2 comments to Yale ’62 June ’26 Coffee Hour with Classmate Fred Starr

• Bill Weber

  June 10, 2026 at 1:44 pm · Reply

  Fred, Although I could not attend the initial session, the recorded one was excellent and your adventures in Central Asia brought to mind the book by Fitzroy McLean entitled “Eastern Approaches” which is a great story of a British military personality dealing with pre and during WWII Central Asia and Mediteranian Europe.

  Your exploits remind me of Fitzroy’s adventures and if you have not seen it, I highly recommend it

  Fitzroy may have been the model for James Bond!

• Neal Freeman

  August 10, 2026 at 9:21 am · Reply

  I have two debts to re-pay here.

  The first is to Al Chambers If you’re like me, and you are, you have a high-class problem. You have literate friends and their unread books tend to climb perilously high in the stack on your desk. I don’t know how you manage the challenge, but when I need straight answers I turn to Mr. No Kidding: “Yeah, Al, I know he’s a classmate but is it a must-read?” Al’s answer on Fred’s BLUE SKIES? An unhedged, “Yes.” I can now confirm that Al was right. (It’s an annoying habit of his.)

  My second debt is to Fred. In this brilliant memoir, he tells the arresting story of his charmed post-Yale life, which is in important respects as charmed as our own post-Yale lives, both yours and mine. (We won the demographic lottery, didn’t we?) I could say that Fred and I intersected frequently along the road of life. It would be more accurate to say that, while I was idling at various red lights, Fred would whiz through the intersection on his way to yet another high adventure. Marvelous book! A must-read!