By Gregory A. Weiss
We hope at least some of you were in Mill Valley, California, this past December 10 to hear a “dramatic reading of Charles Dickens classic Yuletide story, A Christmas Carol,” by none other than actor, Mill Valley resident, Greenwood School grandparent, and classmate, Toby Kennedy. Aimed, it would appear, at a slightly older audience was a Christmas missive from Duncan Campbell: “Attached are my two half-hour dialogues on archetypal resonances of the solstice, Christmas, and New Year’s experiences. (Download and/or forward to anyone within 14 days of receipt.)”
A recently received note from John McLaughlin: “I am enjoying emeritus status and working two days a week. It is nice to shed all the administrative responsibilities and just see kids in clinic. Finally got back to New Haven briefly at the end of September on a nice sunny day. Sue and I found a most accommodating current denizen of Branford to take our picture in the very courtyard where we met at a Conn College mixer in 1964.” John lives in Seattle and practices at the Seattle Children’s Hospital.
And a short note from Henry Christensen III: “Connie and I and our daughters, Elizabeth and Kate, spent a weekend in Burgundy in September with Mark and Emilie Thomsonand their children, Derek and Tess, and grandchildren at a grand party at their home, and will spend a day with Jay and Linda Lapin (’65) at their home in Maui over Thanksgiving. I expect to do a lot of traveling in 2012 as we continue to build McDermott, Will & Emery’s international private client practice.”
As is becoming all too common nowadays, we must report three deaths. Geoffrey Harding, a resident of Tujunga, California, passed away on January 11, 2011. We have no further information than that. Guy Moss writes of the death of David Rapaport: “With great regret, I report the death, from cancer, of one of our classmates and a good friend of mine, David Rapaport of Saybrook College, on January 13, 2012. At the time of his death David was a shareholder at the Boston firm of Davis, Malm & D’Agostine, PC. While he had a background as a general litigator and had taught trial practice at Harvard Law School, he came to specialize in employment law and was highly regarded in that field. In the mid-’90s he won, at trial and on appeal, a famous disability discrimination case against the law firm of Hutchins & Wheeler. The matter was the subject of his grateful client’s book, A Million Reasons: Why I Fought for the Rights of the Disabled by Alan Labonte.”
Alan Cross died on January 5, 2012, of multiple system atrophy (MSA). Alan graduated from Columbia med school in 1970. He interned at the University of Rochester, spent two years as a captain in the US Army, and then completed his residency at Rochester. After two years in Nairobi, Kenya, and two years in Boston, he moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1978, where he joined the faculty of UNC in pediatrics and then spent all of his medical career, becoming a full professor and holding many important faculty positions. The Chapel Hill News & Observer reports, “The scope of his influence within the community was profound and his presence will be deeply missed.” He is survived by his wife, Mimi, four married daughters, and six grandchildren.
Breaking News: Howie Moffet to tie the knot! “It all happened rather casually one weekend in July. We had been to see Midnight in Paris, and one thing led to another, and I asked and she said yes!” says Howie, understated as usual. We wish Howie and his fiancée, Lois Scribner, the best of luck. The date of the wedding is undetermined at this point but is likely to take place somewhere in Lois’ native land, England. Howie sends some other news: he is cutting back his law practice to two-thirds in 2012; he and Lois expect to participate in the Yale Alumni Services Corps program in Ghana in July 2012; and his daughter, Anna, is working for New Hampshire’s 2nd District Democratic candidate for Congress, Anne Kuster.
We also wish David Milch the best of luck (no pun intended). He created, wrote, and acted as executive producer for the new HBO miniseries, Luck, starring Dustin Hoffman; it has been receiving all sorts of accolades, and the first episode aired on January 29. My wife and I enjoyed the first and are eagerly awaiting the next episode. The excitement is building for the annual Class of 1966 Winterfest, this year scheduled for late January in Beaver Creek, Colorado, and hosted by Tim and Cindy Wollaeger. Look for a detailed description of the high jinks in the May/June issue.