By Gregory A. Weiss
As noted in prior columns, Ted Shen has written the music for a new off-Broadway musical entitled “Broadbend, Arkansas.” Organized primarily by Cary Koplin, with some assistance from me, a Class event to see the November 17 matinee, followed by dinner at the Yale Club, is turning out to be a roaring success. As of this writing, our 47 ticket allocation has been sold out for weeks, and several Classmates are on the waiting list. We will report in more detail in the next issue.
Another upcoming class event is the annual Winterfest, scheduled for late January in Vail, Colorado. Organizer Beverly Quail Roble (with some help from husband Tim Roble) is expecting 35 – 40 enthusiasts to attend. Again, look for more detail in an upcoming issue.
Jim Rule went back to New Haven mid-October to join fellow Whiffs of ’66 in song at a concert in Battel Chapel celebrating the founding of the group 110 years ago. Unfortunately, only seven of the original 13 could make it because of various illnesses and conflicts, but the group got a standing ovation for its rendition of “Black, Black, Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair.” The group is looking forward to returning fuller force to celebrate our 55th reunion in 2021. Jim was also basking in recent family genealogy research that revealed that two of his eighth great-grandfathers on both his mother’s and father’s sides of the family, William Tuttle and Timothy Trowbridge, were among the original founders of New Haven and surrounding towns in the mid-1600s. In fact, William Tuttle’s farm was on a plot of land later part of the Old Campus where now stands Bingham Hall, Jim’s freshman year home. Tuttle and other Puritan family members’ remains are buried across the street on the Green behind Center Church. Neither Jim nor his father Herbert Jr., ’27 nor his brother Herbert III, ’59 knew of this family connection when they were at Yale. When not singing, Jim spent several hours on the Green and the Old Campus and exploring tombstones of 17th and 18th century relatives at Grove St. Cemetery where many that were still legible were moved in the 1820’s. A profound exercise in Lux et Veritas!
At this stage in our lives we are seeing too many funerals. Countering this trend is an upbeat note from Jeff McLaughlin describing his recent wedding: ”My bride, Madeline Powers Beery, and I are just back from a fabulous honeymoon in Rome, the Amalfi Coast and Sicily. We celebrated our union on August 10th in Seattle among family and good friends. Madeline had an impressive career in public health. Her award-winning professional education curricula on HIV/AIDS were translated into multiple languages and used around the world for two decades. She is an accomplished amateur flutist still active in a community orchestra and her own trio. I am fully and happily retired from my medical career. Great combination of complex pediatric patient care, clinical research and education. We expect to be at the 55th!”
A short note from another happy former bachelor, Rick Hart: “I married Dr. Maneli Mansoori (an internal medicine specialist) on December 14, 2018. I am retired, she is not. We are very happy!”
Robert Reid and his wife, Suzanne, “enjoy living next door to their daughter and her two children in Crozet, VA, near Charlottesville. He also enjoys attending courses at UVA’s lifelong learning institute, in which he teaches a few courses (Including those on Dostoyevsky, Shakespeare and the Epics). His last book, Renaissance Psychologies: Spenser and Shakespeare, is now available in paperback. Another miracle! It’s almost as good as peanut butter.”
Kent Williver retired last year from the Directorship of the Rhode Island Ethics Commission but retains his law license and has a part-time office at his wife Nina’s law firm. “We are restoring a century old cottage near the seaside town of Padanaram, MA but still live on Aquidneck Island in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.”
A very sad note: Ben Liptzin‘s wife, Sharon, passed peaceably in mid-October from the effects of Alzheimer’s.