1930

My thanks to Charlie Widmayer for the arrangements and my warm greetings and thanks to Gar Dalglish for accepting the assignment of necrologist for the class of 1930. He'll do a better and more timely job than your aging secretary, but don't rush him.

As the "Thirtyteer" reported in June, Carl and Carol Haffenreffer transferred ownership of their Sakonnet Point lighthouse to the Friends of Sakonnet Point Lighthouse, Inc., a tax-exempt organization formed last year to restore and maintain the building. In case you don't remember, the light was disabled by the 1954 hurricane and abandoned by the Coast Guard the following year. Carl and Carol bought it in 1961 for $1,100 to keep it from falling into "unfriendly hands." They've since spent $15,000 to paint and shore it up, but its maintenance had become an increasingly difficult problem. The new owners have raised $76,000 to restore it and plan to raise an additional $50,000 to maintain and possibly relight it, subject to Coast Guard approval. The accompanying photo from The ProvidenceJournal-Bulletin shows Carl honoring the occasion by opening what really should have been a bottle of rich, creamy Narragansett ale.

American Lawyer magazine did a studyon the 50 highest-grossing law firms in the country. To give you a bit of useless information, Baker & McKenzie of Chicago ranks first in size with 702 lawyers and 278 equity partners and second in gross annual revenue at $121,000,000. Davis Polk & Wardwell of New York tied for sixth with gross revenue of $91,000,000, and ranked 17th in size with 270 total and 69 partners. I mention these two because our Bob McClory graces Baker & McKenzie's Washington offices, while the late Clark Denney was a threetime associate of Davis Polk & Wardwell.

"Ojai Valley Was Shangri-La, Is Paradise" says the headline over a feature article in the travel section of The ArizonaDaily Star, Tucson's Pulitzer-owned paper. Read on: "Like the Kashmir Valley in India, it is one of the few in the world that is sheltered from both southern heat and northern chill. This benign climate and rustic natural setting have made Ojai a prized and well-preserved area for more than a century." There's a lot more, and I'm sorry I can't squeeze it into my 600 words. However, I'll send a copy to everyone who indicates an interest in a reunion there next summer.

A couple now living in Green Valley came here from Aspen, where they had lived for eight years. I asked one day whether they had known HenryStein. That turned them on, and they glowed with admiration for our late classmate and his wife, Marge.

Had I ever read Henry's book? Over the years I remembered Henry as a Chicago businessman, as a self-styled junk dealer (a very successful salvager and refiner of critical metals), as a Colorado rancher, and as the "third oldest ski instructor in the Rockies," but I didn't remember him as a writer, let alone the author of a book. Then I recalled that a son-in-law, in a eulogy at Henry's memorial service in 1981, had mentioned Henry's writing.

So I was able to borrow and enjoy their copy of Henry's book, Frontiers Past, a hardbound collection of Henry's short stories and other pieces assembled by Marge and friends and published in 1982. They range from the autobiographical to the highly imaginative, some about the history of Aspen and his beloved Colorado, some humorous, some philosophical, and some, to quote from the introduction, "bordering on the obscene." (Those I would rate between PG and R.) My friends called them "earthy," which is just right but good reading.

A photographer from the Providence, R. I., Journal-Bulletin captured Carl W. Haffenreffer'30 in high spirits as he popped a bottle of bubbly to celebrate the transfer of title of his 100-year-old Sakonnet Lighthouse to the Friends of Sakonnet Lighthouse, Inc., in May.

Box 96 Green Valley, AZ 85622