Yale College Class of 1962



TABLE OF CONTENTS

SCENE SETTING

Introduction
  Who was here?
  Widows' comments
  All photos
  Ordering reunion gear

Chairman's Assessment
  Bob thanks the crew
  New Class Leadership
  Bob thanks the crew

Huge financial support
  Special Gifts announcement
  Announcement with quip
  Reilly in dinner mode

THURSDAY

Golf outing

Signs of a Changed Yale

Dave Swenson: A Master's Class in Money

Global financial crisis
  Ed Goodman wrap-up

Garvin on urban fixes?

Socializing Begins!
  All photos

FRIDAY

The Military Returns

Elihu Yale, multinationalist

Classmates works of art
  Artists
  Authors

The Ode
  New translation, 50 years on

Dressed By Success

Hot Thoughts on Warming
  Full presentations
  New Chip Neville's paper

Rising China
  Panel summary & Stork notes

Next Careers
  Buck opener, panelists' odysseys

Memorials
  Service and Song
  Peter Sipple's overview, new compositions report
  Rod Quainton's Sunday sermon

Art on the YAG Roof

FRIDAY NIGHT!

  Recorded Songs!
  Lyrics & Script

SATURDAY

Class Survey Results
  Analysis & Data

Visiting campus haunts
  Davenport circa 2012

Treasure hunt trophy

Opening gay closets
  Yale GALA

The Meanings of Yale's Biggest Lesson

President Levin

Final dinner conversations

Our Chairman Oliver

White's wisdom
  Jim reflects

Smiling Service

Secretary of Generosity
  Gift Announcement

Honorary Member

Stewart's singers, Holmes' band

News coverage worthy
  column in The East Hampton Star

Afterwords from widows

Reflections

"Bright College"A Lyrical Farewell

Main commenta page

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YALE62.ORG
50th REUNION SPECIAL EDITION!


video: Louis Mackall
(TIP: To play, click on the arrow pointing right. Adjust volume by clicking on speaker icon below video, or with your speaker controls)

Satisfied reunion goers. Bill Weeden gives his usual all to the strains of "Eli Yale" at the final dinner Saturday night. (22 seconds) For the Weeden and Finkle songs on Friday night, and the rest of our reunion highlights, see below.


Setting the scene
photos: Barbara Oliver, Julie Stokstad, Bob Stokstad, Bill Weeden, Chris Cory.

The latch string was out. Headquarters in Davenport opened at noon Thursday, and over 200 classmates, spouses and friends showed up that day, making early activities an important part of the event.

ENRICHING

More than 300 classmates, plus spouses and friends for a total attendance of 567, made it to our 50th reunion. This special edition of Yale62.org, for both attendees and those who couldn't make it, tries to capture the stimulating public events, and to convey some sense of the private reconnecting and discovering that produced a glow of unforced fellowship. (For names of attendees, click here.) Afterward came stories of continuing contacts, and a chorus of wistful comments like "I wish I'd had time to catch up with even more people" and "Gee. I wish I'd known him better when I was at Yale." Stay tuned for possible mini-reunions.

To find items of particular interest to you, see the table of contents to the left. You can find more details on many events by following links in individual items, including the survey and expanded accounts of the global warming session, a topic much in the news since reunion and the national emergence of Paul Ryan, a skeptic. All the reunion photos we have so far are here; send more to our webmaster. For a second chance to order reunion gear, click here. To make overall comments on the reunion or this site, click here, or contact any of us:

Chris Cory, Corresponding Secretary
Steve Buck, Co-Corresponding Secretary
John Stewart, Co-Corresponding Secretary

A WELCOME FROM OUR CHAIRMAN

video: Chris Cory

Pensive leader. Natty in what turned out to a widespread, voluntarily-donned uniform of blazer and tan trousers, Bob taped this video in the Davenport courtyard an hour after registration began. The reunion was the culmination of hundreds of hours of preparation by him, the class officers, reunion committee and council, and the staffs of the University and the Association of Yale Alumni. (27 seconds)



"GREAT CELEBRATION," REUNION CHAIRMAN SAYS.

"The goal of our reunion as I saw it was to foster a gathering of classmates who could interact with old friends, make new friends, and share, as they wished, life's experiences 50 years on. I tried to offer the greatest variety of activities and attractions in order to lure the largest numbers, in a friendly, warm, relaxed and non-competitive setting where people could have an enjoyable time. I think we achieved this.

"We had special guests: Yale's investment guru David Swensen, hockey coach Keith Allain, football coach Tony Reno, and swim coach Tim Wise. President and Mrs. Levin joined us during the cocktail hour Saturday evening. We had a super reception on the new Susman Floor at the Yale Art Gallery.

"But best of all, it was our classmates who delivered remarkable and memorable lectures, panels, presentations, performances, exhibitions and events. And we had time to talk, reminisce and compare notes on our lives. Attendees included two widows: Lee Radsch (Dick's widow) and Patrice Bell (Jim's). A great celebration.

"No wrap-up can be complete without thanks to all the dedicated and talented volunteers in our class who expertly planned and carried out their presentations and helped with a myriad of other chores leading up to it. The most complete list I can come up with is here; apologies if I have overlooked anyone."

— Bob Oliver 

BobBob and Barbara
photos: Barbara Oliver

BIG, BIG GREEN FOR BLUE

Bill Reilly
Big blue boost. Reilly announcing '62's record-breaking homage.
photo: Bob Stokstad 
Financially-savvy types were impressed, even if the crowd as a whole at the final dinner seemed underwhelmed when the preliminary figures were announced by Bill Reilly, our special gifts chair, and Bill Boyer, our Alumni Fund chairman. Our "whelm" should definitely not be under. When the books closed in June, our class had raised a total gift of $45.1 million for Yale students and Yale activities now and in the future. See Bill Reilly's thank-you (with quip) here, and see Bill in full announcement mode here.

Some of the funds came in on a gust of enthusiasm after the reunion. A challenge from an anonymous Midwestern classmate who later identified himself as Clark Winslow set a new, all-time, 50th reunion record for the portion raised for the Alumni Fund. Our $1.063 million surpassed the $1.022 million set by our friends in the Class of 1959, and the $1.042 million raised by the Class of 1985 in their 25th Reunion.

THURSDAY, MAY 31, 2012

OTHER GREENS

Golf!
photos: Howard Kolodny, John Livingston

Tee for many. About half the classmates who played golf the first afternoon. Kneeling in front: Howard Kolodny, the organizer. Players included Roscoe Sandlin, Bill Boyer, Bill and Jean Toal, John and Judy Montgomery, David and Doreen Toole, Ben Gottlieb, Carl Bloomberg, Tony Dean, Rick Chalker, Steve Howard, Bill Hoyt, Andrew Halpern, Ron and Margot Schroder, Gary Cunningham, Tony Brooks, Wyllys Terry, and Mike Brooks. Insert: John Livingston and Bill Leckonby. Kolodny writes: "We had the most perfect weather and the condition of the course was superb. Larry Lipsher was a tower of strength while I was recuperating from double bypass surgery. Having done this at our 40th reunion, I expected things to be chaotic, but Larry's response was 'There's always the 19th hole.' Instead of making us herd cats and beagles, our classmates were models of cooperation. There were no murders, fistfights or stabbings. Guess we're all getting older, if not mellower.

"We didn't have a formal tournament, so some of the people had to dial back their competitive instincts and just enjoy the day. All players received a nice goody bag consisting of two logo balls, a Yale bag tag, a course score card, and a scoring pencil. Here's hoping all who are able to sit up and take nourishment at our 55th and 60th reunions will consider a golf outing as part of the festivities on one of the finest golf courses in the country."


SIGNS OF A CHANGED YALE
Green CertifiedStudent reunion aides
photos: Barbara Oliver

Not our consciousness. Reunioners were greeted by two visible symbols of today's Yale — admonitions to think green, and co-ed student aides (The university later reported that lots of recycling plus the food service's use of locally-grown ingredients earned this year's reunions a platinum event ranking from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system.) Less visible changes in Yale are explored in the four skillful pages of Lee Patterson's opening essay in the reunion book, titled Yale Then and Now


A MASTER'S CLASS IN MONEY

Bob welcomes David Swenson
photo: Bob Stokstad 


Success indexes. Predicting the "inevitable" breakup of the Euro and more growth for China, and outlining the 15 percent of Yale's portfolio invested in natural resources like timber and gas, Yale's Chief Investment Officer Dave Swenson started formal reunion events with a private seminar for the class. Even the many sophisticated money managers in the audience, he said, probably do not have the access or research to manage many of the strategies he uses, so for most of us his recommendation was index funds.


FINANCIAL FIXES... BUT LIKELY TO BE LONG TERM

The Global Financial Crisis of 2008/9 - and glimmers of hope for preventing a repeat - drove a lively discussion an hour later chaired by venture capitalist Ed Goodman. Comments came from stars in related fields: Oxford University economics professor and Rhodes Scholar Richard Portes; economist, entrepreneur and investor Robert Rosenkranz; trial lawyer and senior partner of his eponymous firm, Steve Susman; economist, University of Chicago professor emeritus, and prolific academic author and consultant Roman Weil; and the retired former CEO of the Nuveen mutual funds group, Robert Bremner. They found Obama's crisis moves "superb," disagreed on whether Wall Street avarice is worse than ever (but maybe more scary), and backed reforms ranging from a restored Volcker rule to regulating derivatives. Not surprisingly, Ed says no one in the audience fell asleep. Click here for his report.

URBAN FIXES? NEW HAVEN

Alex Garvin
photo: Bob Stokstad 


Changing cities. The dim view of New Haven we had 50 years ago has yielded to interest, especially when urban planner Alex Garvin is talking. His oversubscribed walking tour morphed into a presentation that walked more than 50 of us through the early days of slum clearance to the contemporary successes of Wooster Square, the Elm Haven neighborhood, and Yale's new West Campus. Downtown remains problematic, but immigration may be the "savior," Garvin said; cities "attract immigrants and make them do well." Yale62.org hopes to have an expanded version of Alex's paper one day, after he publishes his scheduled next two books.


THURSDAY NIGHT: LET THE SOCIALIZING BEGIN!

Socialize!
photos: Barbara Oliver, Allan Cunningham

The heart of the reunion... is getting together on campus and in reunion headquarters. A complete archive of all the photos we have gotten from our marvelous corps of volunteer photographers is here.



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