1961

Let's start off with the story of the American Family Irish in the wilds of Costa Rica, or as they say, vox clamantis in deserto. After two years devoted to legal and financial hassles and house-building, Pat and Joan Irish and their three children are moving onto their 115-acre farm in Tuis de Turrialba, which is about 52 miles east of the capital city of San Jose. Pat reports that 40 acres are in sugar cane, 25 in pasture, and "the rest is pretty much in jungle which we hope to explore and develop in time." Thumbing their noses at the OPEC nations, the Irishes will be virtually self-sufficient in meeting their energy needs, generating their own hydroelectric power, using a hydraulic water pump and a solar water heater, and driving two sets of oxen for business and pleasure transportation. While Pat has been getting organized for the farming venture, Joan has worked as a halftime tenured assistant professor of English and author-editor of two books for the University of Costa Rica.

Back in the real world, Oak and KathyWinters are happily relocated "in the Southern Rim" at Greensboro, N.C. Last summer Oak left his post as assistant to the president of Rhode Island College to accept the executive directorship of the North Carolina Humanities Committee. Oak is one Yankee carpetbagger who has become a true believer, however, as he writes, "With the gradual social and economic death of the Northeast, this area offers a delightfully alive alternative. Certainly the recent presidential election has buoyed hopes here that the South can return to the Union with a degree of dignity." In his new job Oak channels funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to local programs which directly involve humanities scholars in the promotion of a humanistic approach and context for understanding current public issues.

Next we have some news of Paul and Amy Kaplan that recently appeared in the Dartmouth Anthropology Notes, a publication I'd never heard of nor been asked to subscribe to before. Anyway, the news is that Paul and Amy and their two boys, living in Penang, West Malaysia, helped government conservationists record the arrival of the endangered giant leather-back turtles, and generally served as midwives by digging holes for injured females to lay eggs in, counting eggs, and releasing newly-hatched baby turtles into the sea. When the turtles aren't spawning or whatever you call it, Paul teaches at the School of Comparative Social Sciences at the Universiti Sains Malaysia, while Amy teaches at St. Christopher's School, where sons Adam and Moss are enrolled. Their newest, Suzanne Lynn, has had nothing to do with any of the above activities and isn't doing much of anything besides amusing her parents and brothers.

Ken DeHaven has managed to work his great interest in sports into his medical career as an orthopedist by specializing in the study and treatment of athletic injuries. He has just established what has been hailed as the first community-wide program for prevention and treatment of sports injuries at the University of Rochester Medical Center, where Ken is an assistant professor of orthopedics and head of the athletic medicine section. The program Ken has developed features a coordinated system among doctors in the Rochester area for reporting injuries, for providing pre-season physicals for high school and college athletes and for having orthopedists on duty at football games. To overcome the usual difficulty in getting reliable diagnostic data on outpatients, all information is computer-coded and stored for further analysis. Ken predicts that within a year they will have a significant data base to help direct their research and educational efforts and aid in both prevention and treatment of injuries. Incidentally, my wife Susan and I enjoyed getting together with Ken when he was visiting mutual friends in Monterey a couple of years ago, and at that time he was with the Cleveland Clinic's sports medicine section.

More and more of the June 17-19 reunion weekend schedule is now set. Actually, festivities will begin on June 16 with a prereunion discussion of our career activities, a luncheon, and tennis and golf outings, all arranged by Vic Rich. Hank Eberhardt will head up the cocktail reception Friday afternoon, followed by a college banquet. Dennis Dinan has loosely organized a picnic at Storrs Pond for Saturday afternoon, and that night BillCollishaw is putting on a great class dinner, to be preceded by cocktails of course. After dinner Chip Serrell has hired a fantastic rock band for an evening of merriment at the Psi U house, the scene of so many unrememberable social events. Skip Bean has arranged for breakfast each morning of the reunion, to be topped off by a farewell brunch at the Top of the Hop on Sunday. Make your reservations now by sending in the registration card you have received by mail as early as possible to reunion treasurer Dave Armstrong.

Class treasurer Hank Eberhardt reported that as of December only half of the Class had paid the seven dollar annual dues, and as a bit of social commentary, he observed that a sizeable percentage of the checks received were signed by wives. Obviously, it would help greatly if those of you who haven't paid would either: 1) reassert yourselves by getting your check-writing privileges restored and sending your payments to Hank at the address shown at the head of this column, or 2) beg your wives to pay for you.

Secretary, 728-14 th St. Pacific Grove, Cal. 93950

Treasurer, 105 Crosby, Hanover, N.H. 03755