By Gregory A. Weiss
A highlight of our last two reunions was the memorials written about the Classmates who had died subsequent to previous reunions. Tom Porter and his team did a remarkable job of gathering information and writing these memorials, which appeared in the fabulous 50th Reunion Classbook and and in the printed supplement circulated after the 55th. We are pleased to report that Tom has reassembled his team, which will continue to write memorials through the 60th reunion. We are told by our advisers in New Haven that we would be the only class which has ever continued this process for so long. Ben Liptzin has graciously agreed to assist Tom in this project. The plan is to prepare the memorial as soon as possible after a Classmate’s passing and have it posted on the Class website (thanks to Class webmaster Stephen Billard) shortly thereafter. Just prior to the 60th, a printed version of the memorials prepared in the previous five years will be published and circulated.
They say that lightning never strikes twice in the same spot, but the same cannot be said for the effect of Covid on our class Winterfest. For the second straight year the event scheduled for early February in Crested Butte, Colorado for at least 30 Classmates, spouses and friends had to be canceled as a result of Covid concerns. Ned and Dot Snyder have done a terrific but yet thankless job in organizing these events. They will try again in 2023. Fingers are crossed!
As chronicled from time to time in this column, Steve Timber’s son Alex has had a remarkably successful career as a director on Broadway. This was capped when he last September won the award for the best director of a musical in 2019/2020 for Moulin Rouge! The Musical (which had 14 nominations and 10 wins).
You will quickly see that, unfortunately, the next four paragraphs concern the passing of four Classmates. Given our intention described above to prepare an in-depth memorial for each of them, we will keep the paragraphs short.
Bill Haas died in April 2021 of an apparent heart attack while swimming early morning laps at his local swimming club. He was known in Missouri for having run unsuccessfully for pretty much every office available, including, most recently, school board. After Yale he joined the Vista program and and then graduated from Harvard Law School in 1973. His career involved a stint as a corporate lawyer and time as a math teacher.
Harvey Bellin, a longtime Weston, CT resident, Democratic party stalwart, environmental activist, author and television producer and director, passed away on January 22, 2021. In 1974, Harvey formed the Media Group of Connecticut and, in 1989,