1963
Pete Slavin, who lives in Oakton, Va., has been in contact with Dave Downey of Manchester, N.H., who for the past seven years has been battling multiple sclerosis. Pete, whose friendship with Dave dates back to their Alpha Chi Rho days, writes: "Confinement to a wheelchair did not stop Dave Downey from coming to the reunion in Hanover. Dave was stricken with multiple sclerosis seven years ago and has lost his sight in one eye. His younger brother Paul accompanied him to Hanover from Manchester, N.H., where he lives with his mother, Paul, and another brother in the house he grew up in. Dave has a son, Brendan, 14, and a daughter, Tanya, 11, both adopted, but they live with their mother in Massachusetts.
"After seeing combat in Vietnam as a marine officer, Dave got his M.B.A. at Tuck and worked for a bank in Boston and then for Arthur E. Little Inc. He believes the M.S. is tied to exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. He continued working despite M.S. until two years ago, when it became acute during a visit to India. He has been house-bound since.
"I visited Dave in Manchester after the reunion," continues Pete. "When I came in the house, he was finishing up a physical therapy session with a home health aide he is fond of and the ribbin' soon got pretty thick. Dave is as sharp of wit and tongue as ever and he talked about everything from India to raising children. He is convinced he is going to beat M.S., although the doctors have not been able to make it go into remission. There is not a breath of self-pity or of looking backward in him, only the same sharp interest in life. He would be delighted if old friends would get in touch or drop by to see him. (He is particularly interested in hearing from Jeff Weaver and Bill Lamb.) His address is 155 Oak Street, Manchester, N.H., telephone 603/623-1999."
Pete also gave me an update on his own activities, which include the addition to his household of Sarah, the 12-year-old niece of his wife, Sue. Sarah spends Monday through Friday with Pete and Sue, attending school in Oakton. Her father is a naval officer in Washington. "How many people are able to have an experimental child before deciding to have one of their own?" asks Pete, who edits the Washington Report, a monthly newsletter of the American Public Welfare Association that goes to government social agencies around the country and to members of Congress. Sue has been teaching high school Spanish for 18 years in Fairfax County.
Congratulations are in order for K. Barry Sharpless, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was awarded the 1983 Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry by the American Chemical Society. The $3,000 award, sponsored by the Aldrich Chemical Company Inc., primarily honors Barry for his work in oxidation methods which have revolutionized the field of organic synthesis. He has also made fundamental contributions to understanding how oxidation reactions occur. Barry earned his Ph.D. in 1968 from Stanford University and, following postdoctoral studies at Stanford and Harvard, he joined the M.I.T. faculty in 1970 as an assistant professor, advancing to professor in 1975. He moved to Stanford in 1977 and returned to M.I.T. in 1980. Author or co-author of some 90 scientific papers, Barry is a member of the editorial advisory board of the Journal of OrganicChemistry, the executive committee of the organic division of the American Chemical Society, and the board of editors of Organic Syntheses. In 1973 he received both an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship and a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Teacher-Scholar Award. Barry will receive the latest award this March at the society's national meeting in Seattle, Wash.
American Hoist and Derrick Company of St. Paul, Minn., has named a new president and chief operating officer. He's Robert H. Nassau, who formerly held the position of executive vice president of J.I. Case Company in Racine, Wise. Bob's background and international operating and marketing experience were key factors in his appointment, according to Robert P. Fox, who becomes the new chair and chief executive officer of the company. Bob majored in economics and chemistry at the College and earned his M.B.A. from Tuck in 1964. He spent 17 years with the Ford Motor Company in a variety of national and international assignments. He joined J.I. Case as a senior vice president in 1980 and handled marketing and corporate planning for construction and agricultural equipment. As executive vice president he was responsible for the worldwide agricultural equipment sector. Bob becomes only the seventh president in the history of Amhoist, which is celebrating its 100 th anniversary.
For those of you who are wondering what happened to your previous secretary, Dave Boldt, he's still holding down the fort as editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine, where he has been since 1976. Dave celebrated the end of his tenure with this column by taking his wife Fereshteh and 11-year-old son Thomas on a white-water rafting expedition on the West Branch of the Penobscott in Maine. It was exciting, said Dave-so exciting that Fereshteh fractured her cheek and lost a filling. I think I'll stick to writing columns.
I chatted briefly with Roger Parkinson, whose big-as-life photo recently appeared in the New York Times. As publisher of the Buffalo Courier-Express, Roger had the unpleasant task of announcing the closing of the morning newspaper, one of two serving New York State's second largest city. Roger will share his newspaper publishing experiences with us at some future date, but now his attentions are focused on closing the paper. Roger was recruited to Buffalo from the Washington Post and strove hard to make the Courier-Express "the best quality newspaper that western New York could support." He expanded coverage of national and international affairs and added more and longer interpretive articles as well as columns on fashion and dining out.
Rick Van Mell, who is vice president, planning, at GATX Terminals Corporation in Chicago, was reunited recently with two other past commodores of the Dartmouth Corinthian Yacht Club aboard Rick's 36-foot sloop Vanishing Animal during the Chicago-to-Mackinac race. The other two seaworthy lads were Steve Blecher '64 and Andy Curtis '66. It was the second time all three had been together on a Mackinac race.
The tales of white-water rafting and yacht racing bring to mind the current film The Tempest (there's a lot of water) and the theme of regeneration (I was an English major). No matter how successful, disappointed, young, or old we may feel at this stage of our lives, this is the time to renew ties and aspirations. If you have some news, whether it be of achievements or life-styles, drop me a line and let's share those experiences with the other '63s.
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