By Gregory A. Weiss
Special thanks to Ned and Dot Snyder for organizing and hosting Winterfest 2023, which was held (after two years of Covid postponements) on February 27 through March 2 in spectacular Crested Butte, Colorado. Not everyone skied, but everyone had a great time. The weather conditions ranged from whiteout to bright blue skies. The four dinners organized by Ned and Dot ranged from excellent to even better!! Hard to believe, but the first Winterfest was 25 years ago!
One of the Winterfest “regulars“ who missed this year‘s event was Biff Folberth. It appears that Biff has been neglecting his skiing and focusing on his golf game. It seems to be paying off; he shot a hole in one in February in Naples, Florida!
To describe the off-the-beaten-path life of Doug Knott, who died in December, in a short paragraph is pretty much impossible. One might call him a lawyer/poet, but that would only scratch the surface and puts too much emphasis on the lawyer part. To help you understand, consider the following: he marched in Selma, took a year off from Yale to hitchhike around the world, “somehow” made it through Yale and Harvard Law School, before graduating from Harvard received a scholarship for a year of study in Rio, made the pilgrimage to Woodstock, lived a hippy life in Vermont and New Mexico, and ended up as a “new-age“ lawyer in California. It was in the ’80s in LA that he finally settled upon his real passion, the spoken word and poetry, in which he thereafter became immersed. He married for the first time in 2014 to his wife Janet. At about that time he wrote and began performing nationally a one-man theatrical stage show called “Last of the Knotts.” Among his Classmates, however, he will likely be best remembered for his performance in “Naked Lunch, the Musical” at our 50th reunion.
We received from George Vogt news of the death of Jules Bernard on February 12 from complications of Alzheimer’s. He is survived by his wife, Patricia and his stepdaughter Susan. Other than that we have no information. Hopefully we will have more by the time of the next Class notes column.
Thanks to Rob Van Leeuwen for submitting a thoughtful remembrance of John Lindburg, who passed away on February 13 at Georgetown Hospital, Washington, DC, due to complications from Covid. After Yale, John was a Fulbright scholar in Venezuela. He went on to obtain a master’s degree at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs and a JD at George Washington University Law School. His career included serving as Assistant General Counsel, U.S. Information Agency and General Counsel, Board for International Broadcasting. A line from Classmate John Ehrhardt on John Lindburg’s passing compels quoting: “How to remember John? Handsome as the devil, yet choir-boy sweet and innocent as well – plus smart, witty and athletically gifted.”
One general comment about the foregoing paragraphs describing Classmates who have passed. More complete memorials to each of them, and each other classmate who dies, are being and will be written by a team of memorialists led by Tom Porter. They are and will be posted prominently on the Class website.
A note from George Albert Brown brings us up to date on what is going on in his world: “On 6 February my novel Who Killed Jerusalem? was published and made available to a wide selection of booksellers. In the Spring of 2020, Melinda and I sold Dedalus, our oceangoing yacht, just as the pandemic hit, and apart from a lot of side travel, we now split our year between a traditional villa in Thailand overlooking the Andaman sea, a farm in rural France, and a Georgian house on a garden square in Bath, England. All children and grandchildren are, as is to be expected, good-looking, intelligent, and successful, even the one-year old.”
Tom Hayes and his wife of 51 years, Sherri, have moved from Florida to Philadelphia so they could be near their three children (including Tanya, Yale ‘95).
Last, but by no means least, our approximately monthly ‘66 Live Zoom presentations, organized by Michael Dalby and Jesse Lovejoy, continue to fascinate. The following list of the last four presenters will give you an idea of their breadth and depth: Lucian K. Truscott IV, retired US Army General discussing Ukraine; Tony Reno, Yale football coach discussing varsity athletics in an Ivy League environment; Classmate doctors Jeff Koplan and Peter Holbrook, discussing how to prepare for the next pandemic; and Rick Levin, former Yale president discussing higher education in general. If you missed any of these, it is easy to replay them on the Class website. Make sure you are receiving email notices of upcoming presentations; they are sure to be entertaining and educational.