By Bill Sargent
Richardson Dilworth, whose father had been mayor of Philadelphia, died on May 25, 2017. He served as a Marine Corps officer and subsequently established a Philadelphia real estate firm. In 2002, he moved to Galisteo, New Mexico, where his interests included history, animal behavior, film, art, intricate woodwork, and “anything in miniature,” according to his son.
Bruce Chabner and his wife, Davi, joined Stan Stillman and John de Neufville for a night of fireworks over Nantucket Harbor at a party hosted by John. Bruce says, “Stan is well, and publishing a newsletter for university trustees. John, always the chemist, has found a new passion, rare earths and beryllium glasses. All of us are reasonably intact and greatly enjoyed the opportunity to talk about our classmates. Dave Hall is nicely recovering from a knee replacement and back on his bicycle with his equally enthusiastic wife, Sally. Bill Barry is off on another long fly-fishing trip to Montana with his even more professional fly-caster and wife, Susan. We see David Brownlee ’62 and family every summer here. Hopefully, we’ll continue to celebrate the Fourth in Nantucket for years to come.”
Allan Nordstrom writes, “You might like to mention my blog of my illustrated sonnets and other verses.” Allan, who calls himself a licensed verse practitioner, says of his blog, which he started in 2008, “Much of what I write is verse in traditional rhymed iambic pentameters, old fashioned in form but contemporary in topics and idiom. It asks to be read aloud so that the effects of rhyme and meter may be felt. Sometimes I write brief prose essays, but even my verses are essays, or attempts, pursuing a line of thought to some conclusion, though more sonorously than those in prose: discursive verses, I call them. In either case, you’re the reader over my shoulder as I write, which makes my writing different than when I have no audience in mind but only a vague urge to express. So, I thank you for whatever attention you give my words and thoughts and feelings because you might so easily attend to something else, and you soon will.” Visit Allan’s blog.
Nick Clifford sends word, “I am enjoying retirement doing work for my Episcopal church, running a ministry that gathers every Sunday morning to prepare and serve breakfast to the residents of an emergency homeless shelter for women and children. The shelter houses about 150 of which 60 percent are children under the age of 9. In addition, I enjoy playing golf and visiting children and grandchildren in St. Louis, Chicago, and Mill Valley, California. I am happy to report that last December 10 Molly McLaughlin Schilling and I were married. Molly was born in Alton, Illinois, and raised in St. Louis—although we did not meet until 2015. As it turns out, I have family roots in Alton also. Coincidentally, my grandmother’s stepsister married a man, who in his second marriage became Molly’s grandfather! A complicated family tree, but our marriage was approved by the rector at our church despite the twists and turns.”
Phillip Periman sent a note, “I attended Jeff Grandy’s funeral in Bedford, New York, Friday before Mother’s Day. Jeff had been wheelchair-bound for 14 years following a neck fracture from a fall. We Whiffs sang at the funeral: Lew Girdler, Dale Lindsay, John Bingham, Sandy McMillan, Jamie McLane, Barnes Ellis, John Walsh, Francis Pratt, and me. William Veale was stuck in Brazil, and Paul Downey was being the guest of honor at a fête in California. I stayed with Charles Deahl in Hastings on the Hudson. He reminded me that in senior year just before the four-mile race against Harvard, he had shaved his head to lighten the boat. Yale lost anyway, which haunts him and John Cogswell, who was captain.” He adds a second note, “Just off the Boulder River in Montana fishing with John Cogswell, John de Neufville, and Emory Clark (captain of the 1960 crew and Olympic gold medal winner in ’64).” Then Phillip signs off, “Getting old, but still going.”
Steve Goldstein sends word, “Daughter Lauren’s son Asa, our 17-year-old recent grad from Santa Cruz High, called us several months ago to say he was looking at colleges on the ‘West Coast.’ Fran and I were thinking Berkeley, Stanford, or UCLA where Lauren and sister Melissa went. Turns out Asa will in fact be staying on the West Coast . . . of Canada, at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver! Excellent academics, on a beautiful bayside campus close to great skiing and snowboarding at Whistler. We are stoked and will be visiting Asa in September.” Steve added, “Asa has just won a 2017 Tikkun Olam award from the Diller Foundation in San Francisco. He is one of 15 students from the USA selected for outstanding community service during their high school years. The award is accompanied by a $36,000 prize which Asa will put toward his first-year tuition and board at the University of British Columbia.” Asa won the prize because he created a Challenger Baseball League where boys and girls who have disabilities are paired with Little League players who serve as “buddies.”
Jamie McLane reports on a big change in his life. “We are no longer people of the sea. We sold our boat in mid-November after almost nine years of living aboard for nine months or more a year. We just knew it was time to move on to other adventures and spend more time with family and non-boat friends. We covered just about 31,500 nm, or 36,225 statute or land miles. This truly was an adventure as whenever we left an anchorage or mooring or dock we knew that another adventure was about to begin; being caught 45 miles off Savannah in two severe storms when the Coast Guard said over the VHF ‘get into port, two very severe storms will be hitting our area’—and knowing we could not make it into port being that far out in the Atlantic Ocean, we had a thrilling adventure. Several of these experiences certainly taught us to live by our wits, prayers, and common sense. We loved every minute of it!”
Bob McManus writes that he and Nancy have indeed taken “a great trip.” He says, “We had been working on our bucket lists as previously reported, but a safari was on neither of ours. Nonetheless, in April we did a tour that included safari camps in Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, plus Victoria Falls at the end. It’s hard to report without a sampling of the 1,000 pix we took (all National Geographic–worthy, of course), but it may be worthwhile to encourage all the rest of you guys to put such a trip on your respective bucket lists. Of course, you must like lions and elephants and hippos, etc., up pretty close.”
Frost Walker sent this note, “Frosty Smith called a few days ago—after 56 years. Seemed like yesterday. Great to hear from him. But importantly, we shared amazement that our granddaughters are both entering Yale with the Class of ’21. They are already talking (or texting or whatever girls do now).”