By Gregory A. Weiss
Congratulations to Biff Folberth for having been awarded the Yale Medal. This is a big deal and quite a well-deserved honor. You should have seen the two-page spread in the last issue of the alumni magazine that announced the six recipients of this year’s award. Since the inception of the Medal in 1952 there have been only 293 awarded, recognizing and honoring “outstanding individual service to the university.” Biff was recognized for, among other things, his past role as chair of the Yale Alumni Fund, his service as ex-officio member of the Board of Governors of the AYA and the University Council, and, most relevant to us, his service to our class. Here is another big deal: our famed vintner, Josh Jensen, and his Calera Wine Company were the subject of a cover article in a recent issue of Wine Spectator. The interesting and flattering article was matched only by the cover photograph of Josh looking handsome and rugged like some sort of modern Marlboro Man.
Two sons of classmates, both of whom are friends and members of Yale ’99, were married recently. Johnny Bockstoce, son of John and Romayne Bockstoce, tied the knot on July 20 in York Harbor, Maine, with Mary Hood, who works at ABC News. And Cary and Sherry Koplin’s son, Bryan, was married on Cape Cod on September 28 to Amy Beth DiLuna. A Dartmouth graduate, Amy is the news editor for the website of Today on NBC. Bryan is a vice president and co-manager of the bonds and derivatives electronic trading group at Goldman Sachs in New York.
A long note from Howard Daniel gave some background information: “First [after graduation from Yale] I got a master’s in Soviet area studies at Harvard, then spent two years working with farmers in India in the Peace Corps, then 14 more years as a foreign service officer with the US Information Agency, serving in Brazil, the USSR, and Japan as well as Washington, DC. Then left the foreign service to work on an ocean transportation project in Hawaii—which went nowhere, but which led to my second marriage and a stint as the governor’s speechwriter, which kicked off my second career as a writer and editor.” And then his latest news: “First we moved to Santa Rosa, California [from Hawaii], to be closer to our three kids and their families [including five grandchildren]. I’ve brought my writing and editing work with me—for the past 13 years I’ve been working for Hawaii’s leading PR firm, Communications Pacific, basically editing everything before it goes out the door and ghostwriting my share of client op-eds and speeches. I’m continuing that work remotely, wearing my writer-editor freelancer’s hat: Pen-for-Rent. Which brings me to my second bit of recent news: Last month, the Hawaii chapter of the Public Relations Society of America honored me as its PR Person of the Year for 2013.”
As a follow-on to our April class dinner in New York, seven of our Whiffenpoofs joined 18 other alumni Whiffenpoofs for the 15th annual Friends of Yale on Nantucket reception in early August. The 160-person “All Yale graduate” event was organized by Whiff Bob Pratter, and included Whiffs Tom Fiorito, Dr. Mark Greene, Robert Augusta, Dr. Steve Shelov, Dr. Win Self, and Terry Mullin.
An interesting article about John Loge in the September 27 YDN announced his retirement after 23 years as dean of TD College. From Bill Haas: “I’m planning to run in the Democratic primary for US senator [in Missouri] against Roy Blunt next year. I have a three-step plan: 1. Win a big lottery. 2. Steal the primary. 3. Steal the general election. I might be able to do it without step one, but it won’t be pretty.”
Let me finish with some really good news: no obituaries!—or at least none of which we have notice.