By Gregory A. Weiss
Similar to last year, Ben Liptzin (with Andy Berkman as co-host) will be hosting a Yale ’66 brunch at his home in the Berkshires near Tanglewood at 11 a.m., prior to the 2:30 p.m. concert on Sunday, August 26. This is the last concert of the season, and, as is traditional, the Boston Symphony will be playing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. For those who want to spend the whole weekend in the Berkshires, there are many other cultural activities. If you are interested, RSVP to Ben.
Mark Greenwold “just added grandchild number 5 (Jonah), who lives in Portland, Maine, where my daughter Diana (Yale ’05) is curator of American art at the Portland Museum of Art. Betty and I are on our way to pick up our 13-year-old granddaughter, Molly, whom we are taking to Paris for her spring vacation. Should be great.”
Mark has also written a remembrance of Scott Calvert, who died on March 16. Space constraints do not permit us to present the entire remembrance, but it can be found on the class website under Scott’s name. After graduation Scott pursued a 20-year career in the Navy, spending his final Navy years in Washington, DC. His most absorbing interest was choral singing, and he became a founding member and leader of the Yale Alumni Chorus. With his wife, Kori, Scott ultimately settled in Ashland, Oregon.
Frank Heintz died of pancreatic cancer January 24 at his Charlottesville, Virginia, home. After a stint in the Peace Corps in India following graduation, Frank and his wife June (whom he married in the summer of 1965 and who survives him) moved to Baltimore. Frank soon became involved in local politics and was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates and served on the Baltimore City Council. He was appointed chairman of the MD Public Service Commission in 1982 and served in that role for 13 years. His experience at the PSC ultimately led to his becoming president of Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. Frank and June moved to Charlottesville in 2009 to be near their daughter and grandchildren.
Mike Zarich passed away on April 20. After graduating with a BS in electrical engineering, he worked in many engineering areas, including the Apollo Space Program at Cape Canaveral, and became a professor of electrical engineering at Colorado Technical Institute in Colorado Springs. The hobby to which he was most devoted was being a bit player and technical expert for many theaters in Colorado’s front range. As volunteers, Mike and his wife Debbie designed and built more than 100 theater sets, winning many local, regional, and national awards.
“Sorry I missed our 50th (cardio valve problems, seems to be common at our age),” says Tommy Curtis. Known in the Washington, DC, area as “the matchmaker” for his 18-year role at the Yacht Club, a singles bar in Bethesda, in introducing hundreds of couples who ultimately married, Tommy forwarded a recent article from the Washington Post which examines his claim that he invented the term “meet and greet” in the ’70s. A fun read, the article describes the results of some research which turned up several prior uses of the term going back to the 1830s and effectively undercuts Tommy’s claim. Undaunted, he still feels he deserves credit for having popularized the term!
Peter Stambler writes: “I wonder if it’s happened to you, too: every year I seem to be a little bit Old Bluer. Maybe it’s because I took my 12-year-old granddaughter on a Yale Alumni Service Corps trip to work in India where she was exposed to poverty, deep local spirit, and the commitment of 130 Yalies to change the world. Maybe it’s the pleasure I now take in being the director of the Alumni Schools Committee here in South Carolina.”
Our esteemed prolific writer Victor Chen has published a new book: “It’s called In the Temple of the Philistines: Papers and an Index. I felt I had to publish this further selection of my papers largely because there was a need for an index to all my books: the new book has such an index and some more or less important papers on other subjects.” Bruce Rigney also has a new book, Two Years on the Watch, a memoir about what he learned and observed in his years as a US Air Force intelligence officer in West Germany during the Cold War. Along with stories and facts that were unknown for decades to anyone without a top-secret clearance, Bruce shares his experiences in averting hostilities between Soviet and American forces standing on the precipice of global warfare.
Tom McCaffrey has been doing a lot of traveling. To his “Yale friends” he writes about his most recent trip: “I imagine that the top of your ‘to do’ list did not include following me around the world this year. That said, I had just such a remarkable journey to Morocco, and I wanted to share it with you.” His glowing description of the three-week trip makes it clear how much he enjoyed it and learned about the culture.