September/October

Yale Class Notes for September October 2021

Jamie McLane writes: please welcome Hank Kuehn from Louisville as co-Chair of the Class Council and Paul Capra as our new Class Notes editor.

David  Nobel – I very much enjoyed my Zoom webinar with the Class in March that focused on “Saigon to Pleiku”. Thanks to so many YC’61 classmates for joining the session, and to Andy Block and Jennifer Julier for organizing and managing it all.

Andrew Marks – During pandemic – alternating from working in NYC apartment and home in East Hampton,

Brian Kelly – It was a brisk, bright March 25th evening as John and Becky Maypole, Jamie and Meg McLane and Terry and Barbara Shockey were the guests of Brian and Susan Kelly for an evening of cocktails and dinner overlooking Little Sarasota Bay, FL. The conversation was lively as we watched a stream of boats wending their way along the Intracoastal Waterway. Between the Yale Club of the Suncoast (Sarasota) and occasional dinners, this YC’61 group keeps the Yale spirit burning brightly.

Michael Bonesteel – A message from an unremembered freshman classmate who slipped out and finished at Stanford. I’ve left my law firm and continue to practice law by acting as an arbitrator and mediator of civil litigation matters. Best to you all.

Bob Budnitz – Hey Lou, Jamie, and Paul — keep up the great work. I am writing, first of all, to thank all 3 of you for your important volunteer work for the CLASS NOTES. Those notes are (and always have been) the principal vehicle for keeping all of us informed, and in keeping the Class of 1961 “together.” While I’m on the subject of class notes: I wrote the class notes for my father’s class of 1931 for 8 years after my father and the class secretary died. At first there was a trickle of letters, but that soon petered out. It was fun, interesting and I think important. When YAM ran the last notes in 2012 explaining that “this is the last column” I got a bunch of  letters from children of 1931, thanking me for having kept the tradition alive.

Alan Brumberger – For me, it was too bad our reunion conflicted with my HBS 55th and a visit from our son for the first time in sixteen months. I’m sorry that I missed a lot of it.

John de Neufville – In our senior year a very talented guy (aka David) re-wired our whole entry in Pierson. That was back in the days when Pierson was still being served by the DC generating plant on Ashmun. We had to use alternators to make our hi-fi behave properly. For several nights after the campus police made their rounds, David rewired our entire entry so that we, too, could enjoy the Master’s AC current. It was so professionally done it was not detected on our watch!

Marcia Bernstein – Thank you for sharing all these tributes to recently deceased classmates.  Frank is gone almost 25 years – hard to believe. So many wonderful souls passing our way; so many meaningful lives recorded. Taking a deep breath as I prepare for more and more such tributes over the coming years. Those of us still here get to say goodbye to so many.

Bob McManus brings us up to date with  Tom Davenport | National Endowment for the Arts.  As mentioned in the link, Tom has for many years been a prolific independent filmmaker, whose oeuvre includes an extensive series of adaptations of Grimm’s fairy tales, all set in Appalachia. (My young daughters owned them all.) In addition to his filmmaking activities, Tom’s ownership of an Angus cattle business in Delaplane, VA, made him (we think) the only member of the Class of ‘61 who could honestly list his occupation as “farmer.”

Maysie Starr – As hard as it is to think there could possibly be competition for my 2 youngest grands visiting me that week-end, the Y’61 reunion was, as I suspected, sensational. What undefeated champions you are leaving the ultimate legacy to Yale ever known- a class so deeply bonded together by pure, sheer love for each other that no class could ever touch you/us! Yes, really! I savored every moment vicariously- not without shedding a few heartfelt tears for those who wished they could have “been there”.

Paul Tierney writes: I loved our 60th, even virtually. After 20 years of full-time and part-time teaching physics at The Shipley School, I retired for the third time (long story for another time).A celebration of sorts followed with two weeks at my cottage in St John, USVI. We bought the place in 1999 intending to enjoy it for five years or so, and here I am still enjoying it 22 years later.

Obituaries:
The following links connect to the most recently received obituaries which are then added to the complete list of 1961 Memorials (link).
John Kenna
David Levin
Keith B McCulloch
Frank Neely
Robert J. Osterhus
Roy Pendergrass
James Torrens
Douglas Wax
Peter Lawrence Weingarten

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