By Gregory A. Weiss
Getting in the big reunion spirit, Kirk Ressler organized a small golf mini-reunion in August. The participants all seemed to have a great time. Here is Kirk’s “official” report on the event: “The first [editor’s note: at least in recent memory] Yale ’66 golf outing was held on eastern Long Island August 20–21. Kirk Ressler hosted Rich Look, Chris Swindells, and Jay Westcott at Kirk’s course on Shelter Island, and Luke Lynch joined in the next day as Rich and Cassandra Look hosted the group at the venerable Maidstone Club in Easthampton. Jay walked away with all the honors with a 79/74. The success should prompt an even larger gathering next year, and all golfers should mark their calendars for late August, exact date as yet undetermined, and let Kirk know if they are interested.” Other comments included Rich’s admirably honest admission: “I was DFL.”
Through the flurry of related correspondence we also learned that Russ Dilley won a croquet tournament a couple of weeks before at the nearby Meadow Club, one of the premier croquet facilities in the country. The golf correspondence included the following suggestion from reunion cochair Cary Koplin: “I hope you guys can convene a ‘do-over’ next summer, and then work with Greg Weiss and me to plan a class golf outing at the YGC during our 50th reunion weekend in 2016. Tom Slater and Ned Snyder will help pull an oar re that event. Obviously, we’ll enlist Jay to do the handicapping and score recording for that class-wide competition.”
At press time (early September) nine classmates (“Mory’s Fellows and Friends from the Class of 1966”) had signed up as the leadership sponsors of the Mory’s Centennial Dinner on October 23. The dinner celebrates Mory’s 100 years on York Street, and one of the “perks” is an engraved Class of ’66 Mory’s Cup, which will be on permanent display at 306 York Street and available for use by any ’66 classmates who visit “the tables down at Mory’s.”
Jim Kaplan wrote an essay for the Vineyard Gazette about turning 70. Classmates can access it by Googling “Falling into Seventy, Arms Wide Open.” The first couple of sentences give you an idea of just how humorous it is: “I turned 70 on March 6. The event passed painlessly. We were staying in a house near Santa Fe, and good friends arrived for dinner to offer their congratulations and commiserations. Then reality set in. Seventy is a weird number. It doesn’t rhyme. It doesn’t scan. It makes no sense. Seventy? I must have known Thomas Jefferson!”
From Jim Munson on life after retiring from practicing law at Kirkland & Ellis: “Just returning from two weeks in Singapore accompanying four judges from Uganda and serving as faculty on a best practices tour of the Singapore judicial system.” Meanwhile, his acting career continues to thrive: “By the way, in this past season I was in five plays in Chicago, a couple of TV commercials, two voiceovers, an Onion video, and an industrial training film.”
Another lawyer, Rick Gerard, is proud to announce that he has been selected as an “Outstanding Attorney” by New York Super Lawyers in the industry group of oil and gas.
We received the following eloquent tribute from Anita Rubin: “It is with great sadness that I report the death of my husband, Roy M. Rubin. Roy passed away on June 29 after a lengthy battle with renal cell carcinoma. Roy was a brilliant physician and teacher and was beloved by his family, friends, colleagues, patients, and students. He is survived by his wife of 47 years, Anita, his sons Dave (TD ’96) and Dan (TD ’00) and their wives, and his five adored grandchildren. He will be remembered for his wisdom, his wit, his kindness, and his humanity.” In correspondence with friends, Anita wrote even more eloquently: “My heart is broken, and my grief knows no bounds. Roy passed away peacefully this afternoon while Dave, Dan, and I held his hands and told him we’d be strong for him. His last days were filled with love, caring, and compassion, and he was not in pain. Roy was an extraordinary man, and we will miss him terribly. He treated everyone with dignity and respect regardless of their station in life. He was wise, intelligent, thoughtful, and the best husband, father, grandfather, and friend one could have.”
Congratulations to Bill Tilghman, who writes: “On Tuesday, June 24, the voters of Maryland’s 1st Congressional District chose me to be the next Democratic nominee for Congress. I am truly grateful for their support, and I am honored to be the Democratic nominee.” From Lynn Harrison: “Just a brief toot of my own horn: I retired from clinical cardiac surgery two years ago and have been working for Baptist Health South Florida in the areas of quality assurance, process improvement, and behavior modification for their medical group. I am on the faculty of Florida International University and was asked four years ago to give the keynote address for their incoming class’s ‘White Coat’ ceremony. That class did me the honor of asking me to give their commencement address this past April. They seemed to like it; I hope it proves useful to them.”
Regrettably, we have one more obituary to announce: Jim McInerney III died on June 12. Jim grew up in Larchmont, New York, and attended Iona Prep. After graduation in 1962 he entered Yale, majoring in English. He attended Penn Law School briefly before deciding to become an international banker. He worked at Philadelphia National Bank where he made the most of his job globetrotting and enjoyed the bachelor life in Philadelphia. Life changed when he met his soon-to-be wife, Jenifer; they settled in Swarthmore, and he began work for AIG in Delaware. Three years later they found themselves in Cleveland with new jobs, Jim’s at AmeriTrust, and with a new son, Jamie, born in 1981. After he retired, Jim taught courses in finance at Baldwin Wallace College and gave lectures in universities as far away as Brazil and China. His struggle with Parkinson’s prevented him from continuing as a highly regarded teacher but not from traveling to Europe and India, which he did whenever he had the chance. He is survived by, among others, his wife, Jenifer Neils, and his son, James Harvey McInerney IV.