1975

Let's face it. This column has gone stale. I'm resting and I don't even have any laurels. I'm not digging up the kind of meaty news that makes all 13'½ picas on the line sit up and whistle. No doubt, countless classmates have received promotions, dozens of babies have been born, scores of '75ers have met with scores of other '75ers, weddings have been performed (some may have even been canceled), but none of this hardhitting information graces this small soapbox, this tiny rostrum, this slim column.

I noted my shortcomings at the class executive meeting before the Cornell game on October 23- My review of my performance during the past year was nasty, brutish, and long. I let me have it for all the above-mentioned reasons and didn't let up until game time. No, no, I know what you're thinking. I'm not looking for praise, sympathy, or more money. I only want. . . news.

All I can promise is that starting next month (I didn't feel like it this one), I will write a column as good as the class that reads it. In her next newsletter, Cate Waddell will discuss the substance of executive meeting reports by President Matt Dwyer, Treasurer Rick Waddell, Head Agent Jeff Bennett, and Reunion Chair Roger Clarkson.

After the meeting, my wife Barbara and I stood around the keg of beer commandeered by Roger Clarkson and chatted in the brilliant autumn sunshine with such classmates as BlairAndrew, Tom Bienia, Jimmy Connors, BobRees-Jones, and Jeff Little. Brad and DebbieMargeson and Bill and Wendy Cahill also sipped the beer and nibbled the cheese found in the back of the class of '75 pickup truck. (Brad and Bill had earlier attended the carnage at the executive meeting.) Before heading home, I ran into John Kilmartin and Joe Yastrow in the lobby of the Hanover Inn, where I was phoning Cameron Jones, who is busy rehearsing his double bass parts for the upcoming Dartmouth Symphony season when he's not perfecting model three of the Synclavier, a digital synthesizer he helped to develop.

I dug in my mailbag and pulled out some of the 3x5's that Cate sent me the other day. PeterSorensen writes from Berkeley, Calif., that he married the former Mary Jo Hill of Elgin, Ill., and now works as an employee benefits consultant designing company pension and profit-sharing plans. He finished his M.B.A. at Berkeley this fall. "I'm also a home winemaker . . . tastings available on request." He included a small carafe with his reply card. I found ;his wine had a good nose (slightly hooked), a fii-m, fullbodied taste, and . . . quelle robel

Joe Eagan reports from the deck of the U.S.S. William V. Pratt, "I am finishing four years of challenging and exciting work as a naval officer. I just completed a six-month Mediterranean deployment, which featured port visits to Cannes, Palma de Majorca, and Ibiza. I will start law school at Boston College or Boston University in September 1982, and I'm looking for temporary employment from January to August 1982. Any offers?" Absolutely shameless. By the way, who is this Bill Pratt?

A1 Barstow (who thoughtfully addressed his reply card to "Mr. and Mrs. Cate Waddell") had a hectic summer. "My wife (Jennifer R. Clarke '77) and I lived in Paris this summer where she worked for White and Case's Paris law office. I spent the days preparing for my Ph.D. examinations, which I'll take this fall at Columbia University. Before returning home, we toured the English countryside on bikes for two weeks."

Peter Castle informs us that he married Valerie Brevil on June 23 in Stonington, Conn. Steve Gray, James Addis '71, and Tom Pratt '71 attended.

Dan Kopec writes from Scotland, "I often think of my dear friend, our classmate, Howard Cohen, who died in August 1979. Those who knew him, please spare a thought for him. I am completing my Ph.D. while doing research for the E.E.C. under the heading "Mismatch Between Machine Representation and Human Concepts: Dangers and Remedies." I have about six months left in Edinburgh. I was 1980-81 Scottish chess champ, and in March 1981 my book, Best Games of the Young Grand Masters, which I co-authored with Craig Pritchett, was published by Bell and Hyman in London. My plans include a trip to Europe after March 1982 in order to pursue an international chess career for a while. I would be happy to hear from any classmates passing through Scotland."

A month ago, I received a letter from Melanie Renchner '76, who recently lost her job with a company that folded. The timing was impeccable, though, since she was thinking of quitting anyway, and this gave her the opportunity to travel to Portugal, study at the London School of Economics during the fall term, and tour the Continent afterward.

Her letter was delightful, her plans exciting. But the manner in which the letter was delivered was quite interesting. On the flight from Portugal to London she sat beside a distinguished gentleman with a neatly trimmed beard, silver hair, and an urbane British accent. It turned out he not only lived in Montreal, but worked for Reader's Digest and, in fact, knew David Dunbar. Melanie dashed off a letter to me, which was delivered personally in front of the astounded RD multitudes at a general editorial meeting by none other than Ralph Hancox, who happens to be president of the Canadian Digest corporation. Thanks, Mel. Ralph was so impressed by your charm that he offered me a raise in the high two figures just for knowing you. Quite a coup.

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