the collapse of the algorithm based “Stablecoin” Terra. That was followed by the collapse/bankruptcy of cryptocurrency exchanges and hedge funds, Three Arrows Capital (3AC), Celsius Network, and Voyager Digital, with a cumulative loss of approximately $20billion. Finally, the implosion and bankruptcy of the Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, and his trading vehicle, Alameda Research, has thrown… Read Whit’s complete essay here 11/29/22 Earlier this month, Y62 Communications Team member Bill Weber sat down with former Missouri legislator and classmate Charlie Valier to discuss some of the more memorable events during Charlie’s time in state government. This interview runs a bit longer than most of the ones we’ve offered, but the time goes quickly, and it’s filled with unique, entertaining moments. Enjoy! Comments? Please make them here. Thanks. 11/29/22 By Rutherford H. Platt On Labor Day, 80 million people along the East Coast were under flash flood watches or warnings, while another 50 million in six western states were under excessive heat warnings. As parts of Georgia received a “once in 1000 year rainfall,” Salt Lake City hit a record 103 degrees F. and Long Beach, CA reached 108 F. Puerto Rico this week suffered intense flooding and power failures from Hurricane Flora––a replay of Hurricane Maria in 2017. Meanwhile, 33 million Pakistanis have fled… Read Rud’s full Op-Ed here. 11/29/22 By John Stewart While re-reading for Neal Stephenson’s brilliant and entertaining eco-thriller Termination Shock, I was reminded of Isaiah Berlin’s hedgehog and fox categorizations: the fox knows many things and the hedgehog one big thing. In this case Kim Stanley Robinson’s very important novel about climate change, The Ministry for the Future, is … Read John’s full comments here. 11/16/22
Ask Bill to do something for Yale or the class, and he never said no. He served terms as president of two Yale Clubs: Southern California and Hong Kong. He was a delegate to the Assembly of the Yale Alumni Association (YAA) and was elected to YAA’s Board of Governors, where he served two terms as secretary. In 1991 Yale asked him to chair the Yale Assembly on internationalization of the university, a task he carried out with great success. Ten years later, Yale asked Bill to co-chair Yale’s 300th anniversary celebration for alumni in Asia, a four-day event that drew 450 attendees. He was involved in the NUS initiative from its early stages. He and Al Chambers co-chaired a class mini-reunion in Hong Kong in 2005. Bill was the all-time leader in articles submitted to our website here at Yale62.org, and was prolific until shortly before his death. His last submission to the class website was a timely three-part series in July and August that asked “How Secure is China’s Leadership?” Bill’s genial optimism and fascination with the world around him were reflected in an August note to a classmate: “Here I am hearty, happy, and healthy and busily watching the comings and goings of typhoons and other ramifications of climate change in Hong Kong and elsewhere.” He’ll be missed. 11/07/22 Our November 3rd Coffee Hour focused on Yale Admissions and how a well-designed class might be selected. Communications Team member Lee Bolman created a powerful presentation that classmates then used as a springboard for their own discussions in small “breakout” rooms (not recorded). Then we all reconvened the one large group at the end to share our discussion outcomes. Lee’s slides are available here. Comments? Please make them here. Thanks. 10/24/22 Classmate Dave Hummel and his lovely, talented wife Cindy have visited almost all of the countries in the world! In the interview above with Y62 Communications Team member Gary Richardson, they talk about their experiences. And at this link, we see some of Cindy’s magnificent photos from her latest trip to South Africa. 10/24/22
Classmate and former Y62 Corresponding Secretary Mike Kane wrote to us a few few weeks back to remind everyone that the archives here on this website are vast! Don’t forget that we feature articles which have been written by classmates for over 20 years, as well as Yale Alumni Magazine columns dating from 2002 forward. Visit the links on the left side of this page – or at the bottom of this page, use the Search function if you’re looking for a specific name, and enjoy a trip down “Memory Lane!” 10/13/22 At our regularly scheduled ‘First Thursday’ Coffee Hour for October, we sat down with classmate Tappy Wilder, who has worked as his late Uncle Thornton’s Literary Executor since 1995. He tells us the story of how all of that transpired, and, joined by Thornton Wilder Estate Program Manager Rosey Strub, he lets us in on what’s happening with the ongoing interest in Thornton’s many timeless works. (Watch the recording to the end to find out the truth about the “real” Grover’s Corners!) In addition, we have a link to the new mini-documentary out on Thornton (“Thornton Wilder: It’s Time”), shown in part at our Coffee Hour. Here is the complete documentary at this link. Are you looking for more about the Wilder family in Maine? Rosey supplied this link to us. Finally, how would you like to produce your very own Thornton Wilder three-minute play? You can! Tappy has provided us all with a copy of “Flamingo Red” right here! Enjoy, everyone! Comments? Please make them here. 10/07/22 (Ed. Note: Lifelong newsman Al Chambers recently sat down with author and psychiatrist Ed Rowan to discuss what became of fellow Y62 classmate Dirk Greineder, who was convicted in the murder of his wife, Mabel “Mae” Greineder, and who remains in prison in Massachusetts. Part of Dirk’s most unusual life is outlined in a chapter of Ed’s recent memoir, My First Eighty Years. Please watch the interview and read Ed’s additional comments, both of which are provided below.) Notes Ed sent along to accompany the interview: “After Yale, medical school, and a psychiatric residency, my first “job” was with the Navy assigned to their maximum security prison in Portsmouth, NH. After a brief stint in college mental health (a very different population), I was back in forensic work, ultimately as medical director of the New Hampshire Department of Corrections. In that capacity, we developed the first sex offender treatment in the state. Back in the States, I wanted to do something different and just write. “My first endeavor was to answer the question as to why the Boy Scouts of America downplayed the role of its first Chief Executive, so I researched and wrote a biography of him. One day, I saw an article in the Boston Globe about a doctor being tried for the murder of his wife. Since he was my age and a Yale graduate, I wondered if he were a classmate. Dirk Greineder was. The trial disclosed that he had been hiding a life of pornography and prostitutes, so I was intrigued. He was found guilty of first degree murder, and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Since I knew about sex and murder, I arranged to meet with him in prison. He was not especially cooperative, and always said that the appeals process was still underway. “After all his appeals were exhausted, I finally got access to the trial transcript. All my book proposals were rejected. Comments? Ed will reply to your questions and comments. Click here. 10/07/22
Occasionally, we bring you episodes from classmate Bob Rosenkranz’s Intelligence Squared U.S., where he is Founder and Chairman of the Board. These discussions are “grounded in facts and informed by reasoned analysis.” Please click on the player below to listen to this most recent podcast. 9/30/22
I have been concerned that until recently, U.S. support for the Ukrainians has been anemic. Our slow response to Russian aggression has led to horrific consequences for Ukraine and its people. I have written the following note to explain my concerns and pose questions that I haven’t heard addressed in mainstream media. In 2005, Vladimir Putin revealed his intentions toward countries that had left the Soviet Union. In an address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian… Read Bill’s full Op-Ed here.
9/30/22  Abraham Lincoln’s Home in Springfield, IL, shown here not compliant with ADA
In 1991, Congress passed and President George H. W. Bush was glad to sign the ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act. This legislation changed the existing expectations for the many millions of people with physical and mental limitations, and brought them more fully into our communities, to benefit the individuals as well as the communities. How would this be implemented? Good question. Someone had to do something. After the passage of the ADA, the United States Department of Justice invited Assistant United States Attorneys – like me – to one-day regional ADA training. Jaci, a paralegal in our office, came with me. We learned about the law and checked out an ADA-compliant… Read Jim’s full account here.
9/30/22
You are the 358th Class to receive opening remarks as you embark on your journey to shape your world of tomorrow. Memories, experiences, successes and failures. I’ve shied away from pontificating or providing you with a list of do’s and don’ts for success. Because… you will do it your way and far be it from me to tell you to change what you believe works or doesn’t work for you. Still working on my stuff. I’m not there yet. You are probably in a better position to offer a suggestion or two to me than the other way… Read Lee’s full essay here.
9/20/22
Classmate and Communications Team member Gary Richardson recently closed a show of his photos in his longtime hometown of Boise, Idaho, and has sent us a sampling of his keen-eyed, amazing work. Please visit his online gallery he has shared with us here. 9/20/22  Tennis Court Hill Taffy, my Golden Retriever puppy and I ascend “tennis court hill.” As a young boy, I strained to pedal my bike up that same hill. Now, after traversing the surrounding grounds, my immediate neighborhood and descending the hill created many thousands of years ago by a receding glacier, I have to climb again to return to my home firmly planted at the crest. I struggle under the weight of 82 years. The sound of my shuffling and banter with Taffy is drowned out by the hum… CLICK TO READ THE FULL ESSAY 9/20/22 Classmate Steve Rose sent in the following news: “I thought the class would be interested in this multi-event occasion regarding our classmate, Alex. It would be nice if we sent a classmate to some of the events (two in New Haven, three in NYC) to bring back a report.” Full info is available at the link at the bottom labeled “Click here to receive detailed invitations and information.” If anyone is interested in attending, and then sending us a few words about the events – one or more – please let us know at YAM@yale62.org. Thanks!
9/06/22 On Thursday, September 1, we had a lively discussion about a few of the upcoming midterm political races, starting off with updates by classmate residents of Arizona (Bob Breault), Georgia (Rod Hunter, Roscoe Sandlin) and Pennsylvania (Jack Merrick). Ably moderated by Communications Team member Lee Bolman and brought into sharp focus by our newsman classmate Al Chambers, the 90-minute meeting was enlightening, engaging and fun. Enjoy the recording, and be sure to leave your own comments on the comments page. 8/23/22 A few days back, Communications Team member Bill Weber was able to sit down with classmate Bob Stokstad. Because of the joyful, adventurous mix of science and outdoorsmanship in Bob’s life, Bill refers to him as “the Enrico Fermi of ’62.” Enjoy this lively chat! Additionally, Bob sent us a few links to provide more information on a few of the topics covered in the interview.
Click here to leave comments on the interview. 8/23/22 This fall’s 20th National Party Congress will be the most significant in forty years. While I expect that Xi Jinping will again be elected president for a third term, I also expect it will be with drastic and perhaps dramatic limitations. China is exceedingly history-conscious, and precedents are important. No one since Mao Tse-tung has served for more than two terms… CLICK HERE TO READ BILL’S COMPLETE ESSAY 8/23/22 Nestled in the verdant rolling Berkshire hills. Tanglewood is the 500-acre park-like summer home of the Boston Symphony. There is a large amphitheater and when it’s not raining, before the concerts there are many hundreds of visitors picnicking on the grass around it, or around the Ozawa theater, with its perfect acoustics. Since we moved east in 2011 we’ve attended at least a half dozen concerts every summer (except 2020) frequently in the company of classmates Lew and Melinda Spratlan, Carl and Liz Kaestle and Peter and Margaret Sipple, with a Lenox dinner… CLICK HERE TO READ JOHN’S LETTER IN ITS ENTIRETY 8/09/22 On August 4, we held our “First Thursday’ Coffee Hour. Small group chat is not shown in the recording (not possible in the software we use), but everything from the large group is here. Enjoy the recording! CLICK HERE TO COMMENT ON THE COFFEE HOUR 8/09/22 In the U.S., the political parties and media have their focus on the mid-term elections, and perhaps there is too much to cover and too much coverage. In China, the Chinese Communist Party has its Party Congress every five years, with the next one scheduled for this fall (date not yet revealed). At the last Party Congress, President Xi Jinping had enough power to scrap term limits on his presidency. But has his power slipped? Will the Party Congress vote to restore those term limits? Will they move forward on any other limitations? Part Two of this three-part article will take a look at Xi’s standing within the Chinese Communist… CLICK HERE TO READ BILL’S COMPLETE ESSAY 8/01/22 Last week, Communications Team member Bill Weber had the good chance to sit down with classmates Breaux Castleman and Jack Merrick, both of whom have ties to the oil industry, to talk about the fossil fuels pricing we’ve seen over the past few months. Enjoy this enlightening talk! CLICK HERE TO COMMENT ON THE INTERVIEW 8/01/22
Let’s start on the above theme with a capsule summary of the Biden administration’s energy policy. In the short term, the intent is to restrict the supply of fossil fuels, thereby driving up prices relative to renewable energy sources. Longer term, the objective is ultimately to deconstruct the oil and gas industry and limit production to approved, hard-to-decarbonize applications. The “forcing functions” that underpin this… CLICK HERE TO READ ANTHONY’S COMPLETE COMMENTARY 8/01/22 With the odds of admission steeper than ever, should legacy applicants still get an edge? Should Yale still consider race in admissions decisions? Will race and legacy status both disappear in the wake of a Supreme Court decision next year? Should Yale continue to participate in the US News annual college rankings when other schools may be gaming the numbers? All these questions have been in the news recently…. CLICK HERE TO READ LEE’S COMPLETE ESSAY 7/22/22 Last week, John Stewart had the fun opportunity to sit down with the masterful musician Joe Holmes to talk about music in his life, and how it all began. Enjoy! CLICK HERE TO COMMENT ON THE INTERVIEW 7/22/22 In the U.S., the political parties and media have their focus on the mid-term elections, and perhaps there is too much to cover and too much coverage. In China, the Chinese Communist Party has its Party Congress every five years, with the next one scheduled for this fall (date not yet revealed!). At the last Party Congress, President Xi Jinping had enough power to have scrapped all… CLICK HERE TO READ BILL’S COMPLETE ESSAY 7/22/22
Are you a podcaster? Do you listen to podcasts, and maybe find a few to recommend? We want to hear from you! Please drop a line to YAM@Yale62.org and tell us about your involvement with this new medium. Thanks! 7/12/22 Comments? Please make them here. 7/12/22  Roman Weil I hope you enjoy this lark, which results from my having time on my hands and a reputation as an oenonomist — an economist who does empirical research about wine. The book review editor of the Journal of Wine Economics (a Harvard guy, but forgive him that) asked me to review the 35th (!) edition of Kevin Zraly’s Windows on the World Complete Wine Course: Revised & Updated, Sterling Epicure; 2021; Hardcover: 464 pages, $35. ISBN-10: 1454942177; ISBN-13: 978-1454942177; First published 1985. I had a ball writing this review for reasons you’ll see in a moment. The editor, after consulting with his co-editors rejected my first version because, they said, my review was more about what the book did not contain than what it did. Get rid of the stuff about its omissions and tell us its inclusions. So, I obeyed and did a boring review, which I’ll not give away anything about here. Instead I’ll show you what I wrote, which the editors rejected. All the following was in the first draft; none of this will appear in the Journal. I’ll start by disabusing you of the notion this review is about Kevin Zraly’s book alone. You know him, sommelier at Windows on the World until its untimely demise on 9/11, but not me, so I’ll start with … READ ROMAN’S REVIEW HERE 7/07/22 Last week, John Stewart sat down via Zoom with David Finkle to chat about what’s kept David busy recently, and it’s a potpourri of endeavors! Please enjoy this charming chat between two longtime friends. For more about David, you’re invited to go to his website, DavidFinkle.com, where you can hear an interview, read some of his stories and reviews, and even purchase a book or two, if you like. Further, here’s that link to “Democracy, It’s the Best Thing Yet” – the latest Finkle and Weeden ode to our dear country. 7/07/22  1989 Jaguar, from my current collection Back in high school I became fascinated with cars, and my first one, I recall, was a 1949 Packard that eventually ended up with me in New Haven during my Sophomore or Junior year; I sold it to Orin Towner, a fifth-year engineering/Navy fellow who roomed with Giamei, Post and me. Sometime before that, in my high school years, I bought a 1948 Lincoln V-12 Zephyr… CLICK TO READ BILL’S ADVENTURES 7/05/22 Did you have an unusual or especially interesting experiences in your adjustment to Yale, particularly involving money, grades, and financial aid? Did you have a scholarship and a bursary or off-campus job? Were they ever in jeopardy for any reason? Or a specific academic survival experience that you’d like to share? And what impact, if any, did this experience have on the rest of your Yale experience and your later life? If you’d like to contribute to next month’s Coffee Hour discussion on Yale survival and adaptation experiences, write to the Coffee Hour team c/o Tim Hall at dthall@bu.edu. 6/21/22 6/06/22 Comments? Please make them here. 6/06/22 [Ed. Note: Former Town Supervisor of Pulteney, NY, Bill has been involved in civic activities there for many years. His Memorial Day speech is his latest service to the town.] Welcome to the Town of Pulteney’s Memorial Day celebration. We are here today to honor the fallen soldiers of America’s wars and conflicts. On this day in 1868, General John Logan issued a proclamation commemorating the sacrifices of the soldiers and sailors of the Civil War. He called it Decoration Day, later to be termed Memorial Day. Over 600,000 men died in the battles and I am sad to say the United States has lost over 1 million men and women soldiers to date in a variety of wars and conflicts. The Town of Pulteney has contributed brave men and women to virtually all the conflicts and suffered loss… READ BILL’S COMPLETE ADDRESS HERE 6/03/22 This is a report from the firing line, reflecting on yesterday’s experiences of being a nonessential participant in the ancient ritual, the Big Decade Reunion (for ancient alums). My wife, Marcy Crary, is a member of the Radcliffe/Harvard Class of 1972, was on the Reunion Planning Committee and chaired one of their class panels. So, she was a central member of the class gathering – and I was anything but. And this distance provided some useful… READ TIM’S COMPLETE ESSAY HERE 6/03/22 Last month, Y62 Communications Team member Bill Weber sat down with classmate Art Mann to chat about the remarkable community development initiative in which Art’s been involved for well over two decades. Please enjoy the interview. Comments? Please make them here. 6/03/22  YRC in Russia, 2019 At the height of the cold war in the ’50s, a club began at Yale, to understand and learn more about Russia and the Soviet Union. Denis Mickewicz, studying in the Dept of Slavic Languages and the Yale School of Music, was invited to lead some Russian songs, and in a short time by virtue of his great charisma, musical and compositional gifts, and knowledge of sacred and secular Slavic choral literature, had attracted good enough voices to perform really challenging… READ JOHN’S COMPLETE ARTICLE HERE The Listing of Front Page Stories for the Past Year or So Continues Here…
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Last Thursday, a 6-3 majority in the Supreme Court struck down the use of race in admissions decisions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, arguing that they “unavoidably employ race in a negative manner” and “involve racial stereotyping”. The headlines blared that the ruling killed affirmative action, but Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion seemed to open a side door when he wrote that “Nothing prohibits universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected the applicant’s life, so long as that discussion… 
2023 has been marked by turmoil in the financial world. A string of social media and internet triggered bank runs and then bank collapses started the year. These collapses were associated with a series of blowups in the cryptocurrency world starting a year ago. Now the SEC and other regulators have decided to weigh in, causing additional uncertainty in the financial world. These events have opened up pandora’s box around cryptocurrencies, a significantly misunderstood topic. My musings in the following essay try to put the topic of “crypto” in perspective and give a glimpse of the emerging new infrastructure for the financial services world. 
Yale has a singing tradition in length and variety unsurpassed anywhere as far as I know. The center of this tradition is of course the Yale Glee Club, founded in1863 and still going strong.
My reaction on leaving my mountain home in Olympic Valley in late March was altogether new to me. I felt a strong sense of relief, which I had never experienced before when leaving home. My body just relaxed physically. Until then I had no idea I was so continuously tense. Normally, I rejoice in winter up here with its small, cohesive and caring communities and the unending beauty and opportunities for skiing at multiple resorts around Tahoe. But this year has been different. On heading to my other home on the northern California coast I felt free from strain, realizing I wouldn’t have to constantly fear slipping on black ice, with the least consequence being a bad bruise, and a worse consequence a concussion or broken ribs, each of which I’ve experienced. I wouldn’t be worried about an unpredictable dropping… 
We now have the 
