These pages contain all class notes from the Yale Alumni Magazine from 1957 on. The notes appear unchanged from their original publication save for the correction of misspellings and other small errors. The few gaps in coverage that exist result from the absence of Class of 1957 notes in a few issues of the magazine over the years. Also, in keeping with changes in the magazine itself, the frequency of publication occasionally changes.

Return to Master Index of All Class Notes

Notes: December 1977
Notes: October 1977
Notes: June 1977
Notes: April 1977
Notes: February 1977

Notes: December 1977

It turned out that Mike Dodge conceived of, produced and ran The Maine Festival (what other state would he be involved with?) last July. It ran for four days at Bowdoin College and the theme was... "In Celebration of Maine's Creative Spirit." Part of that creative spirit took the form of a railway bicycle as designed by Marshall Dodge. It sounds like Mike has solved some of the commuters' problem.

This fair or festival of his sounded terrific and I was about to complain bitterly to Mike about not having any advance notice of it. Clearly your news-starved Class Secretary would have given the event quite a plug, but alas. Dodge doesn't need our help. The October 10th issue of The New Yorker carried a delightful review of the festival by none other than Bud Trillin. If you can get a copy of that issue, read the piece. It's called "Marshall and the Folk." I guess the power of the "Mass" Media is greater than the Yale Alumni news. If Mike runs this again I will count on Bud to tell us all about it--in advance.

Joe Breslav checked in from St. Louis, He is vice president of an automobile leasing firm. He reports good things about St. Louis including his proximity to the Cardinal Stadium. Now if they could only win a game or two. Jon further reports that he has received his Master's in business administration from Southern Illinois University. The course takes up lots of evenings and weekends, but was worth it. As Jon says, "I recommend the course highly for anyone who feels the need to get an M.B.A. 20 years after their B.A." One other point, with all this talk of education, sports, and a job, Jon still has a wife, Dianna, and two children--a girl 9 and a boy 4.

The Class of 1957 spawned a good many architects. Peter Kosinski reports that he has successfully maintained an "architectural-planning" office in New Haven and is a partner in an international firm that is based in Paris and San Paulo. Peter is married to a former Manhattanville girl, Maria Ujlaky. They have two children, Peter 13 and Isabel 9. Peter has worked in Paris and for Eero Saarinen Associates. The Kosinskis live in New Haven where they are associate fellows at Timothy Dwight. I assume that the Kosinski house is another welcome stop for the travellers from 1957 when they are in New Haven.

It was good to hear from Ron Ragen. Ron is practicing law in Portland, Ore. His firm specializes in municipal finance and municipal bond opinions. Ron also reports that Mort Zalutsky is also in the "law" game in Portland. He also reported that "last summer Tony Bingham and his family dropped by, and that I have had recent business dealing with Larry Bodkin, but Yale seems pretty far away from Portland." From the sound of things, Ron loves where he's living and he's not a good bet to meet outside Portal 16 at the half.

John McCreary has updated me on his whereabouts: 717 N. Meadowcroft Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15216. We reported on our first column that John had just been promoted to assistant vice president of industrial relations at Weirton Steel Co. You can now drop the "assistant" part of the title as he's recently gotten the full vice president title. Congratulations!

These columns should always end on an upbeat note. Joe Mark, our Class Treasurer has provided a suitable "high". As we suspected, the Class of 1957 is broke! Needless to say, your dues of $15 will go a long way to improve our financial position. Last year Fritsche was after you for big money. Be thankful that Joe only wants $15. There will be a mailing soon. Please support it.

Speaking of financial support, on behalf of the entire Class, I've sent a tremendous contribution to the "Mongillo for Mayor" Committee. The outcome will be known well before this column is published, but perhaps this public support will get us invited to Frank's inaugural ball.

As I have been doing in the last few columns, I've invited some of you to report in. For those of you that have, I appreciate it. It's been great. For the others, we're waiting. This time, I'm looking for George Clark, Lewis Froman, Gil Kennedy, and Fat Nat to report in. See you next month.

—Junius (Sandy) R. Clark III

Notes: October 1977

Last month I asked to hear more about your families than your occupations, but Pete Davis's bright red calling card changed my outlook. I quote from his card: "Please look for my record--Hang in There--which I hope will come out sometime in the fall or winter. If you don't like it throw it out the window 'cause someone else will!" If you hadn't guessed Pete is a country folksinger living in the hills of East 78th Street in New York. I hope the song does well and that we can report a gold record for Pete shortly.

Johnny Herrmann followed my advice by announcing that he is, unless otherwise challenged, the oldest father of a new born child in the Class. John Day Herrmann, alias Jed, was born May 10th. We will not refer to Jed's mother as the "oldest in the Class."

Ran into Webb Wilson in the bar car of a late Penn Central train recently. He failed to recognize your humble Class Secretary and when he finally agreed that I was a friend, was full of news. Webb is living in Stamford, Conn. and working in New York for a newspaper rep firm. He also reported that he's "not married but looking." Maybe he wants to challenge Herrmann.

I had dinner recently with Hank Conlan. He's living in Palo Alto and helping to start a new company in the electronic field, making sophisticated balances. Hank is in charge of sales.

Dave Sawyer has established his own "residential development company" in Houston. He will be developing lots in suburban areas as well as planning, designing and building of "high-quality, mid-density housing in mature residential areas" of Houston. Since we're now out of college 20 years, perhaps we qualify for "mature" residences. See Dave for the details.

I had a nice call from Frank Brown. He is now working for Paul Stafford, Inc., an executive search firm in New York. He lives in Wilton, Conn., and no, he didn't have a job for me.

As I write this, summer is still very much with us and it seems hard to think of football. Still Yale football is coming and we hope lots of you can get to New Haven for a game. If you do, keep in mind that the Clark house is 45 minutes from the Bowl. We'd love to see or hear from you. We're just off Exit 36 on the Merritt and Exit 10 on the Conn. Turnpike.

The Class of '57 will be sponsoring a tent at the Harvard game. Please plan to stop by. As usual, Howie Gillis will be hosting the affair.

Continuing my quest for information, what do George Schuyler, Roland Labine, Tony Delude, and Bill Mobley have to report on themselves? Remember, I'm not going to do all this work myself.

See you next month.

—Junius (Sandy) R. Clark III

Notes: June 1977

Well, all bad things (as well as good things) much come to an end, and so it is with the Class Notes written by your truly. Come next September, this by-line will read Junius R. (Sandy) Clark. Sandy's no more a Bud Trillin than I am, but at least he's closer to the geographic center of our Class which should improve the quantitative output of our Class Notes, and if a little bit of that New York literary dust should fall on Sandy's pen, the quality of the reporting will go in the only direction possible...up.

As we come to the end of our year, the news is a little thin. N. Victor Goodman, senior partner in the Columbus, Ohio law firm of Topper, Allaway. Goodman, DeLeone & Duffy, has recently been appointed by Governor Rhodes and confirmed by the Ohio Senate for a seat on the nine-member Ohio Board of Regents for a seven-year term. The Ohio Board of Regents is a planning and coordinating board for Ohio's public colleges and universities which consist of 64 campuses and about 350,000 students. The board acts as advisor to the Governor and the Legislature on all of the State's higher education problems and is empowered to make the major budgetary recommendations affecting all capital expenditures as well as student fees and faculty and staff salaries. Victor is in good company having joined the ranks with Ed Meyer, who we had previously reported as having been named to the New York State Board of Regrets.

Don Miller has returned to the womb of Chicago and Yale, having recently been named Associate Director of the Campaign for Yale out of the Chicago office. Don's comprehensive background in marketing and finance should serve The Campaign well in freeing up some of those long dormant Midwestern shekels.

Also moving to Chicago, or at least the general vicinity, are Jo and Billy Williams. Bill's now chief pilot for the Wm. E. Wrigley Company after they made him an offer he couldn't refuse... an introduction to the Doublemint Twins and all the gum he could chew. Bill's been with Pan Am for many years as chief pilot in their Falcon-Dassault program, but after comparing Wrigley's balance sheet with Pan Am's it was no contest.

Ruth and I were in Hilton Head for vacation last April and had a chance to visit with two classmates. Tuck Halbkat, who lives up in Greenville, S.C., was visiting his in-laws, and Joan and Al Ward and their daughters, Shelley, Stacy and Susan, were visiting Al's parents, who have a home in Sea Pines Plantation. Tuck left the comfortable confines of the large corporation about 10 years ago and has been enjoying the joys of victory and agonies of defeat one experiences in owning his own business. So far the joys are barely leading the agonies and Tuck seems quite happy. Al has been with Interlake, Inc. as long as we can remember and is now general manager of Interlake's packaging and fabricated products division. Al's in about as good physical shape as the day he hung up the cleats, but he's completely out-classed by the beautiful and charming quartet of Ward women.

Well that's it for our finale. Not much, but it's short and sweet. A final admonishment to keep in better touch in the future, and PLEASE remember our 20th Reunion Alumni Fund Drive which ends on June 30.

Our Class Secretaries may never die, but you call this livin'?

—Peter B. Fritzsche

Notes: April 1977

For some reason news items from our classmates seem to get sparse around the month of February, when this went to press, probably because around this time of year everybody has cabin fever and doesn't want to communicate with anybody, especially the Class Secretary. On the other hand, it could be due to the fact that our Alumni Fund Drive always is in full swing around February and this being a Reunion year the drive is more intense than ever and nobody wants to let the class solicitors know where they are or how well they're doing. In any case, this month's notes are going to be short but hopefully sweet.

Art Gardiner, who is one of the diligent workers for our Reunion Alumni Fund effort, writes that he is now in the process of making the transition back to private law practice after five eventful and exciting years of working for the Agency for International Development. We don't know if the move to private practice was self-propelled or Carter-knelled, but in any case, Art is now with the law firm of Welmar, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, D.C.

Andy Poepoe is doing better than so-so in Honolulu where he just completed 10 years in the State Legislature from the 25th District. Andy is the House Minority Leader, which I guess makes him a Republican, and he is itching to make a stab at Congress in some future year. He'd better talk with Ed Meyer or John Tunny '56 before making a rash move toward residing in Washington, D.C. Andy reports that Harry Valentine was recently in Honolulu and that Harry currently heads the Oklahoma '89ers (didn't that used to be the '70ers?) baseball team, and that he is looking at opportunities and talent, of which there is much, in Hawaii.

I spoke with Steve Ackerman briefly last week and he mentioned that he had recently been in touch with Lonnie Wallace, who says that he has to get the lead out every day in order to maintain his position as President of the Wallace Pencil Company in St. Louis. Lonnie was remarried a year ago last December and the family now includes four children, two of whom are in prep school and learning the game of RF in order to carry on in daddy's footsteps if they ever get to New Haven.

Dick Lumpkin, the Class' answer to Harold Geneen, found a way to beat the cold and boredom in Mattoon, Ill. in February by jetting to Panama with a group of businessmen, just happening to be there at the time of the commencement of negotiations with the U.S. about transferring control of the Canal.

Woody Bolton's friends will be happy to know that he is up and around and finally back in circulation again in Horseshoe Farm in Charlottesville, Va. after a protracted illness.

Jeff Freeman has recently been named president of the board of trustees of Bradford (Mass.) College. Jeff has been on the board since 1971 and his wife, Landa, is past president of the Bradford Alumni Association. Jeff was formerly Vice President of Xerox Learning Systems and is now President of the Bedford Group, a New Canaan, Conn. based marketing consultant firm.

Those of you who live in and around New York and want to get squashed somewhere other than the Yale Club, should consider the Uptown Racquet Club which was just recently designed and built by John Copelin's firm, Copelin, Lee & Chen. The club has 14 squash courts, a restaurant and a bar and is one of three John has recently built in the city under the name Town Squash, Inc. With daily fees ranging from $7-$9 per half-hour and yearly fees ranging from $340-$430, you'll need more than guts to be in that racket.

Well, just two more months for you to make that pledge to our Reunion Alumni Fund Drive, and as of today, we are still substantially behind our $225,000 goal. For those of you who somehow haven't yet been contacted or haven't responded to our appeals, please remember that our goal represents an average donation from each member of the Class of five times his donation last year. While this may sound tremendously aggressive in terms of personal commitment, remember what Yale is, was and always will be; an exceptional educator of leaders; a central focal point for superior scholarship; a national intellectual resource; an important contributor to the arts; a community of diverse but beautiful people and finally, a personally crafted experience which can never be duplicated but whose environment and only be perpetuated by you.

—Peter B. Fritzsche

Notes: February 1977

In case you needed confirmation that you're getting a little long of tooth, the following is a list of current Yale freshmen who had a parent in the undergraduate Class if 1957. Carol Bendall, daughter of L. Kent Bendall; Linda Franzoni, daughter of Louis Franzoni; John Goodman, son of Donald Goodman; Haven Gracey, daughter of Rev. Colin Gracey; Scott Griswold, son of Grant Griswold; Lise Carol Hamilton, daughter of George Hamilton, Jr.; and Jennifer McCray, daughter of Dr. Richard McCray.

Of course, this is not only indicative of the ravages of age, but we're wondering about the genetic capacity of our classmates, who this year sent five daughters but only two sons to Yale, which is completely out of kilter with the 60-40 ratio of men to women at the university. It will be interesting to note the make-up of next year's class as it relates to sons and daughters of 1957 graduates. For those of you who may not be aware of it, the number of Yale students who are sons and daughters of Yale graduates has been increasing slightly over the past several years and is now quite comparable to the higher percentage that were reached in the supposed "Golden Days of Yale legacies. In other words, don't hold back on your support for Yale on the basis of a low ratio of admissions of Yale sons or daughters, 'cause it just ain't so.

We see Harold Russell now and then since his recent return to Chicago as counsel in FMC Corporation's corporate law department. Prior to joining FMC, Hal had served for five years with the U.S. Department of State as assistant legal advisor for European affairs, where he was a negotiator on a number of international agreements and a participate in some major international consultations on investment and environmental problems. Although a lover of the Near North Side of Chicago prior to his departure to the State department five years ago, Hal and Margo have now moved to Winnetka, where there's a little more breathing room and a fabulous park district for their children, Nat, Nine and Peter. Harold has been active in the past on the junior board of the Chicago Orchestral Association, president of Urban Gateways, a director of the Scholarship and Guidance Association, a director of the Lincoln Park Conservation Association, and treasurer of the Chicago Council of the Experiment in International Living.

In a recent news item in the Wall Street Journal we noted that Vern Loucks had added the important title of Chief Operating Officer of Baxter-Travenol Laboratories to that of President, which he has been for some time now.

Richard (Psi) Simons writes from Honolulu and shares with us his thoughts after returning from a five-month traveling sabbatical through Europe. Psi is still teaching history at Punahou School in Honolulu and encouraging as many of his brighter students as possible to consider attending Yale. He has apparently been quite successful, as the Yale Admissions Department has always been quote kind to Punahou graduates ever since the school was founded by a group of Yale men in 1841. To increase Psi's effectiveness as an Advanced Placement European history teacher the school sent him on a five-month sabbatical during which he spent six weeks each in Scandinavia, Iberia, The Balkans, and France.

Psi mentioned how much his appreciation of what he saw and experienced was increased by his Yale experience 20 years ago in Vin Scully's architecture class, Baumer's intellectual history, as well as those graduate school instructors who pounded French into his "resistant skull." He reports having to give up a few major myths and sterotypes, including a) the belief that all Scandinavian countries, because they're Socialist, have weak or non-existent private enterprise economics, b) that Spain is always doomed to swing between extreme authoritarianism and anarchy, c) that all Balkan countries are incredibly backward and fairly similar throughout their whole region.

Psi reports that Bulgaria is utterly subject to the U.S.S.R. and happy to accept it, while Roumania resents any Russian pressure and is amazingly bold in resisting it. While Hungary cooperates with Russia in all outward appearances, "One gathers that it is reluctant to do so and that hatred lies beneath the surface," and Yugoslavia appears to be absolutely independent with her mixed economic system and strong links with both the East and West.

Finally, I hope you won't mind the redundancy of our continuing mention of our 20th Reunion Alumni Fund effort, but I would like to recognize those individuals who as Class Agents and members of our Special Gifts Committee have been sacrificing a great amount of their sparsely available time in the Herculean effort to meet our goal of $225,000. In this and each of the next issues we will highlight the names of about ten individuals who are carrying their message of need to their classmates. This month's "Terrific Ten" super-solicitors are Steve Ackerman, Leo Bearman, Woody Bolton, Frank Brown, Tim Childs, Sandy Clark, Bill Clinton, Ed Cook, Pete Cooke, and King Cross.

A big vote of thanks to all of you from those of us who value dearly our Yale experience and

who believe more than ever that a private, totally independent, and financially viable Yale is imperative to the well-being of our country.

—Peter B. Fritzsche