I climbed the 150 or so steps to Harkness Tower’s bell chamber for a reunion weekend recital. I’m a member of the Guild of Carillonneurs advisory board so I’ve gotten to play the bells often over the years, but this time it was special: I played a Bach duet with the Guild’s outgoing chair, Joy…
I’m gonna pre-empt sharing Tom Reed’s reunion photos to share a video I shot of his name tag, It’s an “ambigram” — his name, but watch what happens in this 10 second video!
The reunion is over, but this website will go on. What does that mean for you? For the Class? For this website? Answer: The website will morph from a “magazine format” with occasional contributions from classmates to a “community website” with occasional articles of general interest. At inception, your class leaders asked for a website with…
Editor’s Note: Bill Newman was one of the reunion co-chairs. For so many classmates who attended our reunion, the event was a beginning for us and even more so a celebration of that beginning. We collectively kicked off a new phase for the Class, one where there are new friends, and we rekindled old relationships. …
The 1969 Class Survey included the following question: “If you could write a note to your 1969 self, what would it say? (50 words or less, please)” Herewith is a small sampling of your advice to your 1969 selves… For a small-town boy from the Texas Panhandle, you did all right, in large part because…
Time and change shall naught avail To break the friendships formed at Yale. We learned a lot in class, for sure, and in the books we read—both those we were assigned and those we found on our own. In our research, a discovery narrowly sought led us down dim corridors toward unimagined illuminations. We learned…
When we graduated in 1969: We had spent four years with assigned reading from books available only in printed form. We probably bought those books at the Yale Co-op, an independent store owned by the University. New Haven had few other bookstores we would frequent and no chain bookstores. The immense resources of Sterling Library…
(with all due deference to Poe’s The Raven) Ah distinctly I recall, 50 years ago this fall, just when we thought we’d won it all, in the Game that turned to lore. All the years have not erased, not removed, not effaced the memories of what took place: that outcome and that score! Yale was…
How Yale enabled a confident naif to game “success.” Above descriptions proposed as applying to me were suggested to merit a class essay of broader scope. This being somewhat a soapbox—irresistible to a Yalie, no?—, here goes. If nothing else, material to guide one into the precious (love mine!) late afternoon nap. First, from perspective…
Class surveys have been a regular feature of 50th reunions for years, and—as we have with so many traditions—Yale ‘69ers might well wonder what purposes this elaborate group ritual might serve. The reunion committee had several purposes clearly in mind: to gather information that would inform several invited essays planned for this volume; to activate…
excerpts with commentary Although freshman year could have been justifiably regarded as an oasis of calm, our subsequent undergraduate years (along with 1970) probably constituted the most tumultuous period at Yale (and many other American college campuses) since World War II. The controversial and escalating Vietnam War, the prospect of compulsory service in it following…
I practiced medicine for forty years before retiring in the spring of 2017. I had flourished in my work, enjoying the challenges even in the most demanding moments. I loved virtually every phase of my career and felt privileged to have the opportunity to care for patients. Beyond the long hours and perpetual sleeplessness, and…
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Proverbs 9:10 “Urim and thummim.” Yale seal (Hebrew script meaning either “lights and perfections” or “curses and blessings” depending on translation – see Exodus 28:30) “Acquire the Holy Spirit, and a thousand around you will be saved.” St Seraphim of Sarov “Il faut imaginer…
Other Colleges Are Close Behind
Here’s an interim report on how YOUR college is doing in the contest to see which college will win a long weekend in St. Croix. (See “College With Best Attendance Will Win Long Weekend on St. Croix.”)
